Driven by necessity, Bangladesh develops innovations to fight climate change

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• William Brangham:

  The low lying nation of Bangladesh emits just one half of 1 percent of the world's carbon emissions. But it suffers disproportionately from the climate change that's caused by that pollution. Bangladesh is also creating innovative ways to predict and protect against climate driven disasters. And its discoveries could contain lessons for other nations around the world. Ali Rogin has more.

• Ali Rogin:

  Even in the most isolated parts of Bangladesh, communities have devised ways to stay ahead of potential weather disasters, like floods and cyclones. And they're discovering new ways to use the natural resources around them to build resilience. NPR reporter Lauren Frayer just returned from Bangladesh and joins me now. Lauren, thank you so much. First, what are the factors that make Bangladesh particularly vulnerable to climate change?

• Lauren Frayer:

  So it's really the geography. I mean, Bangladesh is a low lying country, essentially, the whole country, or almost the whole country is a River Delta, just south of the Himalayan Mountains. I traveled in the north of the country, which is essentially like, think of capillaries kind of crisscrossing the country.

  So these are tiny, muddy, narrow, shallow rivers in the dry season. But in the wet season, they just become like a shallow sea. And so people are dividing their livelihoods between agriculture in the dry season and then adapting to basically living on water in the wet season. So adapting to fishing and kind of trying to keep their agriculture alive through raised gardens.

  I did some interviews with some villagers, where instead of growing squash and vines on the ground, they've raised them like eight levels high. So they live under a canopy of shade provided by their vegetables, but also these vegetables survive when the area floods.

• Ali Rogin:

  : The methods that you just laid out. Those were adaptations, right? Those were methods that they've employed in order to adapt to changing weather patterns.

• Lauren Frayer:

  Yes, so I mean, these are indigenous community solutions. I mean, Bangladesh does have some high tech solution. So they have one of the most advanced flood warning systems in the world. They're using satellite technology to track cyclones. They have buoys that are measuring water levels using solar powered buoys.

  But what scientists have been telling me that even more important than the high tech solutions in Bangladesh is what they call social capital. So for example, I went out to a village that's two hours boat ride from the nearest road. And even they, you know, without phones, and without radio, without television, were able to get these flood warnings through this sort of human chain of communication.

  And in this village, which saw some of the worst flooding in 2022, that Bangladesh had ever seen, every single person in the village survived. So the human chain of communication really worked for them.

• Ali Rogin:

  That's incredible. And you call that 100 percent awareness of climate change, which is really incredible when we're talking about a remote community like this. Tell me a little bit more about how that works on a person to person level, you talked about the high tech side, but then really what it comes down to is literally word of mouth.

• Lauren Frayer:

  So what happens is, in Dhaka, there's a flood forecasting and warning center, and that's a government facility. And those scientists are tracking meteorological data and then saying, OK, how is that going to affect this system of rivers in the north of our country.

  So I met with one blood observation worker, who was a housewife in her early 20s, with a mobile phone and she has this side gig reading river gauges in her local river. And so she's literally just reading the water levels and sending that data by SMS by text message to the scientists in Dhaka, they're taking meteorological data, they're taking that real time water level data, they're plugging it into a hydrological model. And then they're trying to figure out where flash floods will be.

  And so they send out that flood — those flood warnings by smartphone push notification, but also by audio recording. In the village that I went to, there were people without even phones, but at least one relative, or in this case, a neighbor's relative, had a phone, got that audio recording, and then pass the word by word of mouth.

  So it's those kinds of like, very small, you know, practical solutions that villagers are creating on their own to help them survive and adapt to, you know, the changing climate.

• Ali Rogin:

  And what if any lessons can we in the United States learn from these communities and potentially implement here?

• Lauren Frayer:

  one of the top climate scientists in Bangladesh told me, Hey, if the U.S. has a new climate skeptic, send them over here, it will cure them of that, because I found and he's found, like 100 percent awareness of climate change, because people have experienced it in their own lives.

  And one of the things that Bangladesh does better than any other country, is this communication, this human chain of people to people communication, so that it's not just high tech solutions. It's low tech community based solutions.

• Ali Rogin:

  And lastly, Lauren, there's a big debate right now about the responsibilities of countries who are responsible for more of these emissions. What sort of assistance exists for Bangladesh from wealthy countries, if any? And what's the conversation like in Bangladesh about the responsibilities of other countries?

• Lauren Frayer:

  Yes, so Bangladesh is often called the climate victim, because as you say it creates a fraction of a percent of global carbon emissions, and yet it suffers disproportionately from the effects. But you know, I have to say, the attitude that I've found in Bangladesh is not one of woe is me, unfairness, victimhood? It's one of OK, this is our lot. We have to deal with it, and we're going to survive it. And it's really one of empowerment.

  And I found that both on an official level, talking to scientists and talking to government officials, but I found that on a local level too.

• Ali Rogin:

  Lauren Frayer with NPR, thank you so much for your time.

• Lauren Frayer:

  Thanks for having me.