Climate Change And The Bay Of Bengal

Climate Change and the Bay of Bengal argues that in the era of climate change radically different understandings of security and sovereignty are at work. It questions the geopolitics of fear and the manner in which metanarratives of climate change tend to privilege the “global” and “national” scales over other scales, especially the regional and the local. The authors argue in favour of a new imagination of the Bay of Bengal space as a semi-enclosed sea, embedded in a large marine ecosystem, under the relevant provisions of the UNCLOS that impose various obligations upon its signatories to cooperate at a regional level. Such an imagination, anchored in geographies of hope, should not remain confined to official domains and discourses but become a part of popular socio-spatial consciousness through a regional public diplomacy reaching out to the grassroots level. A Bay of Bengal regional seas programme, under the auspices of UNEP, should be conceptualized and operationalized in a manner that explicitly factors in climate change consequences into the existing understandings and approaches to environmental-human security in the region.

Climate Change and the Bay of Bengal argues that in the era of climate change radically different understandings of security and sovereignty are at work. It questions the geopolitics of fear and the manner in which metanarratives of climate change tend to privilege the "e;global"e; and "e;national"e; scales over other scales, especially the regional and the local. The authors argue in favour of a new imagination of the Bay of Bengal space as a semi-enclosed sea, embedded in a large marine ecosystem, under the relevant provisions of the UNCLOS that impose various obligations upon its signatories to cooperate at a regional level. Such an imagination, anchored in geographies of hope, should not remain confined to official domains and discourses but become a part of popular socio-spatial consciousness through a regional public diplomacy reaching out to the grassroots level. A Bay of Bengal regional seas programme, under the auspices of UNEP, should be conceptualized and operationalized in a manner that explicitly factors in climate change consequences into the existing understandings and approaches to environmental-human security in the region.

The Indian Ocean was global long before the Atlantic, and today the countries bordering the Bay of Bengal—India, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia—are home to one in four people on Earth. Crossing the Bay of Bengal places this region at the heart of world history for the first time. Integrating human and environmental history, and mining a wealth of sources, Sunil Amrith gives a revelatory and stirring new account of the Bay and those who have inhabited it. For centuries the Bay of Bengal served as a maritime highway between India and China, and then as a battleground for European empires, all while being shaped by the monsoons and by human migration. Imperial powers in the nineteenth century, abetted by the force of capital and the power of steam, reconfigured the Bay in their quest for coffee, rice, and rubber. Millions of Indian migrants crossed the sea, bound by debt or spurred by drought, and filled with ambition. Booming port cities like Singapore and Penang became the most culturally diverse societies of their time. By the 1930s, however, economic, political, and environmental pressures began to erode the Bay’s centuries-old patterns of interconnection. Today, rising waters leave the Bay of Bengal’s shores especially vulnerable to climate change, at the same time that its location makes it central to struggles over Asia’s future. Amrith’s evocative and compelling narrative of the region’s pasts offers insights critical to understanding and confronting the many challenges facing Asia in the decades ahead.

An unexpected story of climate change initiatives that threaten a complex waterscape Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change adaptation. Yet, to what extent do adaptation projects address local needs and concerns? Combining environmental history and ethnographic fieldwork with development professionals, rural farmers, and landless women, Misreading the Bengal Delta critiques development narratives of Bangladesh as a “climate change victim.” It examines how development actors repackage colonial-era modernizing projects, which have caused severe environmental effects, as climate-adaptation solutions. Seawalls meant to mitigate against cyclones and rising sea levels instead silt up waterways and induce drainage-related flooding. Other adaptation projects, from saline aquaculture to high-yield agriculture, threaten soil fertility, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Bangladesh’s environmental crisis goes beyond climate change, extending to coastal vulnerabilities that are entwined with underemployment, debt, and the lack of universal healthcare. This timely book analyzes how development actors create flawed causal narratives linking their interventions in the environment and society of the Global South to climate change. Ultimately, such misreadings risk exacerbating climatic threats and structural inequalities.

Although the "greenhouse effect" and "global climate change" have been the subjects of scientific scrutiny for many decades, only recently have they received widespread public attention. Two major events helped generate this attention. First, in 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its findings on the science, impacts and policy implications of climate change. The findings of the IPCC, prepared and reviewed extensively by the world's leading experts in the field, confirmed that the increasing atmospheric concentrations of "greenhouse" gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and the chlorofluorocarbons, could cause the world to warm and sea level to rise. Second, in 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) inRio de Janeiro focussed the attention of the world's national governments, as well as organisations and individuals outside the governments, on the threat of global climate change. The Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), signed by nations at UNCED, reflects both the concern about the effects of climate change and the urgent need for action to prevent or reduce its potential impacts, particularly with respect to the vulnerable developing countries of the world. Bangladesh ratified the FCCC on 15 April 1994. The countries that have signed and ratified the FCCC are obligated to report to the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on a number of inter related issues.

This book focuses on more than 100 years of climatic oscillation in Bengal Duars, a unique foothill landscape of the Eastern Himalaya, to discuss the dynamics of life and livelihoods of forest dependent communities towards climate change related impacts. The authors describe the struggles the people of this region face, including climate vulnerability, displacement, migration, and human-animal conflict, and provides a unique and comprehensive analysis of the interconnection between perceptions and responses of forest villagers for survival and adaptation to climate change. The book presents advanced quantitative methods and field-based studies applied in the region to help researchers and policy makers comprehend and measure potential and actual adaptation attitudes of the villagers, while also understanding the present challenges, risk patterns, and potential impacts climate change has on the natural environment and community life. The book will additionally be of interest to students and researchers in geography, forestry, ecology and environmental science.

This book answers key questions about environment, people and their shared future in deltas. It develops a systematic and holistic approach for policy-orientated analysis for the future of these regions. It does so by focusing on ecosystem services in the world’s largest, most populous and most iconic delta region, that of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. The book covers the conceptual basis, research approaches and challenges, while also providing a methodology for integration across multiple disciplines, offering a potential prototype for assessments of deltas worldwide. Ecosystem Services for Well-Being in Deltas analyses changing ecosystem services in deltas; the health and well-being of people reliant on them; the continued central role of agriculture and fishing; and the implications of aquaculture in such environments.The analysis is brought together in an integrated and accessible way to examine the future of the Ganges Brahmaputra delta based on a near decade of research by a team of the world’s leading scientists on deltas and their human and environmental dimensions. This book is essential reading for students and academics within the fields of Environmental Geography, Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy focused on solving the world’s most critical challenges of balancing humans with their environments. This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.