Friday, September 5, 2008

Plantation: Type of trees matters more

Plants, animals and microbes together constitute the essential natural biotic community of any sustainable ecosystem. Decomposer microbes are usually in plenty where the producer plants and consumer animals live together in harmony. But we the humans, known as the most destructive animal species, did not let most of the plants thrive well and thereby caused extinction of many animal species as well.

After identifying the harms we have done to nature by unwise deforestation, we are now crying for reforestation. It has been calculated that about 25 percent of the total land area of the earth and any part thereof need to be covered by forest. Only counting the total percentage of forest will not contribute to replenish natural ecosystem, rather the forests should contain many types of plant species so that animal species specifically dependent on certain plants can sustain. Due to unwisely growing human population, Bangladesh does not have enough scope to reforest about 25 percent land area. Yet we are not sitting idle, rather planting many trees every year.
It is over a decade that Bangladesh Government inaugurates the tree plantation season in June every year, though the main plantation season can spread over June through September. The tree fairs are arranged all over the country. So tree plantation is receiving the due importance. But question arises if our reforestation comply with the needful polyculture.
I have seen patches of land in both Madhupur and Bhawal forests where after cutting or somehow clearing the natural diverse plant community, only lines of eucalyptus or acacia trees were planted. Such monoculture might have been the trend in other areas as well. Not only in reforestation attempts, we have committed the similar mistakes in selecting the kind of trees while planting saplings by the sides of highways, city roads and road islands. We make monoculture acacia (that rarely has a straight trunk) jungles by the sides of national highways. Still many eucalyptus (the known contributor to dryness through transpiring much water) saplings are planted on both sides of roads and some also in homestead gardens!
For obvious reasons, we don't have enough space for plantation. The scanty space we find must be used optimally through planting the best species suited to the site of plantation. We need to mind the various kinds of needful trees before planting. These can be as follow: 1) trees having fruit-bearing and timber quality together (e.g., jackfruit); 2) trees having straight long trunk and appreciable timber value (e.g., Gorjan); 3) rapidly growing varieties (e.g., rain tree); 4) trees that spread over large areas and provide shelter to birds (e.g., banyan); 5) trees that produce fibre and/or cotton (e.g., Shimul); and 6) trees having medicinal value (e.g., Neem). Besides, minding only fruits, flowers and otherwise ornamental can also be appreciated.
We know of many trees famous for both timber and fruits. Black berry (Syzygium cumini: Jam), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), mango (Mangifera indica) and palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) are some of them. Black berry is famous for its tall straight trunk. The fruit it produces is smaller in size and some fruits are usually left out for birds. So this plant can act as a good source of food and shelter for our dwindling bird species. Jackfruit is our national fruit. The tree, though does not grow very tall, its quality of timber is very high. Mango is called the king of fruits and this fruit is no more in plenty; planting some mango trees by the road-sides can provide more fruits as well as shades to the pedestrians. Once palmyra palms were in plenty and these plants were a source of fruits, sugar and lastly hard wood for frameworks of houses. There can be nothing wrong in sowing palm seeds along the sides of roads that can provide the goods mentioned above as well as act as natural strong barriers against falling vehicles.
Trees grown mainly for timber are wood-oil tree (Dipterocarpus turbinatus: Gorjan in Bangla), teak (Tektona grandis: Segun), redwood (Dalbergia sisso: Shishu), Indian lilac (Lagerstroemia speciosa: Jarul), mast tree (Polyalthia longifolia: Debdaru) etc. Some of them usually grow 10-15 (Debdaru and Jarul) meters straight trunk, while some may reach even 40 (Gorjan and few teak) meters. The timber of these trees is well-known. Our indigenous shilkoroi (Albizzia lucida) yields a good timber as well.
Fast growing trees like rain tree (Samanea saman: Rendi koroi) and mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) are common all over the country and rain tree alone provides bulk of timber for preparing low-cost furniture. But another fast growing tree, almond (Terminalia catappa) is planted still only for ornamental purpose, especially in the city, around some special offices or houses. I propose planting this in plenty that grows tall trunks and is very similar to our indigenous Bahera (being of the same genus Terminalia), famous for medicinal value.
Banyan (Ficus bengalensis) is, perhaps, the largest and most spread tree in the world. We have our own variety of this. Banyan saplings are conventionally planted in bazaars to provide shades to the people. If grown to its proper size a banyan tree can serve not only as a source of shades, to humans, but with its fruits bushy top also a source of food nest to many birds. The sides of the national highways would not be very suitable for planting many banyan trees, but some planted at some distance can serve the purposes described above.
Red silk cotton tree (Bombax ceiba: Shimul) is now becoming rare in Bangladesh. Its timber is of low quality. But its fruit produces silk cotton that is now scanty and much more valuable than other cotton varieties. Therefore planting some saplings of this species is of utmost importance both for the sustenance of this plant species and for the pillow filling cotton.
Growing some medicinal plants is essential. We were rich in those just few decades back. Tree varieties (many are shrubs or herbs) of the medicinal plants are Arjun (Terminalia arjuna), Bahera (Terminalia belerica) and the well-known Neem (Azadirachta indica). Some such plants can be grown by the sides of all the national highways of the country. The forests can also have a mixture of these trees; even some special areas can be sorted out almost in every village to establish a medicinal plant garden.
I wonder why the people planting saplings during reforestation or planting season on either side of national highways have no choice at all. Every attempt of reforestation should aim at establishing poly-culture forests. The national highways can logically have 3-4 rows of trees along either side. But often only 1-2 rows are planted. That is, not only our selection of types is wrong, the distribution of those is also mistaken and seems unplanned. To sustain more trees of the right kind, saplings should be planted following a good plan. The lowest ebb of the roadside may have Jarul saplings along with some Babla (Acacia arabica) or even Hijal (Barringtonia acutangula). These plants can thrive in water. Mango, mahogany, Gorjan, Debdaru, rain tree, black berry etc. may be planted in the middle. Jackfruit, Shimul, teak, redwood etc. cannot withstand water. So these should be planted along the highest ebb. As mentioned before few banyan saplings and medicinal plants should be planted at some distance along the road-sides.

