Introduction/ Back Ground

Nobody on this planet will be untouched by the impacts of climate change a quotation by

Pachauri (2015) can summarize the devastation impacts of climate change. To see the actual

picture of climate change, first we have to understand what climate is. The easiest way to

describe climate is by saying climate is the average weather of a local geography over 30 years

interval. The elements that makes up a weather include average temperature, average

precipitation, wind speed and weather extreme. These elements are not exactly same in all over

the globe. The differences in the weather in different location create different climate like Polar

and tundra, Temperate Forest, Tropical grassland etc. These climate patterns play fundamental

role in shaping a locations ecosystem, biodiversity, human economics and culture. The

inhabitants of different geographical location evolves differently to adapt that climate and any

change in the climate creates serious disturbance in their life. Up until 1950s the global climate

was very stable or had minor changes, then climate started to change dynamically and the

changes were very noticeable. Thus introduced the world a new chapter, a chapter of climate

change.

Climate change one of the most controversial topic of world for the last decade. 56 percent

politicians, congressman deny these atmospheric change where 96 percent scientists insist that

climate change is real and its happening due to human activities. ( Gregoire, 2015 ) But what is

climate change? Climate change can be defined as the change in the weather pattern found in a

geographic location. This could be the change in how much rain a place usually get in a season

or the increase of temperature in a particular place over a year or a season. Earths climate is
always changing, but it takes 1000 years to change. So the inhabitants can adapt with the

changes. But in the last 100 years, the rate of change has accelerated especially in the rise of

temperature. Earths temperature has gone up only one degree Celsius which has cause a great

amount of snow and ice to melt. The melted ice floats down the sea and raises sea level and

damages coastal areas with coastal floods. Climate change also includes some other

consequences like extreme heat wave, warmer oceans, ocean acidifications, extreme events like

cyclone etc. This change didnt happen naturally rather than it was due to the activities of

humans. The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, emission of greenhouse gases release all the

harmful gases in the air and cause the air to heat up, decrease the amount of precipitation, and

change the climate pattern of the globe.

Since the beginning of the climate change, climate scientists have been suspecting human

activists as main culprit. After conducting many different experiments and research they have

uncovered many finger-print of human activities to the contribution of climate change. They

have been contributing to climate change since the beginning of this century. We use fossil fuel

as the main source of energy, let it be to produce electricity, run our vehicles, make foods and

what not. Fossil fuel are mostly made of carbon so as we are burning this fuels they start emitting

CO2 in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide concentration has increase by third since the

beginning of the Industrial revolution. The CO2 is the main culprit of heating up the atmosphere.

Another activity that works as a great contribution to climate change is the use Nitrous Oxide in

the fertilizer. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas and in atmosphere it absorbs all the radiated

heats and contributes to climate change. Methane, another greenhouse gas that is increasing

rapidly in the atmosphere parallel to increase of meat consumption. 35 percent of the Methane in
atmosphere is emitted during the process of rearing livestock. An indirect contributor of climate

change is deforestation. Trees are only element that takes in the CO2 but as are clearing the trees,

we are increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

There has been great deal of incontrovertible evidence of climate change that simply can't be

ignored any longer. The world has changed gradually for the past few decades and most of the

changes are not in our favor. The most noticeable evidence of climate change is the raise in

temperature. The excessive amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased the global

average temperature by 1 degree Celsius in the last century. This small degree of increase had

dire impact on the glaciers, snow covers of the arctic and ice sheets. This could be the second

evidence of climate change. According to NASA Iceland and Greenland loses about 36 cubic

miles of snow cover each year, where Antarctica loses about 26 cubic miles. Glaciers or the

snowcaps of the mountains like Alps, Himalaya, and Kilimanjaro are shrinking rapidly. Another

evidence of climate change is the sea level rise. The glaciers or the ice sheets melted in the ocean

add more water and cause ocean or sea to rise. The sea has raised almost 17 centimeters in the

last century. Making all the countries that are just above sea level vulnerable to climate change.

The water bodies are not facing an increase not only in water level but also in temperature. The

ocean are getting warmer due to more carbon dioxide emission in ocean. Also the ocean absorbs

more heat in the upper 700 meters and the temperature has increased by 0.302 Fahrenheit since

1969. The excessive amount CO2 in ocean has increased the acidity of the ocean water by 30

percent. Another unavoidable evidence of climate change is the extreme events. The world has

faced many extreme Cyclops, droughts, storms, coastal floods like never before.
The paragraph above gives an overview of the devastating impacts of climate change that were

made in the last 100 years. But since Im conducting a survey about the changes that were made

in the last decade I have to bring in some key statistics about the damages that were done in last

decade. The temperature has been drastically rising since the beginning of the year 2000.

