What can be Bangladeshi Defence against rising Sea level by 2100

[Gin ka Pakistan]

What can be Bangladeshi Defence against rising Sea level by 2100

Sea levels could rise more than a meter by 2100: WWF
GENEVA: The world's seas could rise by more than a meter (3 feet) by 2100 as the melting Arctic has an impact on weather across the planet, the environmental group WWW said in a report on Wednesday.

That projection, roughly twice the sea-level rise cited in U.N. and other research, takes account of the impact of disappearing ice sheets of Greenland and western Antarctica. Sharply higher seas could also lead to flooding of costal regions, potentially affecting about a quarter of the world's population, the WWF said.

"If we allow the Arctic to get too warm, it is doubtful whether we will be able to keep these feedbacks under control, "Martin Sommerkorn, senior adviser for WWF's Arctic programme, said in a statement. "It is urgently necessary to rein in greenhouse gas emissions."

Updated at: 0835 PST, Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Sea levels could rise more than a meter by 2100: WWF

 

[eastwatch]

India govt says greenhouse emissions to soar by 2030 :: :: bdnews24.com ::

INDIA GOVT SAYS GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS TO SOAR BY 2030
Thu, Sep 3rd, 2009 8:56 am BdST

NEW DELHI, Sep 3, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India's greenhouse gas emissions are expected to jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031 but the Asian power's rapid economic growth will be sustainable, a government-backed report said on Wednesday.

Per-capita emissions are estimated to rise to 2.1 tonnes by 2020 and 3.5 tonnes by 2030, according to a government-funded study by five different organisations, including environmental groups and the management consultancy firm, McKinsey.

The report did not give a figure for present emission levels but Indian climate negotiators say per-capita emissions are 1.2 tonnes at present. India's population is 1.1 billion but is expected to grow to more than 1.5 billion in coming decades.

"It's not a do-nothing strategy," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

"Embedded in the model are various assumptions of efficiency improvement. The per-capita principle is the only globally recognised measure of equity," he said.

The report is the nation's most sweeping emissions summary and its release comes months before a major U.N. climate gathering in Copenhagen aimed at trying to win agreement on a broader pact to fight climate.

The emissions projections highlight India's growing role as a key player in the U.N.-led climate negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol and the need to include big developing nations in global efforts to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

"The structure of the economy, policy and regulatory regime and energy endowment together ensure that India's growth over the next two decades, while rapid, would remain inherently sustainable," the report said.

"The results should set at rest any apprehensions that India's GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions are poised for runaway increase over the next two decades," the report added.

BOTTOMLINE

Developing nations now emit more than half of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution and that figure is expected to accelerate in the short term even as poorer nations embrace renewable energy and greater energy efficiency.

Rich nations say poorer states must agree to emissions curbs as part of a broader climate pact.

"Bottomline is India is saying that its per-capita emission will be much lower than the industrial emission in United States and Europe by 2020," said Sunita Narain, director of The Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi.

In a 2004 report to the United Nations, the last time India published detailed emissions data, the government said total greenhouse gas emissions were 1.228 billion tonnes, or about 1.3 tonnes per person, in 1994.

A government report in August said India contributes around five percent to global carbon dioxide emissions, but was still only about a quarter of the emissions of China and the United States.

Last month the German renewable energy industry institute IWR said India's carbon dioxide emissions alone were 1.4 billion tonnes in 2008, or about 1.3 tonnes per-capita.

IWR said China's carbon dioxide emissions in 2008 were 6.8 billion tonnes and 6.37 billion tonnes for the United States.

 

[eastwatch]

PM SEEKS CLIMATE COMMITMENTS IN GENEVA
Thu, Sep 3rd, 2009 10:38 pm BdST

Dhaka, Sep 3 (bdnews24.com)—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in Geneva, has called for adaptation funds, transfer of green technology and global commitments for deeper carbon cuts to combat the threat of climate change.

"It is clear all must acknowledge their sacred duty to save our climate system, and hence our planet as a habitable place for future generations," Hasina said, addressing the UN-backed World Climate Conference 3 in the Swiss city on Thursday.

She backed the World Meteorological Organization's proposal for a World Climate Services System, but stressed the system would only work with international support and funding for climate change adaptations.

The prime minister said Bangladesh is eager to collaborate with the world community, in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, financing, investment, and transfer of technology for facing the threat of climate change on mankind.

But, she said, the challenge to countries like Bangladesh in facing natural disasters from global warming and climate change is "monumental".

She said Bangladesh was among the countries severely affected climate change, and estimates indicate that 20 million Bangladeshis would require relocation by 2050.

