Impact of Climate Change on Bangladesh

Climate is just the weather that is ascendant or normal in a particular region; the term climate includes temperature, rainfall and wind patterns. Humans are now, due to pollution from industrial processes and wasteful lifestyles directly influencing the climate of the earth. Human influence is now believed to be changing the climate much faster than occurring in the past under natural processes. In terms of the impact of climate change few places in the world will experience the range of effects and the intensity of changes that will occur in Bangladesh, which will include:

1. Average weather temperatures rising

2. More extreme hot and cold spells

3. Rainfall being less when it is most needed for agriculture

4. Melting of glaciers in the source areas of Bangladesh‟s rivers

5. More powerful tornados and cyclones

6. Sea level rise displacing communities

7. Turning freshwater saline and facilitating more powerful storm surges

Bangladesh is trapped between the Himalayas in the north and the encroaching Bay of Bengal to the south. Bangladesh is most open to natural calamities due to the absolute frequency of extreme climate events and its high population density. Floods are frequent and cause the greatest economic and human losses to the country.

 As Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, any climate change or disaster necessarily affects millions of people. Bangladesh is already one of the poorest places on earth with around half the population below the poverty line, the cost to Bangladesh of climate change could be more than half that the country has ever received in foreign aid.

Bangladesh is among the most catastrophe prone countries in the world. The rate of flooding episodes is growing, with catastrophic once in a generation floods occurring more regularly. Increasingly severe disasters will play an important part in that calculation for even without serious climate change.

However, if people have to play a part in reducing the impact of climate change through climate change adaptation methods or through disaster mitigation measures, there must be a detailed up-to-date awareness of the predicted effects of climate change and where these will take place throughout the country.

However, many more people could be affected by climate change’s impact on disease, due to hotter weather and changing rainfall patterns a number of diseases in South Asia may become more common. Climate change is also likely to produce better conditions for Dengue Fever in Asia, which could lead to the disease spreading out to other areas of Bangladesh from its stronghold in Dhaka.