Huq is the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, Bangladeshhe lights are out here in my home city of Dhaka as I write these words. Cyclone Sitrang has knocked out the electricity in Bangladesh’s capital, plunging much of this city of 22 million people into darkness.in the dark about is climate change. We understand that overheating the planet has made cyclones—or hurricanes, as they’re called in other parts of the world—stronger and more destructive.
Climate change is therefore a life-and-death issue for Bangladesh, and our media cover it accordingly. Most news outlets—TV, radio, print, and digital—run climate stories on a regular basis. And they play the story big. State-run channels such as Bangladesh Television as well as private competitors such as Channel I run well-informed climate stories at the top of their broadcasts and further explore the issue in popular talk shows.
Meanwhile, extreme weather events kept illustrating how vulnerable our country was. Cyclone Sidr, a category 5 storm that struck in November 2007, particularly got newsrooms’ attention. The IPCC had released its Fourth Assessment Report six weeks earlier. Because of our previous briefings, Bangladeshi journalists now bombarded us with interview requests, wishing to understand how cyclones like Sidr were related to global warming, so that they could, in turn, inform the public.
The contrast with the U.S. is stark. When American TV networks cover the punishing heat, drought, and storms afflicting so much of the world these days, they usually do not mention that global warming fuels such extreme weather—an egregious oversight.
SaleemulHuq They are topping the list on tuberculosis and is pretty high on infant mortality.
SaleemulHuq That means a lot coming from a poor nation who doesn’t have basic human rights for its citizens.
SaleemulHuq You will be once your electricity is off.
SaleemulHuq MADE IN CHINA
SaleemulHuq Climate will change like it or not. Believe it or not the earth will decide not humanity. Your just trying to make money off it like you did years ago look how that paned out.
SaleemulHuq People act like there's just an on-off switch to stop all this. We're talking about a complete, worldwide societal reversal that will take generations. Baby steps, chip away at it.