(Patuakhali) Abdul Aziz had to abandon his house on the Bangladeshi coast, but now he is fishing in the waters that cover it, the fault of the sea level which is rising at one of the most frantic rates in the world, reveals a study.
In the South Asian country’s densely populated coastal areas, “more than a million people may need to be displaced” by 2050 at current rates, according to the work published last month.
After a devastating cyclone in 2007, Mr. Aziz, a fisherman, moved inland half a kilometer from his destroyed home to protect himself from storm tides. A year later, the sea swallowed up the neighborhood of his former home.
“The fish swim there, in the waters (which submerge) my land,” he shows AFP, pointing to his disappeared village.
“Few countries are experiencing the far-reaching and diverse impacts of climate change as acutely as Bangladesh,” Abdul Hamid, director general of Bangladesh’s Environment Department, wrote in the study.
Drawing on satellite data collected over a quarter of a century by the US space agency NASA and its Chinese counterpart CNSA, the researchers found that the low-lying country was experiencing sea level rise in places more than 60% higher than the global average.
On the planet, sea level rise does not occur uniformly, mainly due to the Earth’s uneven gravitational field and variations in ocean dynamics.
The above-average increases seen in Bangladesh are the result of several factors, including melting ice caps, increased water volumes due to warming oceans, and large quantities of fresh water flowing into the Bay of Bengal in every monsoon, according to A. K. M Saiful Islam, who carried out this work.
In recent decades, the rise in sea levels on the Bangladeshi coast has been 4.2 to 5.8 mm per year, compared to the global average of 3.7 mm per year, notes this member of the Group of intergovernmental experts on climate change (IPCC).
The study gives “a clear message”, according to the researcher: political decision-makers must prepare to limit the consequences of the phenomenon and adapt to it.
Bangladeshi coastal areas generally have an altitude of only one or two meters. Storms help bring seawater onto land, which then rushes into wells and lakes and destroys crops.
“When the rise is greater, seawater seeps into our homes and land,” says Ismail Howladar, a 65-year-old farmer growing rice, chili peppers, sweet potatoes and sunflowers. “It only brings us losses. »
Shahjalal Mia is a restaurant owner and sees the sea “gaining ground” every year. But “if there are no more beaches, there will be no tourists,” he predicts.
In Bangladesh, the threats are growing.
Beyond sea levels, cyclones, which have killed hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades, are becoming more frequent, violent and persistent due to climate change, experts say. Heat waves are also getting stronger.
At 63, Mr Mia says he has seen cyclones get worse, with “two, three, maybe four” occurrences of the phenomenon each year.
As for temperatures during heat waves, leading the thermometer to sometimes exceed 40 degrees Celsius, “our bodies can’t handle that.”
Bangladesh is one of the states most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI).
In April, the country of some 170 million people suffered the hottest month in its history.
Then in May, a cyclone, one of the most persistent and fastest-moving ever recorded in Bangladesh, killed at least 17 people and destroyed 35,000 homes, according to the government weather agency.
Ainun Nishat, a climate change specialist at Brac University in Dhaka, deplores that the poorest pay the price for the carbon emissions of the richest countries.
“We can’t do anything for Bangladesh if other nations, especially rich countries, don’t do anything to combat emissions,” says Nishat.
“It is becoming too late to prevent disasters,” he judges.