"A metre rise of sea level would inundate one third of Bangladesh. This would result in mass migration northwards, imposing increasing pressure on land and resources, and loss of livelihood of about 40 million people."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, inaugurating the conference earlier in the day, had said inaction on climate could spell global disaster with a rise in sea levels of up to 2 meters (6.5 ft) by 2100.

He called for swifter work on a climate treaty. "We cannot afford limited progress. We need rapid progress," he told the 155-nation climate conference.

The Geneva negotiations are a crucial run-up for a new United Nations climate deal to combat global warming due to be agreed in December in Copenhagen.

Hasina told the conference that Bangladesh, like other countries, was already experiencing erratic patterns of flooding and droughts, which has also become a threat to ensuring food security through sustained agricultural production.

"The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) ranked Bangladesh, as the most vulnerable country to floods, third most to tsunami, and sixth most to cyclones, in terms of human exposure."

She said her country, long-facing natural disasters due to its geographical location, was already investing in adaptation strategies.

Bangladesh has adopted a National Climate Adaptation Plan, one of the first such plans of any country, and established its own Climate Change Fund.

Hasina also said Bangladesh had spent over $10 billion since the country's independence on flood management schemes, coastal polders, cyclone and flood shelters, and elevation of roads and highways above flood level.

Bangladesh had also developed crop varieties attuned to climate change, initiated programmes to cover 20 percent of land with forests by 2015, strengthened the coastal green belt and built 14,000 cyclone multi-purpose shelters, she said.

But, the prime minister stressed, truly effective climate change adaptations "can only be addressed through enhanced and effective international cooperation."

"Through the decades since independence, whatever progress our nation could achieve, is being eroded by the repeated and increasing vagaries of nature."

"There is no doubt that human induced climate change is, to a large extent, responsible for these phenomena, and historically our people are least to be blamed for them," said Hasina.

The prime minister told the Geneva meet, "Our agreement here would empower us in our efforts to reverse the alarming climatic trends, which are threatening our sheer existence."

"Devising collective strategies based on informed decisions can improve the dire prognosis about our future," she said.

She said the outcome of the Geneva talks must pave the way for adoption of an assured, adequate and easily accessible fund at Copenhagen in December.

"It must also ensure affordable and eco-friendly technology transfer to developing countries, particularly Least Developed Countries (LDCs) side by side with all important specific commitments for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions."

Hasina flew to Switzerland on Tuesday, with foreign minister Dipu Moni and state minister for environment Hasan Mahmud, to attend the World Climate Conference 3 of the World Meteorological Organization.

 

[idune]

Bangladesh growing in size by 12.5 sq miles a year

August 2, 2008

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh is increasing in size contradicting forecasts that the parts of the country will disappear under water due to global warming.

Scientists at the Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) say that the country’s landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (12.5 square miles) annually.

They said that they have studied 32 years of satellite images and found that the country’s landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres annually during that time.

Data shows that the sediment travelling down the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers from the Himalayan watershed are creating new land as they wash into the Bay of Bengal, they said.

Mominul Haque Sarker, Head of the department at the CEGIS that looks at boundary changes, said a billion tonnes of sediment that the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and 200 other rivers bring from the Himalayas each year before crossing Bangladesh had caused the landmass to increase.

About a third of this sediment, he said, makes it into the Bay of Bengal, where new territory is forming, he said.

Sarkar said that in the next 50 years this could add up to the country gaining 1,000 square kilometres.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a network of more than 200 rivers, will lose 17 per cent of its land by 2050 because of rising sea levels due to global warming.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel says 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and the country will lose some 30 percent of its food production.

Director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, professor James Hansen, paints an even grimmer picture, predicting the entire country could be under water by the end of the century.

But Sarker said that while rising sea levels and river erosion were both claiming land in Bangladesh, many climate experts had failed to take into account new land being formed from the river sediment.

“Satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier than that show some 1,000 square kilometres of land have risen from the sea,” Sarker said.

“A rise in sea level will offset this and slow the gains made by new territories, but there will still be an increase in land. We think that in the next 50 years we may get another 1,000 square kilometres of land.”

Mahfuzur Rahman, Head of Bangladesh Water Development Board’s Coastal Study and Survey Department, has also been analysing the buildup of land on the coast.

He said findings by the IPCC and other climate change scientists were too general and did not explore the benefits of land accretion.

“For almost a decade we have heard experts saying Bangladesh will be under water, but so far our data has shown nothing like this,” he said.

“Natural accretion has been going on here for hundreds of years along the estuaries and all our models show it will go on for decades or centuries into the future.”

Dams built along the country’s southern coast in the 1950s and 1960s had helped reclaim a lot of land and he believed with the use of new technology, Bangladesh could speed up the accretion process, he said.

“The land Bangladesh has lost so far has been caused by river erosion, which has always happened in this country. Natural accretion due to sedimentation and dams have more than compensated this loss,” Rahman said.

