Abdul Aziz had to abandon his home on the Bangladeshi coast, but now he is fishing in the waters that cover it, the fault of the sea level which is rising at one of the most frantic rates in the world, reveals a study.
In the densely populated coastal areas of the South Asian country, “more than a million people could have to be displaced” by 2050, at the current rate, according to this work published last month.
After a devastating cyclone in 2007, Mr. Aziz, a fisherman, moved half a kilometer from his destroyed home, inland, to protect himself from storm tides. A year later, the sea swallowed up the neighborhood of his former home.
“The fish swim there in the waters [qui submergent] my land,” he shows Agence France-Presse (AFP), pointing to his vanished village.
“Few countries experience the far-reaching and diverse effects of climate change as acutely as Bangladesh,” Abdul Hamid, director general of Bangladesh’s Department of Environment, wrote in the study.
Drawing on satellite data collected over a quarter of a century by the US space agency NASA and its Chinese counterpart CNSA, the researchers established that the low-lying country was experiencing sea level rises of more than 60% in places. significant than the world average.
“Clear message”
Across the planet, sea level rise does not occur uniformly, primarily due to the Earth’s uneven gravitational field and variations in ocean dynamics.
The above-average increases seen in Bangladesh are the result of several factors, including melting ice caps, increased water volumes due to warming oceans, and large quantities of fresh water flowing into the Bay of Bengal in every monsoon, according to AKM Saiful Islam, who carried out this work.
In recent decades, the rise in sea levels on the Bangladeshi coast has been 4.2 to 5.8 mm per year, compared to 3.7 mm per year on average on the planet, notes this member of the Group of intergovernmental experts on climate change (IPCC).
The study gives “a clear message”, according to the researcher: political decision-makers must prepare to limit the consequences of the phenomenon and adapt to it.
Multiple threat
Bangladeshi coastal areas generally have an altitude of only one or two meters. Storms help bring seawater onto land, which then rushes into wells and lakes and destroys crops.
“When the rise is greater, seawater infiltrates our homes and our land,” says Ismail Howladar, a 65-year-old farmer growing rice, peppers, sweet potatoes and sunflowers. “It only brings us losses. »
Shahjalal Mia owns a restaurant and sees the sea “gaining ground” every year. But “if there are no more beaches, there will be no tourists,” he predicts.
In Bangladesh, the threats are growing.
Beyond sea levels, cyclones, which have killed hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades, are becoming more frequent, violent and persistent due to climate change, experts say. Heat waves are also getting stronger.
At 63, Mr. Mia says he has seen cyclones get worse, with “two, three, even four” occurrences of this phenomenon each year.
As for temperatures during heat waves, leading the thermometer to sometimes exceed 40 degrees Celsius, “our bodies cannot handle that”.
” Too late “
Bangladesh is one of the states most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI).
In April, the country of some 170 million inhabitants suffered the hottest month in its history.
Then in May, a cyclone, among the most persistent and rapid to form of any observed in Bangladesh, killed at least 17 people and destroyed 35,000 homes, according to the government weather agency.
Ainun Nishat, a climate change specialist at Brac University in Dhaka, laments that the poorest are paying the price for the carbon emissions of the richest countries.
“We can’t do anything for Bangladesh if other nations, especially rich countries, don’t do anything to combat emissions,” says Nishat.
“It is becoming too late to prevent disasters,” he judges.