Climate change refugees struggle to survive in slums of Dhaka. The city faces a population explosion, with inadequate infrastructure.
As my long-term personal and professional interests are in the field of mitigating climate change induced sea-level rise, specifically as it relates to forced population migration (refugees), this article was especially topical. However, the purposes of this blog are to connect those issues to globalization. Although this piece from 2013 does not directly highlight the intersection of climate change refugees and globalization, it is easy to infer their interrelation from this article. The "glocal" concept is timely in that most of the consequences of climate change (specifically, sea-level rise) that are negatively impacting the lives of previously coastal dwelling Bangladeshis are a direct result of GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions from industrialization from countries in the Global North - and now parts of the Global South, as well. With the socio-political-economic fallout from the neoliberalist philosophies of capitalism's offshoot system, globalization, industrialization (and GHG emissions) moved to areas within the Global South in a race to the bottom for worker's wages and to the top for shareholder's portfolios. This expansion of GHG emissions spurred - and continues to spur - global warming, which has caused (is causing) undeterrable global climate change, which, in turn, is causing sea-level rise that displaces coastal dwelling Bangladeshis to the megacity of Dhaka. Add in the limitations or plain stagnancy of local governance within a city of that size with so little resources, the suffering of refugees are compounded.
Love the tie between Dhaka and the region and global climate change/economy
ReplyDeleteYou should check out Vice's latest episode on HBO. It's called "Our Rising Oceans" and they spend time in Dhaka towards the end of the episode. Not sure if any of the information will be new to you, but it's great filming and a powerful message.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hbo.com/#/vice
This is a very interesting article: helpful to see the tensions of climate change in a fast growing mega-city. It seems like the govt is looking into some mitigation, but mostly looking to capitalize on development in the city proper--what, if any, discussion is happening from the city or national level govt around adaptation, especially in the slums? is there any foreign investment for housing, adaptation, etc?
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see the balance between mitigating rising waters, with basic human necessities. I understand in these cases that they are all necessities, but to chose between housing, and climate change is an impossible decision.
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