Bangladesh has built a series of dykes to prevent flooding.

“If we build more dams using superior technology, we may be able to reclaim 4,000 to 5,000 square kilometres in the near future,” Rahman said.

The New Nation - Internet Edition

 

[idune]

Bangladesh can outpace sea level rise by trapping silt in low-lying areas
June 4, 2008

Mrs. Bea Ten Tusscher

Bangladesh and The Netherlands have had a long and fruitful relationship. We were among the first nations to recognise Bangladesh after independence. And we were among the first to provide support for Bangladesh’s development, starting in 1975. Since that time we have been active partners, working together on a variety of projects and programmes.

During my travels in this beautiful country I have seen that much has been achieved in Bangladesh since independence. Major infrastructure has been built: roads, bridges, dykes. The school system has been developed, and so has health care. A successful garment manufacturing industry has come up. And there are many more achievements.

But I have also seen that the benefits of these developments are not reaching everyone in Bangladesh equally. There are haves, and have nots. And there are some fundamental changes needed in order to improve this situation. At present, the Bangladesh-Netherlands development cooperation programme focuses on three areas: education, health, and water management.

We annually provide grants to the amount of some 65 million Euros (650 Crore Taka).

Here, I would like to focus on one of these development themes in particular: water.

Water is crucial for Bangladesh: it feeds crops, provides transportation and sustains the drinking water needs of the population. But water is also a threat. Floods, droughts, storm surges, water logging, river erosion. These are some of the threats that Bangladesh faces. And the year 2007 unfortunately really brought home that message. Again.

The Netherlands faces the same threats. And that is, I think, why we have worked so well together: because we understand each other’s problems. Allow me to demonstrate this with some examples. Firstly, participatory water management. Some 450 years ago the principle of participatory water manageluent was established in The Netherlands. The Government of that time realised that it could never effectively operate and maintain the thousands of kilometers of dykes, canals, and sluices that had been constructed to form our polders. Participatory ‘Waterboards’ were formed in which people collectively decided on the actions to be taken to improve water management. Our agricultural production flourished, and the people were safe from floods.

Over the last 15 years the same principle has gradually been introduced into Bangladesh. First into policies. Then into guidelines. Now into implementation – by the Bangladesh Water Development Board, and by the Local Government Engineering Department in their water development projects.

In Participatory Water Management local communities are helped to organise themselves into ‘Water Management Organisations’. These are modelled on their Dutch examples, which by the way, continue to function until this day!

The results are very impressive:

better operation and maintenance of dykes, sluices, regulators – 20-300/0 higher

-production of crops

-more production of fish

better protection against floods and cyclonic water surges.

Those are the visible results. But perhaps even more important are the non-visible results: true meritocracy at grassroots level

-active participation of women in decision making processes

-improvement of the status of women in society

-empowerment of local communities

-reduced power of the’ elites’

and a more accountable government.

This was possible, because in participatory water management everyone has an equal say, an equal vote. And this equality is changing the basics of Bangladeshi society at the grassroots.

Let me give you an example of this. Recently, during a field visit, I met a woman who had been working on the repair of the embankment which surrounds her polder. She invited me into her house. As we entered, she turned to her husband and said: ‘Dear, can you please prepare a cup of tea for our guest?’.

Imagine this. The lady was asking her husband to serve the tea to their guest. She obviously felt so empowered and equal to him that she could ask him to do this. In rural Bangladesh. And this as a direct result of her participation in the water management organisation of her area.

My second example of the fruitful collaboration between Bangladesh and The Netherlands is in coastal zone development.

For the last 12 years we have supported the Char Development and Settlement Project in the area near Noakhali. Here new land is slowly being formed by the deposition of sand and silt in the Meghna estuary.

The new land needs infrastructure, roads, bridges, water supply. Its people need help to improve agriculture. But above all, the people need security: embankments, cyclone shelters, and also: security of tenure. Under the CDSP project land title deeds (’khatians’) are being handed to settlers. For the first time in Bangladesh, the names on those khatians are those of women.

The CDSP project has been succesful because of a good collaboration and cooperation between no less than 6 different government line agencies and, in addition, 5 NGOs. This again is a style which has been imported from The Netherlands. We call this the ‘polder model’: government and civil society working together, mutually responsible, mutually accountable. My third example. The collaboration between Bangladesh and The Netherlands on water management has been successful. But it has not been exhaustive. We have started to work together on yet another main challenge facing Bangladesh, namely River Erosion.

Each year some 10,000 hectares of land are swallowed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna. In The Netherlands we have ‘trained’ our rivers to prevent this. We have constructed a variety of infrastructure works to check the spread of the rivers, but we have also learned that you cannot only fight against nature. We have experienced that in order to be most successful you must ‘Build with Nature’. And that principle can also be applied to Bangladesh.