According to World Metrological organization 2010-2015 was the warmest 5 years period and

only 2015 was the warmest year since the modern record keeping started. Also this year be

remembered the ocean temperature also reached its peak and it crossed the symbolic milestone of

1 Celsius above the pre-industrial era. WMO also claims that more than 5000 people died in

southern Asia due to extreme heat waves. The rate of sea level rise has been doubled since the

beginning of 2000. In 2010 for the first time in two decades sea level dropped but later in 2012 it

started to rise from where it stopped. It has rose by 22.3 mm in the last 5 decades. In the last 5

years around 150 cubic kilometer of ice cover lost by both Greenland and Iceland. Antarctica lost

Mount Everest sized of water due to climate change in last 2 years and retreat of glacier has been

tripled since 2009 losing 16.3 gigatons of glacier per year which cause coastal flooding in

different region of the world. The temperature raised in the last decade has also put more than

200 rare species on the verge of extinction. About 20 percent of the coral reef in the Great Barrier

Reef were extinct in last 10 years. Unfinished

Bangladesh being one of the largest deltas in the world make it highly vulnerable to many

Natural Disasters because of its Geographical location. Bangladesh is also a country which

depends on its agriculture for economic growth and GDP . This two main attributes of

Bangladesh makes it one of the most vulnerable country to climate change. According to Notre

Dame Global Adaptation Index Bangladesh will the third most affected country of climate
change. Because of a being delta most lands of Bangladesh are vulnerable to sea level rise and

according to the prediction of some environment scientists half of the county will go under water

within next 40 years. This is the future predictions of climate change consequences. But what is

happening or happened to Bangladesh now? Have the people faced any consequences of climate

change or facing now? To know more about it I have conducted a research on general people to

know about the consequences faced by them in the last decade. This I will be discussing more in

the data analysis section. I also did some research on the internet to know in details about the

consequences of climate change in Bangladesh in this time period.

Will write about some consequences of climate Change in Bangladesh in details.

 Research Questions

The primary question on which my whole research is based on is Do people actually observed

climate in Bangladesh in last 10 years and if yes what are the consequences. To complete my

research I had to conduct survey to know what consequences they faced in the last decade. The

research questions relating to my topic which guided the design of my

questionnaire are given below:

What is Climate Change?

What are the consequences of Climate Change?
Have we observed any climate change in Bangladesh?
Does it have impacts on Bangladesh?
What makes Bangladesh vulnerable to climate change?
What are the consequences in Bangladesh?
Who are mostly effected by Climate change?
Is it hampering our economy?

Research Hypothesis

It is clear that Bangladesh has already started to feel the heat of Climate Change.. Since the

geographical position of Bangladesh makes vulnerable to climate change, a little change in the

climate can a put a great damage. A little rise on the sea level will make most of the costal part of

Bangladesh go under water. Change in weather pattern, rise in average temperature puts our

health, our agriculture at risk and exotic animal on the verge of extinction. From my research I
want to how much climate change has affected this country in the last decade. Too know about

this first I have to investigate whether people are aware of this Humans own curse and among

all the different natural disaster can they identify the ones that are due to climate change. Then to

know which consequences they observe more frequently and have more impacts on Bangladesh.

This consequences have different impact in different sections of life. Some hampers our health,

some might destroy our land and some might declines our economic growth.

Research Methodology

To complete this survey I had to go through so many research and some were primary and some

were secondary. The primary survey was carried out on different type of people of Bangladesh

over the internet. A survey questionnaire containing 10 question related to the research was given

to them. The whole survey concentrated on questions related to the research. The questions

where either multiple choice question or Yes/no questions. The survey was carried out on 40

random persons over the internet using Google Form.

For my secondary research, I mostly used internet sources on my topic for relevant information. I
took information from online articles from journals and other websites. For looking up
information on the internet, I used the standard search engine Google.

Data Presentation and Analysis

In order to collect sufficient data to complete my research on the consequences of climate change

faced in Bangladesh in last decade, I have conducted a survey questioning various aspects on my

topic. The data helped me to come to a conclusion on my research topic. The questions were

completed by a group of people and most of the survey was conducted over the internet using

google Forms. The data collected is presented and analyzed in details.

In my first question, I asked the people involving in research if they have observed any form of

climate change in the last 10 years. This was the question which set the foundation of my survey

and helped me to introduce my topic. The results were almost as expected. Approximately 97.5%

chose that they have witnessed the changes and the consequences where only 2.5% chose no as

an answer. A pie chart representing the data is given in the Figure.1

Have you observed any climate change in Bangladesh in last 10 years?

3%

Yes
No

97%
 Figure 1: Have you observed any climate change in Bangladesh in last 10

years?

The data collected clearly shows two things. Firstly, the general people are aware of climate

change and they can identify the changes. Secondly, the have observed some climate change

effects in the last 10 years. Almost all of my subjects have observed some events that they can

relate to the effects of climate change. This show how severe climate change is in Bangladesh

that almost all the people are touched by its effects. This can be related to the recent increase in

temperature, less cold in winters, coastal floods, extreme heat waves and the extreme events that

are caused because of the drastic climate change in the recent years. The data collected clearly

shows two things hings

My second question is related with the type of aspects of climate change they have witnessed so

far. My question was which of the following aspects of climate change you have witnessed in

Bangladesh? Where there was 5 options and they were allowed to mark more than one. Where

77.5% percent said they felt a change in weather pattern, another 77.5% felt a rise in average

temperature, 20% observed a rise in sea level, 17.5% observed that rare species of life are

extinction and 10% thinks that the ozone layer is depleting. The most observed answers are quite

obvious but I was expecting that more people would mark the option rise in sea level. A graph

represents the information in the figure 2 below.

