Climate change victims’ settlement

By-http://www.newagebd.com/2009/dec/21/fb.html

I wholeheartedly agree with Aongay Marma’s letter on the subject (December 19). The victims of climate change should not be settled in the CHT where the indigenous people are already under immense pressure for survival. The government must negotiate with sparsely populated countries like Australia, Canada and also with Nepal and Bhutan closer to home to take these settlers as well as other countries in South America. The cost of transportation and settlement and initial settling in period should be fully met from the climate change fund, with opportunities for schooling, retraining, etc. as may be necessary.

When the last mini Ice Age collapsed about 12000 years ago, the sea level rose by about 15 metres; (and amongst other things) creating the modern Black Sea and separating Great Britain from Europe. The people who dwelt at the time at the bottom of the Black Sea are the ones who discovered farming and grain production (as against mere nomads of small tribes) to sustain manifold increase in population and establishment of towns and cities and fixed abodes. When their world was drowned out (perhaps this was Atlantis), they migrated with their tools, equipment and knowledge to unpopulated parts of Europe starting with parts of modern Turkey and the Balkans and it is their descendants who now populate Europe.

So climate change and population migration to sparsely populated areas have happened before on earth (perhaps many times) and this has to be taken on board now in a planned global scale without putting pressure on communities who are already under pressure. With good will, adequate funding and spirit of adaptation this could be accomplished.

Engineer Shafi Ahmed
London, UK