This approach, Building with Nature, has huge potential for river management, as well as for the formation of new land, of new polders. An example: In the 1960’s two crossdams were constructed near Noakhali. Today, these dams have led to the creation of over 100,000 hectares of new land. If we apply the principles of Building with Nature actively and consistently, Bangladesh can gain new land every year. By harnessing the sediments carried by the rivers, Bangladesh can outpace sea-level rise.

I have already spoken so much, it is time for me to finish. But not before I share some last important ideas with you.

We can conclude that Bangladesh needs better water management. In order to do so, the country needs stronger planning and implementation agencies. But both WARPO and BWDB are struggling due to lack of manpower, and lack of resources. This needs to be addressed. Food Security and Climate Change are staring us in the face. Urgent actions are required. At present the eyes of the world are on Bangladesh and how it deals with these challenges. This attention should be utilised to acquire financing for a comprehensive, 20-30 year development vision for the water sector in Bangladesh. Both domestic and donor financing. In a comprehensive way, and not by individual stand alone projects.

In The Netherlands, it took the storm surge of 1953 in which almost 2000 people lost their lives, to swing public and political opinion to adopt the so-called ‘Delta-plan’. Consecutive governments made major investments in rivers, sea embankments and environmental safeguards. Only by doing this we were able to lay the foundation for sustainable economic development. Of our agriculture. Of our industries. And of our environment. Bangladesh’s leaders also need to rallye together and agree on such a Plan. The Plan will be implemented over a period of decades. This means that consecutive governments must commit to it. This also means that the political parties of today must commit to the principle of it. Visionary parties are needed, which think beyond typical party boundaries, and which deliver results. Because such parties can count on the continued support of the people.

(Mrs. Bea Ten Tusscher, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Bangladesh delivered the speech on June 03, 2008 at the National Press Club during a meet the press programme there.)

The New Nation - Internet Edition

 

[HK-47]

The Dutch have been very supportive.we should harness this to overcome the impeding doom awaiting us.

 

[idune]

The Dutch have been very supportive.we should harness this to overcome the impeding doom awaiting us.

Actually many experts believe effects from global warming has been exaggerated. I don’t think Bangladesh is in any way facing doom as projected. If we can plan and reclaim we will end up with more land mass than we have now.

Politicians join this over hyped agenda because more money they can bring better it is. But things our politicians forget this type of over hyped tone has negative implication on industry and investment.

That is not to say global warming is not a problem. It is severe problem and Bangladesh should continue take lead as sufferer of asymmetric industrialization and secure its interest.

 

[eastwatch]

Actually many experts believe effects from global warming has been exaggerated. I don’t think Bangladesh is in any way facing doom as projected. If we can plan and reclaim we will end up with more land mass than we have now.

Politicians join this over hyped agenda because more money they can bring better it is. But things our politicians forget this type of over hyped tone has negative implication on industry and investment.

That is not to say global warming is not a problem. It is severe problem and Bangladesh should continue take lead as sufferer of asymmetric industrialization and secure its interest.

Yours is an well-balanced post. There are greenhouse effects, no doubt, but the predictions made for this century by the environmentalists have been refuted by the scientists. However, since every one agrees to the long-term danger, so, the world community has started to work on it.

A movement like this will help or force the govts of many countries to adopt strict anti-pollution laws in their respective countries. This will delay or hopefully stop the global warming. Since BD is infamous for many years for its yearly cyclones and other natural havocs, the world community has placed it in the forefront of the fight against global warning. Yes, this status has both a few positive points mixed with negative ones.

Foreign investment in industries are needed, but BD's name coming to the forefront as a victim of climatic change has less effects than due to the lack of infrastructural works that includes the meager production of power. About 33,000 crore Taka is sitting idle because new industries cannot be built when power is in short supply. Factory machines cannot be run without power.

 

[HK-47]

but people climate change is a reality.Our country's rain patterns have changed.
we should be extra careful.

---------- Post added at 11:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 PM ----------

but people climate change is a reality.Our country's rain patterns have changed.
we should be extra careful.

 

[DesiGuy]

No offense, BUT will Bangladesh be land at the end of this century??


According to global warming experts, Bangladesh is in danger zone, because of global warming!

 

[Al-zakir]

lets not worry much. If it come than will come no matter what. All we can do is prepare ourselves and plan accordingly.

Earth could be hit by an Armageddon that can literally wipe out human race. Only Allah knows the best.

 

[Lamayurugoaway]

Please, do something about it.

We know that there is only one country that Bangladeshis can escape to, if the sea begins to swallow up their land. And we DO NOT want that to happen.