Sustainable housing trilogy

  
One: Paradi
This is a time of paradigm change -- a change of values and perception generating new policies and practices. Rather than looking at mere appearance, we consider beingness and significance in socio-economic and aesthetic and physical terms. How does one actually react if he is asked opinion on something's looking good, feeling good or aesthetic impact? The paradigm shift is reflected in the changing ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and hence of evaluating.
There are two key differences between the new and old paradigms. One between reductionist and holistic approaches to things: the difference between assembling pictures from pieces, as in a jigsaw puzzle, and disaggregating wholes, like peeling layers of an onion. Two, the difference between quantitative and qualitative values: such as prices attached to things, and values of relationships. We exist in and through relationships, and hence focus on patterns of connection and connectivity.
Housing is not what it is but what it does for people and their surrounding. There are three essential matters arising out of three ever-present relationships, which are the three meanings of the much-debated concept of community. Firstly, the relationships between persons. What does it do for the "person-in-community"? Secondly, the relationship between people and the related things. What do they do for "communities of communities"? Thirdly, the relationship between people and communities together with the things they do. How does it affect the biosphere, the community of all life?
Architecture is the connector between Heaven and Earth, between the metaphysical and material dimensions of experience. When we see a place or a building with an open mind, we sense it holistically. Whether beautiful or ugly, it evokes that third, comprehensive relationship. Understanding its nature and seeing what to do about it is a different issue, depending on knowledge of the other two relationships contained in the "onion". It is essential to start from a perception of the whole.
Discussions of architectural aesthetics are of little interest to the laymen unless they reflect the overreaching relationship between civilisation and the biosphere. The greatest threat to life on earth now lies in that comprehensive relationship. Reflections on it would widen public concern with the quality of design, the overt face of cultural decay. Those who design, build, or just talk about architecture are not the only ones to be irritated by the ugliness of the cities.
More than four centuries of industrial civilisation has weakened the overall sense of the all-inclusive relationship. The man-made world is taken as a self-contained, autarchic exploiter of nature. It cannot be fully true as we are still dependent on the rest of life like we were before. We are obsessed with the assumed success of corporate growth and technologically-led commercial 'progress'. Therefore, the view that the human species can ignore the fact of dependent membership of the community of all species, dominates.

But this cannot be so for long. The nature cannot absorb the waste that the rapidly growing minority of consumers' society now dump on the already deteriorating biosphere, accelerating the destruction of species. Nor can the civilised society survive excessive defilement of personal relationships and the desecration of life ('pollution').
The key questions which are half the answers arise from the other two relationships in the inner layers of the “onion”. At the core are the relationships between people, the source of cultural and biological generation. The way that people relate to one another, the balance of authoritarian dependency, democratic interdependency, and competitive self-sufficiency determines the organisation of action.
So, the first question about design and building is about the effects on personal relationships. The economy of building over time depends mainly on the knowledge and skills, commitment, and care of all on whom human and material resource use depends. So, if relationships determine real material economy, they also determine the material impact of our actions on the world as a whole. The second question, therefore, is about the effects of particular ways, means, and forms of building on our capital resources- the people and their cultures, the community of communities, and the land with what it supports.
The questions reveal that a densely populated civilisation is not possible to sustain without greatly reducing the waste generation. Genuine economy in material use can be achieved when those with local knowledge can decide over their own local life and environment for which only they can care by not generating more waste, and neighbourhoods for which and where most resources are used and most life-time is spent.





