Lisa Friedman ClimateWire Published: March 23, 2009
BHOMRA, Bangladesh — A high, heavily reinforced barbed wire fence cuts a jagged line through an otherwise empty field of tall grass and tamarind plants here. Climate change didn’t bring this fence, but it is providing a fresh reason for its existence and ongoing expansion.
On this side of the fence, rising sea levels caused by climate change are beginning to inundate low-lying Bangladesh. Scientists estimate that by midcentury as many as 15 million people could be displaced.
On the other side of the fence, India isn’t taking any chances. Already alarmed about illegal immigration, it is nearing completion of about 2,100 miles worth of high-tech fencing along its long and porous border with Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh is a country that could provide more climate refugees than anywhere else on earth,” said Isabel Hilton, an environmental commentator whose London-based nonprofit promotes climate change dialogue in China and throughout Asia.
“What that fence says to me is, wherever those people are going to go, they’re not going to India,” Hilton said.
Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/03/23/23climatewire-a-global-national-security-issue-lurks-at-ba-10247.html
