As the sea levels rise

[Banglar Bir]

As the sea levels rise
Zahin Hasan
Published at 02:20 PM August 18, 2017
Last updated at 02:20 PM August 18, 2017

Fossil fuels are the culprits BIGSTOCK
Preparing for rising sea levels and the end of self-sufficiency in food
The Earth is getting warmer; the Antarctic ice is melting.

Scientists expect that by the end of this century, many low-lying districts of Bangladesh will be permanently inundated; the agricultural lands in these districts will be lost. In “The Unfolding Tragedy of Climate Change in Bangladesh” (published on the Scientific American website) Robert Glennon writes:

“A three-foot rise in sea level would submerge almost 20% of the entire country and displace more than 30 million people. Some scientists project a five-to-six foot rise by 2100, which would displace perhaps 50 million people … Already, the intruding sea has contaminated groundwater, which supplies drinking water for coastal regions, and degraded farmland, rendering it less fertile and eventually barren.”

When millions of people lose their homes and their farms, they will move to cities in search of work. As cities expand to accommodate millions of migrants, they will swallow up even more agricultural land.

At some point, Bangladesh will become permanently dependent on imported food; self-sufficiency in rice production is no longer a realistic long-term goal. A more realistic long-term goal would be to create enough industrial jobs to ensure that the poor are employed, and can afford to buy imported rice. This is possible, but will require careful planning.

The crux of the problem is that Dhaka and Chittagong, the traditional destinations for migrants from the countryside, cannot accommodate millions of more migrants. The slums which house the working class in Dhaka are unliveable; many of them occupy low-lying areas of the cities which periodically flood with rainwater and raw sewage.

Chittagong has already expanded to risky hillsides, whose residents live with the danger of fatal landslides. We simply cannot allow the unplanned growth of these two cities to continue.

We need to create at least 20 industrial cities which will eventually house and employ a total population of 50 million

SEZs show the way
Fortunately, the government has already taken the first step, which will create alternative destinations for migrants: Several Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been created in different districts. As factories and mills are set up in these SEZs, they will tend to grow into industrial cities; the government should encourage this growth by investing in the towns and villages near each SEZ.

The employees of each SEZ will need government schools, universities, hospitals, magistrate courts, and of course infrastructure like roads, sewage, railways, and power distribution.

If the government makes all these investments, a well-planned industrial city can grow around each SEZ.

As climate change and population growth will probably create 50 million migrants, we need to create at least 20 industrial cities which will eventually house and employ a total population of 50 million people. The infrastructure required for 20 industrial towns will probably require the government to invest about $20 billion.

Fortunately, the government can finance this by taxing fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal). Burning fossil fuels is what caused the crisis of rising sea levels, so it makes sense that fossil fuels should be taxed to raise money for adaptation to rising sea levels.

Creating industrial cities is not just a matter of building infrastructure; private capital will be required to set up factories in the new cities.

The private sector will probably require about $20bn to set up 10,000 factories (at an average investment of $2m per factory).

Let the taka float
The best way to ensure that these investments are made is to allow private banks in Bangladesh to borrow money from abroad (where interest rates are very low), so they can lend to industrial companies at low interest rates.

In the past, the private sector in Bangladesh has been forced to borrow money at high interest rates; other countries which have convertible, floating currencies are easily able to attract large amounts of capital from abroad.

It is time to make the taka a freely floating currency, and to make it convertible for capital account transactions (transfers of assets). Foreign financial institutions will then have the confidence to lend large amounts of money to Bangladeshi banks.

Only private banks should be allowed to borrow money from abroad; massive fraud and loan default have illustrated that the state-owned banks are thoroughly corrupt, and should not be allowed to expand their lending business. State-owned banks should only be allowed to lend their deposits to private banks.

Once industrial cities have been created, and foreign capital has been attracted to Bangladesh to finance new factories, Bangladeshis who lose their land to rising sea levels will naturally move to the new industrial cities to find employment.

Bangladesh will have successfully transformed into an industrial economy; preventing hunger will then be a simple matter of adjusting the minimum wage to ensure that the average working family can afford imported rice.