Two: Agenda

The origin of many of the housing ideas in the last three decades is the UN-sponsored 1976 First Habitat Conference in Vancouver. It was when low-income housing was seen as a major issue in the sprawling developing world cities, some of which became mega-cities. The Geo Conference echoed the same concern that these would create severe environmental and social problems if not addressed and assisted.
Thus a number of new approaches surfaced. For example, the ingenuities of low-income communities were universally recognised and glorified; it was urged to utilise their potential in bringing cost-effective solutions. In other places, resources, more importantly land, were pooled and solutions innovated. Elsewhere much later the rights of the squatters to a shelter with tenure and decent living were recognised. Or that they can solve their own problems if recognised, accepted and assisted was exploited.
Followed up through conferences and workshops, governments were influenced in accepting and promoting one or other of these approaches. Meanwhile, the international agencies came forward with technical assistance, loans for regularisation and upgrading of squatter settlements, or implementing sites and services programmes. It's a long list, spearheaded mainly by the World Bank.
However, despite innovativeness these approaches remained projects for varieties of reasons. In few cases when they were translated into national programmes, the capacities were small compared to the huge demand. Often they were not finished or were abandoned by the agencies or the beneficiaries. This and unabated influx of migrants increased the number of squatters and an ever increasing demand-supply gap in housing and services. Despite all the technical assistance and reform measures taken by the governments, the severity compunded and the solution(s) became remote.
The huge failures led to gaps between the theories based on wrong assumptions and the reality that the vigorously promoted 'alternative' agenda was not the 'real' agenda. The real agenda was the issue of commercial exploitation of the urban land that dominates the planning of the developing world's cities. The by-laws and zoning regulations serve this agenda rather than resolve it. Also, there is a strong politician-administration-developer nexus that makes it possible. The result has been that over the last two decades low-income settlements have disappeared, their residents being pushed out to the fringes; as the city expands, they are pushed further out.
Resolving the land issues is the key to resolving housing problems as it is an asset that gives foothold in the urban swamp, a bargain and identity. Since the end of the millennium, average land prices in the developing world cities have increased four times, construction costs have doubled, and rents have tripled, though per capita incomes increased by about 60 percent only. The trend is on the rise in the South Asian cities.
The problem with the land is more political than technical, warranting a structural overhauling and fundamental changes (for example, ownership) as through proper management more people could be accommodated. Almost all such cities would benefit from such approaches, none more than Dhaka where a small part of the population owns the most land.
The housing demand-supply gap in these cities is enormous. Loan programmes as often advocated as the enhancer of affordability and thus solvent of housing problems, cannot make land accessible to the vast majority of people, in the backdrop of uncontrolled and ever-accelerating land prices. They would require a minimum period of 40 years to repay the cost; a 15 percent interest rate makes that impossible.
Hence the mechanism of urban land market, the processes and the forces that are determining and operating, have to be understood to break the nexus. Land use plans have been developed, desired use has been identified, and protection of land has been granted in all the master plans of the cities in the region. In spite of all the planning, regulations and ethical barriers, the vicious cycle is not broken. It has happened in Colombia and Mexico, Turkey and Pakistan, the Philippines and Korea, in small areas where people came together and challenged the ongoing changes, where people have struggled for rights to land they occupy, together.
But, these limited examples had little impact, and couldn't be transformed to a city level. Hence transparency in the planning process is imperative to operate many of these plans, laws and regulations; this should be the most important and inalienable urban agenda. The said transparency can only be achieved if the various interest groups are made an important parcel of the planning process. It can be achieved if citizens' committees have a level of executive power over the planning and resource allocation process through active participation. The excellent projects of so many pioneer housing experts failed primarily because of the absence of participation, transparency, and accountability. There were attempts to transform them into programmes, but it remained an alternative agenda, not the main one.



