Online NewsHour: Report | Climate Change Worries Bangladesh | March 28, 2008 | PBS

Online NewsHour: Report | Climate Change Worries Bangladesh| March 28, 2008 | PBS

You can view the video (recommended), hear the audio and read the transcript.

This is an excellent report on the flooding of Bangladesh and the impact of even a modest rise in sea level of just a few feet, a process which seems already to have begun. The consensus is that such a rise is quite within the realm of possibility (for an intelligent overview, see, for example, http://urltea.com/31jr and click the Go button).

In Bangladesh, they get it from both sides, the rising ocean on the coast, and the increasing expansion and flooding of their major rivers owing to increased runoff from snow melting in the Himalayas. The latter leads to major flooding in central areas within Bangladesh. indeed, a good half of the entire country has the potential to flood as land-based ice melts around the globe.

For some perspective, Bangladesh occupies an area of 144 km² , about the same size as New York state (142 km²). The US itself is about 9.6 million km² . The population of Bangladesh (about 150 million) is about half that of the United States. The aforementioned flooding has the potential to displace a good half of the population of Bangladesh, 70 million people! As this climate change progresses, irrespective of the cause, we can expect massive population shifts globally during the current century. Massive opportunities exist to prepare for and capitalize on the increasing need for goods, services, transportation, distribution, housing, etc.

Think big, think bigger, plan, do. Involve other people.