Which of the following aspects of climate change you have faced in Bangladesh

Extinction of Rare Species

Sea level rise

20.00%

Depletion of Ozone layer

10.00%

Raise in Temperature
77.50%

0.18
Change in weather pattern
77.50%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

Information from this question gives an overview of what changes they have observed in the

climate. The most climate change aspects that are faced in Bangladesh are related to the

atmosphere. Some biological changes and an increased in carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere

might have changed the weather pattern and raised the temperature. This also indicates that the

country is getting warmer day by day and we dont observe the weather that we used to 10 years

back. A small percentage also things that the sea-level is rising and it might not be as alarming as

other two aspects.

The next question I asked was to more specific about change weather patterns. I asked my

subjects what gradual changes you can see in the weather pattern of the last 10 years due to

climate change.
Since they were allowed to mark more than one, the response was that 62.5% felt more heat

waves in summer, 22.5% seen more extreme rainfalls all over year, 82.5 % things less cold in

winter and 15% have witnessed intense floods in the last 10 years. A bar chart graph is attached

to the bottom to represent the information in figure 3.

What gradual changes can you see in the weather pattern of the last 10 years due to climate change?

Intense Flood 15.00%

Less Cold in Winter 82.50%

Extreme Rainfall 22.50%

More Heat waves 62.50%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

Column2

Figure 3 What gradual changes can you see in the weather pattern of the last 10

years due to climate change?

The graph reflects what kind of change in the weather pattern my subjects has observed over the

year. Most of my subject strongly believes that the temperature in winter is less than what it used

to be and in summer they face more frequent extreme heat waves. These response are quite

obvious because the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has increased the average

temperature by 1 Celsius in last decade. The data collected shows that Bangladesh is not facing
the extreme storms that they should due to climate change. Only response which shocked me was

the least response. Because of being a low lying country and one of the biggest delta Bangladesh

should have faced more intense flood by now.

Then I asked subjects a question to know their opinion weather climate change has any harmful

effect in Bangladesh or not. I asked them do you feel climate change is something that is

affecting you or is going to affect you in the future. 33 of 40 respondents thinks that climate

change is in affecting their daily life, 1 of them thinks that the harmful effects are not happening

and 6 of them are not sure about it. The pie chart representing the data is given below in figure 4.

Do you feel climate change is something that is affecting you or is going to affect you in the future?

15%
3% Yes
No
Maybe

83%

Figure 4 Do you feel climate change is something that is affecting you or is going to

affect you in the future?

This question tested my respondents whether they actually understand the consequences of

climate change or not. Majority of the respondents thinks that the effect has started or will start

in the near future. This means that they are fully aware of the consequences of climate change

and they can identify these changes. They can related the consequences such as temperature rise,

eradiated rainfall, extreme events to climate change.

My next question queries about if they feel that the rise in temperature has harmful effects on the

people of Bangladesh. 38 respondents have opted for Yes, where only one person chose the

opposite option which is no and another one is still confuse about the health problems related to

climate change. The pie chart below presents the data in figure 5.

Do you feel that the rise in temperature has harmful effects on the people?

3%3%

Yes
No
Maybe
95%

Figure 5: Do you feel that the rise in temperature has harmful effects on the people?
The pie chart above gives a clear image that almost all the people know about the issues that are

due to climate change. It is because the rise in temperature has been most noticeable effect of

climate change in Bangladesh since the beginning. In the last decade people of Bangladesh have

observed more extreme heat waves, droughts, less crops yield. Heatstroke, communicable

diseases etc. all are due to sudden rise in temperature.

On my next question I wanted to gather information about the most vulnerable people of climate

change by area. I asked them Climate change will not have the same effect on everyone, who do think

are the most effected ones? They had to choose between three option people living in coastal areas, rural

and urban areas. Among 39 respondents 66.7% think that people of coastal area are the worst suffered,

17.9% think that rural area inhabitant are the worst sufferer and 15.4 % think urban area people are the

worst sufferer of climate change. The pie chart below shows the data in figure 6.

Sales

30%
coastal areas
Rural Area
Urban
62%
8%
Information from the pie chart above me can come to a conclusion that according to majority of

my respondents climate change makes the coastal people the most vulnerable ones. This can be

related to that fact that most of the coastal areas of Bangladesh are just 5 meters above sea level

and by the year 2050 most of these places will go under water. Also during the monsoon season a

lot extreme storms hit the coasts and results in coastal floods. Thus it can be said that the people

living in coastal areas are the most vulnerable ones.