Three: Solution

Imagine life in a warm climate, enjoying the blessings of the open-to-sky spaces that are of crucial importance to architecture -- not only for the subtle and metaphysical feelings they engender within us, but also for the decisive role they can play in the creation of humane and affordable habitats. In many Third World cities, the majority simply cannot afford the kind of housing that is being produced. These shun the invaluable role of open spaces in enhancing habitat, while drastically reducing their cost. For instance, a courtyard has multiple uses e.g. cooking, entertaining friends, children's play, etc. This has always been an integral part of the indigenous housing typologies produced in from the North Africa Kasbahs to the hill towns of Italy.
How to integrate such spaces into the new fabric? How to develop a reasonably high density of 500 persons per hectare (including open spaces and social amenities), and yet give each family an individual house on an independent plot? Instead of stringing out the houses along a street, these can be grouped in clusters around courtyards. The basic module may consist of a number of houses arranged around a court measuring less than a katha each. We can form a larger cluster of up to two dozen houses arranged around a larger open space by repeating thrice the basic module. The larger unit in turn can be repeated thrice to form an even larger open space- and so on. This is a starting point; each house can be extended and embellished as the family wishes. Architecturally, they are but a simple module. The plots on which the houses stand are all the same size between 0.6 katha (as in DUIIP, Mirpur) to one katha. The scheme can cater for a wide income range, the plot size variation should be little to ensure an in-built equity. For a poor family who might be able to afford only a lean-to, the rest of the plot provides the open-to-sky space rendering the habitat liveable, e.g. provides a place for a shady tree or a cow. The better-off families can use the same plot to build town-houses. Most London terrace houses are only about 6 metres wide; Amsterdam canal houses are even narrower, as are houses in old Dhaka mahallas.
For an incremental design, each house should stand free of its neighbours, to ensure cross-ventilation, and allow it to grow independently of the surrounding houses. At the same time, to economise on land, each house touches the plot boundaries on two adjacent sides. Windows are allowed on the free sides, and on the side abutting the central courtyard.
The pattern generates a hierarchy of open spaces, from the most private realm to the most public, all within the context of house typologies, which are incremental -- and malleable. That is a habitat in which people can add their own layers of meaning, giving personal and cultural identity to their habitat. This is the traditional way in which people have humanised the houses they live in for centuries, but is impossible to achieve in contemporary housing, because the buildings seem so intimidating, so im-malleable. Malleability is indeed a quality crucial to successful habitat.
Let's look at shelter from the whole city context that frustrates many stemming from the fact that they are forced to deal with the symptoms of a grave problem -- the appalling scarcity of urban land. For instance, Dhaka has the same elongation tendency towards north it had 200 years ago with a hundredth of population. That is while demand has multiplied several-fold, supply is still a trickle. The result: galloping real estate prices and ever-increasing numbers of basteebashis (about 3 million). So, it is essential that we find ways, in each of our cities, of increasing the supply of urban land on a scale commensurate with the demand. Urban land means access to jobs and public transport, hence re-structuring our cities.
Opening up Yusufganj or other satellite towns could modify the North-South linear pattern of Dhaka into an East-West structure. These could be self-sufficient areas of up to half million people. The structure plan shows how to use public transport to open up land. Now, on the scale of half million people, one has the opportunity to perceive the fundamentals. For instance, what kind of housing should we build given the income profile? Or, granted that courtyards and terraces provide additional room, can we really afford this amount of open space? Don't high-rise buildings save a lot of land for the city?
Actually, only about a third of the land in a city is devoted to housing including neighbourhood roads. So, piling up people on a particular site does not save much land for the city. But, it does deprive them of the crucial benefits of the open spaces. For decades now, architects and engineers have been searching for miracle to produce low-income housing when all along the land-use planners have stated the question wrongly to begin with. The problem of low-cost housing is not like the medieval alchemist's fevered hunt for the force to elusive touchstone that would turn dross into gold. It is rather a matter of opening up the supply of urban land, identify optimal densities, and of re-establish land-use allocation between the diverse functions of a city.
This brings another crucial issue: typologies. Dhaka could almost be anyone of a hundred cities in Asia, Africa, or South America. The rich live in high-rise buildings, the poor in shacks -- which travel like a river of poverty through the spaces between these towers. What is frightening is not just the contrast of income levels, but the vicious discontinuity between the concrete and steel towers of the rich and the polythene lean-on of the squatters. Much of the rest of the world have lived with rich and poor. But regardless of the differences in sizes and materials between palaces and the humble abode, there was continuity. In contrast, the grotesque discontinuities we observe in our urban centres today are a horrifying portent of the breakdown within the social fabric of society itself.
Lets end with two images. One fills me with great hope, the other with a kind of despair. This man lives in a miserable existence in an unused sewer pipe -- sharing a cup of tea with a friend. It's a social occasion! Humanity in the Third World is still intact. It is probably the ultimate strength of all. The other image is a sadder one of the high-rise towers in Eskaton or Banani. Silhouetted in the foreground are the squatters and construction workers. Behind them rises a bunch of skyscrapers. Many of them are deplorable. But it is the surreal, mythic image of the city, which they yearn for, but can never attain. The discontinuity of built-form is truly horrendous. Until we find ways to change this, there can be little hope.

