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1. Cyclone Amphan is the latest disaster to hit the people of the Sundarbans - the world's largest mangrove forest shared by India and Bangladesh, but it is of interlinked tragedies that the people face: https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/05/21/cyclone-amphan-decimates-southern-bengal/
@joydeepgupta @isabelhilton @lizzie_frost @scurve
@joydeepgupta @isabelhilton @lizzie_frost @scurve
2. Sea level rise, exacerbated by climate change, has led to a loss of livelihoods along the coastline.
1.5 million people will have to be relocated out of the Sundarbans, more "than that of all small islands around the world put together": https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/01/15/rising-sea-swamps-island-along-bengal-coast/
1.5 million people will have to be relocated out of the Sundarbans, more "than that of all small islands around the world put together": https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/01/15/rising-sea-swamps-island-along-bengal-coast/
3. The Indian Ocean is warming faster than others, for reasons yet unclear.
The director of @ncaor_goa said that "One reason proposed is because the heat has no ventilation to the north." https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/11/19/interview-arctic-shows-how-next-monsoon-will-be/
It means our coastline is under deep threat.
The director of @ncaor_goa said that "One reason proposed is because the heat has no ventilation to the north." https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/11/19/interview-arctic-shows-how-next-monsoon-will-be/
It means our coastline is under deep threat.
4. With their fields inundated by salt water (and the income of people in the Sundarbans was already less than the average of India and Bangladesh) people have had to sell their labour in other places.
The Covid-19 shutdown meant they had to rush back: https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/03/31/people-rush-back-to-the-sundarbans-untested/
The Covid-19 shutdown meant they had to rush back: https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/03/31/people-rush-back-to-the-sundarbans-untested/
5. With the oncoming cyclone the shelters had to be used, "Covid-19 infection is a strong possibility in these shelters. But if we don’t evacuate people from the coast, death by drowning and falling homes is a far stronger possibility." https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/05/19/super-cyclone-rages-amid-pandemic-no-space-in-shelters/
6. This will not be the last of the cyclones in the area. Global warming is supercharging cyclones in the North Atlantic and North and South Indian Ocean basins: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07234
People losing their homes and livelihoods, are under added threat by national disasters.
People losing their homes and livelihoods, are under added threat by national disasters.
7. As the Indian government rushes to give clearances to environmentally problematic projects, people wonder why we should care about climate change and the environment.
This is why.
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This is why.
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