Hidden Connections: Bangladesh's Climate Crisis

Bangladesh, home to more than 150 million people, is experiencing some of the most severe weather conditions the country has seen in centuries. There are more-frequent floods, intense cyclones, and longer droughts. “Almost every climate change impact you can think of, some place in Bangladesh is going to be feeling it,” Saleemul Huq, director at the International Center for Climate Change and Development, explains in the video. The country’s records show that for 200 years, there has typically been one flood every 20 years; in the past year alone, Bangladesh has seen four. These harsh weather conditions are hitting some of the poorest communities and driving a migration surge, as families from vulnerable rural areas head to the capital of Dhaka—which “can’t afford to absorb another 10 million migrants that we expect over the next few decades,” says Huq.