Water transport workers continue strike in Khulna

Three hundred water transport workers in Khulna zone continued their work stoppage for the second day yesterday demanding increase in their wages.




However, water transport workers hailing from Dhaka but now settled at Mongla were engaged for unloading works from Tuesday night.



They remained outside the purview of work stoppage as owners of their water transports met demand for wage increase two months ago, said Kashem Master, joint secretary of Water Transport Workers' Federation.



He, however, said all workers have expressed their support for movement of workers in Khulna zone.



The General Secretary of Mongla Port Stevedores Association Syed Zahid Hossain said over 900 out of 16,400 tonnes of urea fertiliser were unloaded from Tunisian flag bearer MV Great Success till 7:00 yesterday evening.



The ship arrived on Monday carrying urea fertiliser imported by BCIC.



Water transport workers at Mongla port first went on strike on July 11 this year demanding pay rise and other financial benefits. The crisis was resolved with intervention of the shipping ministry and Mongla Port Authority.

BJMC Khulna coordinator made OSD

The Zonal Coordinator of BJMC, also project director of Crescent Jute Mills, Abu Taher has been made officer on special duty (OSD) and closed to its head office in Dhaka following his 'failure' to tackle the unrest among workers of seven state-owned jute mills in Khulna-Jessore industrial belt.




BJMC Director (Marketing) Ahsan Zakir and Director (Planning) Hafizur Rahman yesterday came to Khulna to find out a way to resolve the crisis due to movement of workers.



The workers' demand include payment of their arrear dues and non-privatisation of any more jute mill.

America and the world into a new era

THE United States elects a president in two months. The whole world is watching because whoever is victorious will be the leader of not just of US but the world. Africans, Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans -- unhappy with the Bush administration's eight years -- all have a stake in the election's outcome. But they'll discover that whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain is the next US president, his foreign policies may not often be in concert with global public opinion.



Obama is the favourite of people outside US. But only Americans get to vote. And Republican John McCain stands a good chance of winning the election. Those abroad wishing to see an Obama presidency would do well to remember that the American people share many of McCain's hawkish foreign policy views.


Sure, the next US president will enjoy a honeymoon of goodwill around the world because he is not George W. Bush. But whether Obama or McCain sits in the White House next year, that honeymoon could be short lived.


People outside the US have exceedingly high expectations of the next American leader. In 14 of 23 countries surveyed recently by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, majorities or pluralities of the population expect the next US president to change American foreign policy for the better. Overwhelmingly, they suggest that Obama is more likely than McCain to do the right thing in world affairs.


But McCain only trailed Obama by a few percentage points in US public opinion surveys going in to the fall campaign. And because the United States elects a president state by state, not by popular vote, McCain stands a good chance of carrying enough individual American states to win the election.


Obama's choice of Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate, to be his vice president, demonstrated a desire to reassure voters, and the world, that an internationally experienced person would be one heartbeat away from the presidency.


McCain's choice, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, after having met her only twice, sent a different message. It suggested that the Republican candidate makes important decisions on impulse rather than through a deliberate decision-making process, a trait that may not bode well for future US foreign policymaking.


The recent confrontation between Russia and Georgia is a case in point. McCain was quick to condemn Russian actions in far harsher tones than Obama, who initially urged restraint. Both, however, have supported Georgian membership in Nato and have threatened to deny Russia membership in the World Trade Organization.


McCain has gone even further, urging that Russia be kicked out of the G8. He also supports the Bush administration's plan to build missile-defense sites in Eastern Europe. McCain could be expected to be more confrontational than Obama in dealing with Moscow, an approach that's out of step with Berlin, London and Paris.


McCain has also been one of the loudest cheerleaders for the Iraq war, which Obama opposed from the start. McCain claims victory in Iraq is his first priority. And two in five Americans agree that US efforts in Iraq will succeed. Half of the British, two-thirds of the French and nearly three-quarters of the Germans agree with Obama's belief that the US effort in Iraq was doomed from the start.

Obama and McCain are equally bullish on the war in Afghanistan, where both want to bolster Nato's presence. This stance has the support of the American people, half of whom believe that the Afghan war needs to be won at all costs.

