Will we survive without our climate?

As natural disasters mount, we must ask whether enough is being done to combat the hazards of climate change

Just this year, Bangladesh has been inundated by floods, battered by a cyclone, and scorched by a heatwave. All this on the back of a frosty winter that chilled the bones.

But Bangladesh is far from the only country to see such extreme weather. Floods, storms, tornadoes, forest fires – it seems the past few years have seen endless waves of natural disasters across the world

But why is this? Why has tropical Bangladesh seen such a sharp winter and a sweltering summer that caused many deaths from heat stroke in the course of only a few months?

The answer has to do with climate change.

Once a distant concern, the long-term change of average weather patterns is having tangible effects on our lives.

The World Meteorological Organisation says the global mean temperature in 2023 was about 1.45°C above the average for 1850-1900. As the temperature rises, the polar ice is melting.

This leads to a rise in the sea level. Global sea levels reached a record high in 2023 since the beginning of the satellite altimetry measurement in 1993, the WMO said.

Coastal countries like Bangladesh will suffer the most from this rise in the sea level.

This combination of heat and rising sea levels contributes to the rise of natural disasters like floods and heatwaves.

As the seawater rises, it erodes the land and sinks coastal houses and cropland. The rise in salinity also makes the soil less fertile.

To tackle this crisis, we must be sincere in our efforts to combat climate change. Working on the topic with UNICEF Bangladesh, I have learnt that Bangladesh is not at fault for the change in the climate.

It is instead more developed nations, who have higher emissions, who have caused this steady shift in the climate. But what they sow, Bangladesh reaps.

By now we are all familiar with the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are emitted from factories in heavily industrialised countries. This has resulted in the world warming faster than at any other point in human history.

A 2021 report from the WMO tells us that carbon dioxide levels that year had reached 149 percent of pre-industrial levels.

This greenhouse effect is a major contributor to climate change. This climate change is responsible for global warming. Global warming, in turn, causes polar ice to melt. The melting ice raises sea levels. And the rising water causes more flooding and raises the risk of natural calamities in coastal areas. It is a vicious cycle.

Now that the horrors of climate change are apparent, we must ask – what are we doing about it?

Name: Karima Ferdousi Keka

District: Dhaka

Age: 16