Zahin Hasan is a businessman, and a member of the board of directors of the Dhaka Tribune.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/08/18/rising-sea-levels-end-self-sufficiency-food/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Climate change demands an end to excess, greed
by Graham Peebles | Published: 00:05, Aug 20,2017

MAN-MADE climate change, and the interconnected environmental catastrophe more broadly constitute the most urgent crisis facing humanity. It has come about as the result of a certain way of life, a materialistic approach to living in which greed and excessive consumption has been championed.
Voracious consumerism and values based on individual material success, competition and division lie at the very heart of the crisis, and if global warming, desertification, pollution, and the destruction of ecological systems are to be arrested, a fundamental change in attitudes and behaviour is needed. Without this, little of substance can be achieved — technological advances, whilst crucial in breaking the dependency on fossil fuels, are not on their own enough. It’s a way of life — principally a developed world way of life — that needs to drastically change, as the Cloudburst Foundation states: ‘Balancing the carbon cycle requires much more than technological solutions. It requires a paradigm shift in how we approach economic growth and development’: a shift away from excess, socio-economic injustice and environmental vandalism to sustainability, social-environmental responsibility and sharing.

A new approach
TOGETHER with deforestation, burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to meet humanity’s insatiable appetite for energy, most of which feeds industry, is the major source of the greenhouse gases that are generating climate change. Whilst nations’ production of these noxious elements vary, global emission’s overall are reducing, and despite some developing countries increasing their output, emission levels appear to have finally peaked; the task now before us is to drastically reduce them. Central to this work is the need to inculcate a new approach to how we live: to change the values that determine our actions and to alter the relationship we have with one another and the natural environment.
The most noxious greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Of these CO2 is the biggest culprit, making up almost 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. It enters the atmosphere, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains, ‘Through burning fossil fuels, solid waste, trees and wood products, and as a result of certain chemical reactions (eg, manufacture of cement),’ and is extracted or ‘sequestered’ (from the atmosphere) when it is absorbed by plants.

Of the total amount of CO2 cast into Earth’s atmosphere from fossil fuels in 2015, Carbon Brief relates that, ‘41 per cent came from coal, 34 per cent from oil, 19 per cent from gas, 5.6 per cent from cement production and 0.7 per cent from flaring.’ Almost half of all CO2 emissions remained in the atmosphere; a third was absorbed by plants and 26 per cent by the oceans. The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil to meet the demand for electricity and heat is the sector responsible for the largest amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, making up 25 per cent. This is followed, the EPA says by agriculture (crops and livestock) and deforestation. Coming in a close third is industry with 21 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, then transportation at 14 per cent.

China emits almost a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is the world’s biggest polluter, followed by America with around 15 per cent, then the European Union (28 countries) with 11 per cent. Europe has made substantial reductions in emissions and in 2015 they were down 22 per cent compared with 1990. India, with a fifth of the world’s population and global business ambitions is pouring greenhouse gases out at an alarming rate; in 2015 emissions were up 5.2 per cent on the previous year, to 6.3 per cent of the global total.

If we are to halt climate change, and begin to heal the natural environment, we must stop burning fossil fuels and turn to alternative sources of energy (solar and wind eg) for the majority of our energy needs. This process is well underway in certain countries: According to the Climate Reality Project, Germany, which produces 21 per cent of the EU’s greenhouse gases is meeting 78 per cent of its electricity demand from renewable sources. In 2015, Sweden proposed a plan to eliminate all fossil fuel usage in the country and immediately increased investment in solar, wind, energy storage, transport and smart grids; Costa Rica met 99 per cent of its electricity needs from renewables in 2015. Denmark drew 42 per cent of its energy from wind turbines in the same year and aims to be fossil fuel free by 2050; Nicaragua supplied 54 per cent of all electricity production from renewables in 2015 and is aiming for 90 per cent by 2020. America, which has the second highest wind energy capacity in the world (after China) is generating only 13 per cent of its electricity from renewables, but an optimistic study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that the US ‘could reduce emissions by nearly 80 per cent in 15 years.’