By comparison, global publics have no stomach for such an effort, suggesting both Obama and McCain would face opposition to escalating the war. In 21 of 23 countries Pew surveyed, a majority or plurality of those questioned said that US and Nato troops should be removed from Afghanistan as soon as possible.


On Iran, McCain argues there is only one thing worse than a "military solution" with Tehran and that's Iran having nuclear weapons, implying he would go to war if necessary to end the Iranian nuclear-weapons program. Obama argues for diplomatic engagement to defuse the confrontation. In this case, the American people support Obama not McCain. But two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of Iran, suggesting they could support getting tough with Tehran if diplomacy fails.

Environmental issues promise to be another international headache for Obama or McCain. By a significant margin, publics in 13 of the 23 countries Pew surveyed name the United States as the world's top polluter. To change this perception, the next US president must chart a new course, on climate change.


Both McCain and Obama, unlike Bush, acknowledge the gravity of global warming. But on this they are out of step with the American people. Only 42% of Americans think global warming is a very serious problem. By comparison, majorities in 14 of 23 Pew survey nations are extremely worried about climate change, including 92% of Brazilians, 73% of the Japanese and 66% of the Indians.

The economy will pose additional problems abroad for the next US president, especially McCain. He contends that economic prospects are good. In contrast, publics in 17 of 23 countries rate their economy as bad. Moreover, among those people who think that the US economy influences their economy, large portions -- seven in ten in Britain, Germany and France -- say such American influence is negative.


McCain and Obama also differ on trade. The Republican candidate is an unabashed free trader. The Democrat wants trade agreements to give greater protection to worker and environmental standards which may have the practical effect of crimping trade. And again, McCain seems out of step with trends in public opinion. The Americans' support for trade has fallen 25 percentage points in the last six years, the most of any nation. But enthusiasm for trade has also eroded in Europe and parts of Asia and Latin America.


Like Bush, McCain's instinct it to act unilaterally in dealing with international issues. To that end he has advocated creation of a League of Democracies, effectively a coalition of the willing, which some of his conservative supporters want to use to kill the United Nations. And McCain did recently vote to cut the US share of payments for UN peacekeeping operations. Obama, on the other hand, speaks openly of the need for multilateral approaches to problem solving.


Yet in his opposition to multilateralism, McCain has the support of the American people. When asked what country or organisation should have responsibility for dealing with the world's leading problem, whatever that issue might be, a plurality of Americans said the United States should go it alone. A plurality of the British, French, Germans and Chinese disagree, saying that the United Nations should take the lead.


The next US president will inherit a country with a profound image problem. Anti-American sentiment around the world is already far worse today than it was in 2000. And the disconnect between McCain and, on some issues, Obama and the publics around the world is only likely to worsen that problem. Yet this erosion of America's standing in the world does not concern many Americans. And it will not influence their vote in November.

The climate war

THOSE who keep in touch with Hollywood science-fiction movies know about the film "Star Wars," and worry about the earth being attacked by aliens.




By analysing different wars over the last two decades, many political analysts came to a consensus that they were for establishing control over valuable natural resources such as oil, fresh water etc. to secure future consumption of mighty nations in the prevailing or upcoming climate contingencies. Therefore, we can define these wars as "Climate Wars."


Like other wars, climate war is not confined to only competing countries or regions. It affects all human beings, regardless of race, caste, ethnicity, sex and level of income, and confronts humanity with the threat of extinction. Though the world is trying to analyse climate change from different aspects, its security dimension is most often camouflaged by political or economic discussions.


Many climate scientists claim that the present climate risk is creating new kinds of security threats to our essential life-supporting elements as well as compounding the existing social and political tension within a country and between countries, as resources and safe places become scarcer, and disasters destroy livelihoods, increasing the number of migrants and refugees.


Global warming, the main causal factor for climate change, will present cross-linked multiple security aspects in the upcoming decades, such as decreasing food production, unavailability of fresh water, increased coastal hazards, mass migration, diseases, and conflicts for energy, a report titled "The Age of Consequences: The foreign policy and national security implications because of climate change," argues.


Though the extent of climate change remains uncertain, it not only hinders human development and environmental conservation, but also poses a major threat to human security with increased frequency of extreme weather events like floods, cyclones and droughts that are degrading socio-economic conditions across the world, particularly in poor and developing countries.


Because of increased temperature and drought, two consequences of climate change, agriculture production has declined in many parts of the globe, especially in the tropics where many developing countries are located.


