Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare

Reuters: …"Bangladesh is already facing consequences of a sea level rise, including salinity and unusual height of tidal water," said Mizanur Rahman, a research fellow with the London-based International Institute for Environmental Development. "In the future, millions of people will lose their land and houses. Their survival will be threatened," Rahman told Reuters.

Experts say a third of Bangladesh's coastline could be flooded if the sea rises one meter in the next 50 years, creating an additional 20 million Bangladeshis displaced from their homes and farms. This is about the same as Australia's population.

Saline water will creep deeper inland, fouling water supplies and crops and livestock will also suffer, experts say. Government officials and NGOs estimate about 10 million people are already threatened by annual floods and storms damaging riverine and coastal islands....

Ganges Delta in Bangladesh, shot by NASA, Wikimedia Commons