“Climate change” means a change in the climate that attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, alters the composition of the global atmosphere and also natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
However, IPCC (2007) refers it as ‘a change in the state of the climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity’. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has defined climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity”. So it’s evident that human activities have major impacts on the climate. Climate change affects the displacement of people because of :
- Unpredictability: the intensification of natural disasters both sudden and slow-onset leading to increased displacement and migration;
- Increasing Climate Vulnerability: the adverse consequences of increased warming, climate variability and of other effects of climate change on livelihoods, public health, food security and water availability, it also leads rising of sea levels that make coastal areas uninhabitable;
- Scarcity of Natural resources: competition over scarce natural resources potentially leading to growing tensions and even conflict and, in turn, displacement.
Bangladesh’s vulnerability to natural hazards leads to climate displacement. The forced displacement of individuals and communities from their homes and lands happens in two processes including sudden processes like flood, cyclones and river bank erosion. Another method or process of environmental displacement is known as slow processes that includes coastal erosion, sea-level rising, salt water intrusion, changing rainfall pattern and drought.
> Alma Siddiqua
