Shifting Tides
In the face of climate change, Bangladesh’s landscape is swimming, but not sinking.
Situated on a low-lying, tectonically active delta, Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Its population of 160 million people is threatened by rising sea levels, cyclones, storm surges, river flooding and earthquakes. Contrary to popular belief, however, Bangladesh is not at risk of going underwater from rising sea levels. The seven-hundred rivers flowing through the country carry soft silt downstream that makes up most of the physical landscape. While rising sea levels lead to land loss in some areas, increased flash flooding creates virgin land in other areas.
As a result, the landscape in Bangladesh is constantly changing, creating a much more mobile population that must adapt to these new pressures. Bangladesh’s fate is intimately tied to the water that both sustains and threatens it. The occupations of most Bangladeshis, rice farming and fishing, are now threatened by rising salinity levels, while more salt-tolerant shrimp farming is becoming widespread. The landscape in Bangladesh is not all water and rivers. Infrastructure in the capital city Dhaka struggles to keep up with the rising overpopulation from an increasingly urbanizing middle class.
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Noeleen graduated from the Sustainable Development program at Columbia University with a love-hate relationship for international development. While struggling with the comparisons to colonialism and neoliberalism, she currently works in HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa. She loves photography (duh) and becomes particularly opinionated about global politics after a few glasses of wine. You can find her on Instagram at @noeleen3.
