BANGLADESH BLUES
NEED BOTTOM-UP SOLUTION
In Bangladesh, one of the world's most
densely populated and impoverished nations,
things look neither bright nor promising at
the dawn of the new millennium. The looming
threat of global warming includes a rise in
sea levels that will impact low-lying
developing countries like Bangladesh
hardest. The blame for this impending
disaster rests squarely on industrialized
nations: Bangladesh's share in greenhouse
gas emissions is next to nothing.
What's more, serious environmental
degradation exists in several other
dimensions. Urban air pollution, arsenic
contamination in groundwater, pollution of
rivers and other water bodies, improper
disposal of industrial, medical and
household wastes, the loss of open space,
deforestation, destruction of wetlands,
noise pollution and loss of biodiversity
have reached crisis proportions. Even
Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove
forest and a UNESCO world heritage site, is
threatened by oil exploration.
How can this gloomy situation be
improved? Unless every citizen is made
aware of his or her responsibilities to the
environment, we stand very little chance of
survival. The process to save the
environment must be bottom-up, and not the
other way around. Individual awareness
about environmental concerns can lead to a
chain reaction that will encompass
communities, nations, regions and
eventually the entire world. National and
international decision-makers will then be
forced to move in step with the demands of
the global population.
FoE
Bangladesh
