"Maybe We Are Cursed"

This article, published March 26, 2009 on the US News and World report website, lists many of the losses that Bangladesh was already experiencing due to climate change.  The rise in salinity in their aquifers were already leading to salty drinking water and failing rice crops.  Some farmers shifted to shrimp farming, an ingenious adaptation, to be sure.  The downside of the switch, however is that shrimp farms are less labor intensive, leading to diminishing rural jobs and increased migration to cities like Dhaka, which were already overcrowded in 2009 and stand to be underwater in a few decades.

Meanwhile, people have lost their homes, their livelihoods and their lives.  The article reports that in 2007, 5000 people lost their lives in a deadly weather combination of a Category 4 cyclone and increased flooding.  Scientists blame the increasing severity of storms on the stresses of climate change.  A change that the people of Bangladesh have little or nothing to do with.

When the article was written, the government of Bangladesh was seeking additional aid from industrialized countries, those that are responsible for the climate shift.  Though no amount is mentioned in the more recent National Geographic article, it does state that the innovations that are currently happening in the country are at least partially funded by industrialized nations.  So, we can at least affirm that those of us responsible are stepping up to assist in cleaning up our mess.  Or at least in adapting to our mess - it may be too big to clean up.  It seems small consolation when you consider that, in an impoverished country like Bangladesh, even small decreases in productivity can wreak havoc on an already precarious lifestyle.  We're not talking a mere inconvenience to the people - which ironically may be the most that developed countries will need to endure to actually make a dent in environmental responsibility - we're talking catastrophic loss.

Jehangir, a 62 year old farmer and father of six from Khajura,  has watched his crop yield shrink and the crops he does produce decline sharply in quality and, consequently, market value.  His home has been carried away by floods, four of his relatives were lost in the 2007 storm, and he wonders if the losses he has experienced are punishment from God.  "Maybe we are cursed."

If they are cursed, we surely are.