7.10.+The+consequences+of+climate+change

10. What are the consequences of climate change? ( case study of a country which is suffering from it).
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Exactly what will be the effect of this is particular places is very hard to predict, but there are general themes that seem to over-arch the process that we call climate change: [Thermal expansion is the growth in volume of water due to rising temperature]
 * The ice will melt, both on mountain tops and at the poles
 * This, together with thermal expansion, will causes sea levels to rise
 * Overall, the temperatures will rise - more over large land masses than close to the oceans. There will be local anomalies, for example the unusually fierce winters in Europe and the east side of North America, where it appears the warming of the Arctic Ocean has caused a change in wind patterns. This lead to long periods in which the wind came from the North instead of across the Atlantic from the SW, bringing cold Arctic air carrying snow and very low temperatures.
 * There are likely to be areas that have more precipitation than they are used to, often in the form of heavy rain storms, which may lead to floods.
 * On the other hand, there will be other areas, by and large those that already suffer water stress, that will become drier.

The impact on Bangladesh
To appreciate why Bangladesh is likely to feel the effects of climate more than almost anywhere else in the world, you need to appreciate its current situation. 75% of the land area is below 10metres above sea level It is right in the path of cyclones that sweep almost annually up from the bay of Bengal. Much of the spring water (i.e. water in springtime) comes from melt water in the Himalayas, which brings with it fertile silt that flood the fields of the delta and increase the fertility of the soils.

So what are the issues?
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 * The ice caps in the Himalayas are melting so the spring flood carrying sediments to re-enrich the soils are slowly reducing.
 * The storms seem to be becoming more intense
 * The sea level is rising due to snow melt and thermal expansion.
 * The mangrove swamps, the Sundarbans, are the largest in the world, will disappear is the sea levels rise by a mere 45cm.
 * Without mangroves to protect the coastal behind them, much land will be washed away in storms, leaving millions homeless.
 * More salt water infiltration is likely, which will make more of the land that is still above sea level, useless for growing rice, so putting more pressure on more to people to migrate.
 * Saltwater from the Bay of Bengal already penetrates 100 kilometres inland during the dry season, and climate change is likely to exacerbate this.
 * Pressure from an increasing population (rising at 2% pa) and rising demand for groundwater further reduces the availability of freshwater supplies for domesticmedia type="youtube" key="095TulTfJDs" height="390" width="640" align="left" and industrial purposes
 * If sea levels rises up to one metre this century, Bangladesh could lose up to 15 per cent of its landmass and up to 30 million Bangladeshi could become climate refugees
 * In these areas, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, livelihoods, marine resources, forestry and biodiversity, human health, and utility services will all suffer. Such a scenario could lead to a decline in GDP of between 27 and 57 per cent . ( It is currently US$ 641 )
 * Given the high population density (954 per sq km) of the country as a whole, this could lead to mass climate emigration – where could they go?