Climate Change in Bangladesh

Climate Change in Bangladesh: Confronting Impending Disasters is a comprehensive analysis of climate change impacts on Bangladesh, followed by a review of measures for confronting the manifested threats of climate change on the people and environment of Bangladesh. Using an integrative approach, the authors blend their own work on indigenous adjustments to climatic hazards in Bangladesh with an analysis of the role of modern engineering intervention and disaster management policies in alleviating these hazards. There is also an emphasis on the environment and people of coastal Bangladesh who are at risk of inundation due to global warming–induced sea level rise. Thus, in addition to analyzing main climatic disasters at some length—tropical cyclones (hurricanes), floods, droughts, and sea level rise—key topics of human dimensions of climate change include climate change victims, climate refugees, climate justice, public policies on climate change, and a sample of adaptation measures for living with the rising sea levels.

[The authors] provide a fascinating, rich, and engrossing account of climatic disasters and climate change in Bangladesh. . . .A real international dialogue is the only way we are going to face the challenge of climate change and take on the perils and promise of the twenty-first century. Rashid and Paul’s book makes a compelling case for why we have to do it and how we can succeed. . . Rashid and Paul present a grounded but broad view of climate change in Bangladesh, judiciously assessing the key debates and recognizing (but never drowning in) complexity. [The] authors combine an authoritative voice with meticulous documentation. . . .Climate Change in Bangladesh offers compelling empirical insights and provides a welcome synthesis and interrogation of impacts of the climate change in the country. . . .[The book] could not be more timely. The book puts the problems of climate change in an increasingly interconnected and increasingly environmentally riven Bangladesh into useful and illuminating context. It brings together history, geography, government, and with no small amount of passion., Harun Rashid and Bimal Paul bring an entirely fresh perspective to climate change and the management of climatic disasters in Bangladesh. Their emphasis on coping strategies, indigenous adjustments, and management of disasters provides valuable guidance to disaster managers, NGOs, local politicians, and students. Anyone interested in how the developing world should cope with climatic disasters will find answers here., Bangladesh, frequently cited by disaster scholars as the epitome of a highly vulnerable country, is graphically illustrated by Rashid and Paul in this very well-researched book. This is a remarkable volume that will have value far beyond the lived experiences of those in Bangladesh – indeed, we can all learn much from those in the front line of the disasters to come in the twenty-first century., Bangladesh has a special significance in the evolving global problem of how to cope with natural hazards and climate change. This excellent book, by leading experts in the field, gives a powerful, authoritative account of the issues involved and how to tackle them.

Harun Rashid is emeritus professor at the department of geography and earth science, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Bimal Kanti Paul is a professor of geography at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.