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    Environment News

    Climate change threatens Burma

    Family members sit near their home destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in Bogalay, Burma in 2008. (Reuters)
    • By DVB
    • 14 March 2012
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    Burma ranks among the world’s top countries most at risk from the combined effects of climate change, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank that joins together various studies to shed a new and ominous light on the vulnerability of the underdeveloped Southeast Asian state.

    The report spotlights the Asia-Pacific as the most disaster-prone region on earth, and warns that new patterns of migration are likely to emerge as populations escape humanitarian crises brought about by global warming. More than 42 million people in the region have been forced to leave their homes due to environmental disasters during the past two years alone, and that figure is set to increase.

    It says that a rise in sea levels presents the most pressing concern, with eight of the 10 countries with the greatest number of people inhabiting low-lying coastal zones living in the Asia-Pacific. In Burma, 10 percent of the country would be affected by a sea-level rise of between one and five metres.

    Poverty and weak governance compounds the vulnerability of those living in areas prone to the negative effects of climate change. In Burma this is most evident in the Irrawaddy delta and the stretch of coastline in central Arakan state around Ramree Island – both areas are of low-elevation, and decades of neglect by the central government has meant that disaster warning and flooding prevention systems are woefully lacking.

    A separate index developed last year by David Wheeler, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development, casts this combination of factors in a more urgent light. When the potential physical impacts of three effects of climate change – agricultural productivity loss, sea level rise and extreme weather – are combined with the coping ability of the state, Burma ’s threat levels are raised dramatically.

    He claims that Burma ranks second out of 233 countries in terms of the threat posed by agricultural productivity loss, an unsurprising figure given that around 70 percent of the country are reliant on farming as a primary means of income. Agricultural exports are also a key pillar in the country’s developing economy.

    Burma also comes in second place for the dangers that will accompany a rise in sea levels. According to a dataset created by Wheeler, nearly 4.5 million Burmese inhabit areas designated at risk from storm surges. Other countries have higher figures for this, namely China with 23.7 million, but Wheeler considers Burma ’s coping ability so poor that only Somalia tops it in terms of susceptibility to sea level rises.

    Regarding the fallout from extreme weather, Burma ranks fifth on Wheeler’s index. According to the ADB report, “many more people” in Southeast Asia died as a result of natural disasters between 2001 and 2010 than during the previous decade, primarily due to the 2004 India Ocean tsunami and 2008’s Cyclone Nargis, whose aftermath showcased the Burmese government’s inability to respond to extreme weather.

    Wheeler told DVB in an interview that the coping ability perspective in assessments on climate change “reinforces the view that adaptation is primarily a development problem, with all the associated opportunities and constraints”.

    “Accepting this idea would recast adaptation assistance, with renewed attention to ‘traditional’ issues like women’s education and institutional development”. He added that Burma’s ability to handle problems associated with climate change would strengthen in tandem with democratisation, local development and the empowerment of marginalised groups.

    The report however attempts to illuminate a silver lining by suggesting that the by-products of climate change, namely human migration, “should be seen not only as a threat to human well-being but also as a potential tool to promote human adaptation to climate change”.

    Tags: burmaclimate changeEnvironmentmyanmar

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    3 Comments

    1. maungg maungg says:
      15 March 2012 at 11:32 pm

      Can anyone explain more about it in media and train people to do right things in their daily life to sustain the condition, improvement on the environment and what Burma has today. It is a beutiful country with five different parts joining, ( sea, agri land, forest, semi desert and snowy mountain. The best of Teak, Jade, Pearl, Gem stones, thick thick forest, rivers, animals, above aqll people.We must all ithand in hand together. Cheeerrrs.

      Reply
    2. maungg maungg says:
      17 May 2012 at 11:33 pm

      If you are a climate expert with good ideas on how to prevent from sinking or whatever, could they be opened up to the general public to follow in simple steps. After all keeping quiet also do not make sense anyway. All good measures should be considered with some helps from ADB or others or self help, we can do follow up widely. This is not for one country benefit
      only but many others. We mankind have ability to overcome many obstacles because we have brains and some are willing to put in their efforts. Anyway, Burma as wel as Somalia are one time very beautiful countries if not for the sake of political conflicts. this is one of the reason we should not repeat it again.

      Reply
    3. Kyaw Zaw says:
      25 May 2012 at 11:43 pm

      Basically it is education. Education on man and nature, natural disasters, self sufficiency, sustainable and envirnmnentally friendly development, preparedness of possible manmade and natural problems, etc.

      If we have efficient communication, management and openness, we would have most of the basic and inexpensive training since the schools.

      Everyone has responsibility from self care, cleanliness to care of their surroundings. Big businesses should be more responsible.

      Narrow streets full of garbage and waste, stray dogs, chocked drains, tall buildings with narrow and blocked staircases, lifts without electricity to run, buildings that do not follow city requirement, lack of knowledge of general public, and etc. will make a disaster damage unnecessarily large in towns.

      Greedy businesses that are actually disire machines see profit as their number one goal. They tend to ignore concerns for nature, health amd possible disasters.

      On the public side we need education so we know what we should oppose, and what we should accept.

      Reply
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