The most recent food crisis and price hikes of rice, wheat and maize, has adversely affected the world's poorest parts. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that low agricultural productivity and worldwide food price have affected more than 800 million undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Asia.


As an agrarian economy, food crisis has also increased in Bangladesh. Most of our agriculture production is highly dependent on monsoon rain that accounts for nearly 90% of annual precipitation. Any kind of change in monsoon rain is likely to exacerbate the food crisis.


Freshwater resources constitute about 2.5% of world water resources, but almost two-thirds of those are in inaccessible forms such as glaciers and permanent snow packs (the Antarctica alone has 60% of total world water resources).


Climate change also influences freshwater availability through altering precipitation, evaporation and snow melting. An estimate shows that currently almost one-third of the world's population consumes less than 1000m3 water per year.


Fresh water crisis has already created conflicts in the African region. Rainfall in the Darfur region of the Sudan has declined by almost 40% over the last century, creating violent clashes for water between nomadic herders and agrarian farmers.

In South Asia also, glaciers may retreat from the Himalayans because of global warming, thus affecting freshwater availability in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.


Moreover, sea level rise may increase salinity in fresh-water bodies and adjacent agricultural fields, thus resulting in unproductivity. Though Bangladesh gets enough precipitation in the monsoon, often causing flood, we have limited water for farming in the dry season. Control of Ganges water in the dry season has caused political tension between Bangladesh and India.


Climate induced coastal hazards lead to migration of the vulnerable people to better parts of the country. We already have 4 million environmental refugees from river erosion.


Scientists predict that, because of increased tropical cyclones and salinisation of the farming lands in coastal areas, environmental refugees will exceed 20 million in future. As a result, their demand for land, water, employment and other social services may trigger conflict with the local residents.


Moreover, migration creates conflicts between neighbouring countries. The Indian government has already announced that it will build a barbed wire fence along its border with Bangladesh to prevent the influx of environmental migrants during sea level rise. This may unsettle the political co-existence with Bangladesh.


According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), extreme weather events cause more than 1,60,000 deaths annually. Climate change is also likely to enhance the spreading of vector borne diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and AIDS.


It is true that climate change will amplify security problems in developing countries. Poor governance, weak economy and absence of social cohesion may also overstretch their socio-ecological vulnerability.


The work of Nobel laureate Al Gore makes it clear that today's global warming is not merely an environmental problem, rather it has become a global issue. Unfortunately, we see very little internationally coordinated effort to reduce climate change impacts. The UN can establish more collaboration between scientists, politicians and businesspersons for an effective climate change policy to safeguard the earth's security.


Bangladesh, as a disaster-prone country, faces security implications from climate change. In this regard, the climate change issue should be included in the development plan of the country. Bangladesh can also draw attention of the world community in climate change conferences to take financial initiatives and share technology for adaptation.


Ironically, despite the depressing effects, climate change offers humanity an opportunity for a quantum leap in sustainable development and peace making. For instance, Bangladesh can collaborate with the India for reducing trans-boundary environmental hazards. Both can establish a jointly managed conservation zone (i.e., Peace Park) for the Ganges delta, which will also raise the level of trust between them and contribute to overall stability in the region.


We have little chance to win the climate war, unless concerted efforts are made. Margaret Beckett said in the UN Security Council (April 2007): "Climate change can bring us together, if we have the wisdom to prevent it from driving us apart."

Floods threaten embankments

The flood situation in the country worsened on Wednesday with more areas of Bogra, Faridpur and Sirajganj districts going under water.



At least five hundred families were made homeless and tens of thousands were marooned in Bogra after a flood control embankment was breached in Sariakandi.


Sirajul Islam, executive officer of the Water Development Board, a 15-foot section of the embankment was washed away, flooding Chandan Baisha, Kutubpur, Ghughumari, Kamalpur, Rawdah villages.


He said the Jamuna river was flowing 82 centimetres above the danger level at one point.


Sariakandi Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Wahedur Rahman said new areas were being flooded. He could not give an estimate of the affected families in his upazila.


The flood situation in Faridpur also worsened as the river Padma swelled further.


Water at Goalanda point was measured to be flowing 88 centimetres above the red mark, according to the Water Development Board.


Md Rafiq Ullah, executive engineer of the WDB, said 60,000 people of 15 unions in Sadar, Charbhadrashan, and Sadarpur upazilas were marooned.


He said Faridpur town's flood protection embankment had developed cracks in at least 15 places. The WDB was trying to repair the damage.


