Bangladesh is bearing the brunt of climate change

A column by Ron Eachus of Salem, Oregon, a former legislator and a former chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, in the Statesman-Journal (Oregon): …Bangladesh is on the delta of three major Himalayan-fed rivers. But nature has given the country fertile plains at a price, leaving it vulnerable to floods, cyclones, tidal waves and, yes, earthquakes. (More than 40 percent of Bangladesh is in a high-risk earthquake zone.)

Flying into Dhaka you can see it is surrounded by what appears to be marshland, an intricate pattern of small patches of land separated by water that has cast aside any barriers or semblance of river channels as it floods the region.

In the monsoon season, which includes August, it is common for Dhaka to flood and for people to wade through the streets. Add rain to the automobiles, motorbikes, three-wheeled taxis, rickshaws, beggars and pedestrians sharing the narrow streets and it can take two hours to go just a few miles in the city.

The people of Bangladesh are resourceful and adaptable. They are used to coping with natural disasters, but the accelerating effects of human-induced climate change are now making this poverty-stricken country even more susceptible to nature's whims. The U.N. has warned that climate change will hit the poor countries hardest, worsening water scarcity and forcing mass displacement, and Bangladesh is the poster child. It is under assault from the land, sea and air. To say it is vulnerable is an understatement….

Photo of Dhaka, Bangladesh, by "Soman," Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2