While these and other examples offer hope, renewables currently only account for 2.4 per cent of global energy consumption and 4.7 per cent of electricity generation. If the Paris Agreement of limiting the increase in global temperatures to 2°C, or 1.5°C (above pre-industrial levels) has any hope of being achieved a massive increase in renewables is needed, coupled with a reduction in the overall energy demand. A study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) shows that for net emissions to peak by 2022, renewable sources of energy would need to increase by around 5 per cent per year. In order to achieve this target a move away from lifestyles and economies built around consumerism and excess is essential. This necessitates a shift in attitudes from selfishness and greed, abundance and endless consumption, to sufficiency, sharing and environmental responsibility. It also demands a radically different economic system, one that is sustainable and just. As the Cloudburst Foundation puts it, ‘To truly reverse global warming we must overturn the current economic and development systems at play, and work to create alternatives that benefit not just some but all.’
At the heart of such alternatives must be sharing, cooperation and a profound sense of group responsibility. Such principles arise quite naturally from the realisation that humanity is one, a fact that is strengthened when we express such qualities. We are brothers and sisters of one-humanity, and we have a duty of care for one another and the earth itself.

Taking responsibility
THE current economic system is fed by endless consumerism, so too is climate change. It is our constant demand for stuff, much of which is made in the factories of the developing world — where workers are poorly treated, have no or few rights and are badly paid — that is perpetuating the industrial demand for energy, which is met by burning fossil fuels.
If we are to halt global warming, reverse the destructive effects of climate change and allow the planet to heal, our approach to how and what we consume needs to fundamentally change and the materialistic value system, which promotes competition, selfishness and greed, rejected. Simplicity, sufficiency and responsible consumption need to be inculcated and encouraged, in place of expediency, waste and ignorance.
Systemic change to alter the socio-economic conditions in which we all live is desperately needed, but more importantly a shift in thinking, a change in consciousness is imperative, and this is taking place within large numbers of people, particularly young people who in many areas lead the charge. Governments have a duty to listen and act, to introduce policies based on environmental considerations; to produce electricity from clean sources (not fossil fuels and certainly not nuclear) to provide efficient and cheap public transport systems run on renewable energy; to promote environmental awareness campaigns to educate and inform the public; to incentivise the use of renewable energy sources and to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. And individuals have a responsibility to elect politicians that prioritise environmental issues, to act in an environmentally positive manner, to consume responsibly and to reduce consumption. After the economic crash in 2008/9 there was a sharp drop in the production of greenhouse gases in Europe as a result of reduced industrial activity — people felt uncertain and were buying less stuff, which is what is required.
The impact on the environment should be the first factor for consideration when making any and all purchasing decisions, including food, services and utilities: Find an electricity/gas supplier that is fed from renewable sources, a bank that invests in environmentally sensitive companies and projects; be serious, be responsible. Research the choices available, look into the ethos of the company making the product, find out how the item is manufactured or grown and the environmental (and human) impact of production, how long will it last — the longer the better — what resources does it use and were employed in its manufacture and development, cultivation, etc, etc. Buy secondhand, reuse and recycle whenever possible, become a conscious consumer. Transportation is responsible for 14 per cent of all greenhouse gases; this is made up of airline travel, rail and cars/vans/lorries, etc. If you are buying a vehicle, go electric. If you have a diesel car or van — the most polluting type of vehicle — sell it immediately (preferably scrap it) and replace it with either a hybrid or an all-electric model; in fact, do not buy a vehicle unless there is really no other option. If you are travelling — holiday or work — go by train or bus, do not fly unless it is absolutely essential; use public transport, walk or cycle as much as possible.
The responsibility for halting climate change rests firmly with each and every one of us. Our individual actions can either inflame the crisis or strengthen the collective fight to heal the natural environment in which we live and usher in a new day in which humanity lives in harmony with the planet.

DissidentVoice.org, August 18. Graham Peebles is a freelance writer.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/22343/climate-change-demands-an-end-to-excess-greed