Faridpur deputy commissioner Akteruzzaman Md Mostafa Kamal said 25 educational institutions were forced to close due to floodwaters.


bdnews24.com Sirajganj correspondent reports the Jamuna water level rose by 4 centimetres in 24 hours at Sirajganj point and was flowing 41 centimetres above the danger line.


Five people have been drowned in floodwaters.


The rivers Karotoa, Ichhamati, Fulzore, Baral and Huashagar and Chalan continue to rise.


Swelling waters inundated Sirajganj Sadar, the municipal area and low-lying areas of Ullapara, Shajadpur and Chouhali upazilas.


Sirajganj district relief and rehabilitation officer Md Abul Khair said up to 40,000 people in the district were affected by the flood.


Khair said 12 shelters were opened in Sadar Upazila and municipal area that accommodated about 11,000 people.


In Kurigram, the flood situation improved slightly but thousands had been made homeless.


Mostafa Rezaul Asafuddoula, executive engineer of the WDB, said erosion at Rajar Vita and Kachkol in Chilmari, Charnewaji and Astamichar of Roumari, Bangasona Hat of Bhurungamari, Andharir Jhar, Thaieb Khan of Rajarhat, Gharial Bhanga, Bajra and Hatia of Ulipur worsened.


Mostafa said necessary steps could not be taken at all the places due to lack of funds.


District relief officer Tofazzel Hossain said water levels in almost all rivers fell but the Dharla was still flowing 14 centimetres above the danger mark.


Over 40,000 hectares of aman cropland went under water; floodwaters had already destroyed crops on 10,000 hectares, he said

Bangladesh's coastline bears the brunt of climate change

While something is happening elsewhere very quietly, the impacts of climate change in Cox's Bazar coastal area is brutally vibrant.


"Now we are like refugees," says 62-year-old Sona Ali.

Like Ali some 4,000 people of Penchadip village of Himchhari in Cox's Bazar district have experienced the similar fate. Nature's furor has forced them to leave their ancestral homes.

Ali was the owner of 40 bighas of land more than a decade ago. Now his 10-member family live together elsewhere, at a makeshift structure at the foot of a hill, and his original home has been washed away by the Bay of Bengal.

"The beach was 2 kilometers away from our home even three years ago. But now it is approaching toward Cox's Bazar-Himchhari road," Ali said as fellow villagers nodded his statement.

His neighbors Lal Miah, Kuddus Ali and Rahim Khan have similar stories to tell.

Talking to the villagers, who are bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change, was part of a visit arranged by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP sponsored a two-day workshop on "Climate Change and MDGs" for journalists last on August 29 at a hotel in Cox's Bazar.

Experts at the workshop said climate change is a very crucial for Bangladesh to talk about.

"Increasing global warming for high emission of green house gases has caused unusual rise in the sea level," Dr Aminul Islam, assistant country director (environment) of UNDP, said. "This is one of the causes of erosion," he said.

Apart from sea erosion it is the cause of violent river erosions, frequent floods, heavy rainfall during off seasons, heat waves, drought and cyclones.

They said such disasters triggered by the climate change are finally obstructing the efforts by developing nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The impacts of climate change are often enormous in coastal areas compared with effects in plain lands.

Displacement of people from their lands and homes is regular in the coastal area while people's livelihood is at stake, they said. Loss of fresh water sources because of saline water intrusion is common.

"Under such circumstances a big population of the country is becoming poorer. They are deprived of basic education and basic healthcare. So it will be difficult for a country like Bangladesh to achieve the MDGs if adequate measures are not taken to deal with climate change," Dr Atiur Rahman, chairman of Unnayan Sammunnay, told the UNDP workshop.

Atiur said preparing a long-term action plan to face the challenges of the global climate change is the need of the time.

"Bangladesh will have to reinforce its supports to the global fight against high emission of greenhouse gases. The country needs to mainstream climate change issue in the national development policy. Steps should be taken for exploring alternative resources of power and energy while massive forestation across the coastal belt must be implemented," Atiur said.

Ainun Nishat, the IUCN country representative, said food security of the people would be hit hard by the climate change.

"Crop lands are being reduced because of salinity intrusion while other disaters like floods, droughts and unusual rainfall are likely to increase. All these will hit the food production. So there will certainly be food crisis in future," Nishat said.

He talked of modern technologies which would spur industrialization but would not harm the environment.

"We can't deny the need of industrialization," he said.

Nishat said Bangladesh would need huge funds to adapt to the impacts of climate change. He said Bangladesh and other developing nations are not responsible for the crisis but "we are the worst victims of the impacts of climate change".

"The developed nations must compensate the poor countries so that they can equip them with technologies and other means to tackle the crisis," he said.