Leaders on the earth (leaders at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties- COP26), we even can’t predictwhen a season will start or end and in which season we’re now although we’ve read a lot over our six seasons and have experiencedthosein our childhood in the nineties of the last century. We had six traditional seasons- Grishma(summer), Barsha(rainy), Sarat (autumn), Hemanta (late autumn), Shhit (winter) and Basanta (spring) when the climate of Bangladesh, the South Asian nation, was mainly temperate with every season had different pleasant characters. This temperate climate- cool winters and mild summers – was very much comfortable to us.
First and foremost, Grishma comprises Baishakh and Jyaistha (mid-April to mid-June), the two Bangla calendar months, when days are seemed hot and dry. Barsha usually spreads over Asharh and Shraban (mid-June to mid-August) lasting two to three months and in some parts of the country it lasts for four months. The dark clouds in a grey sky is the characteristic of our rainy season.
Secondly Sarat lasts during Bhadra and Ashwin (mid-August to mid-October). This is traditional and one of the beautiful seasons we have when housewives are seen putting out clothes, musty and damp because of the rains, to air and dry in the hot sun of Bhadra. The cloudy and the grey sky turn to clouds floating in a blue sky with the nights and mornings enjoy cool. Hemanta sets with Kartik and Agrahayan (mid-October to mid-December) as this is a transitional phase between autumn and winter, getting the evenings grow cool when farmers are found very busy with harvesting paddy, celebrating countrywide NabannaUtsav (the festival of new crop). We find a lot of smiles and happiness on the faces of farmers during those days.
Therefore Shhit is the colder part of the year spreading over the months of Paush and Magh (mid-December to mid-February) of the Bangla calendar with getting the weather drier. Temperature goes down with the nights are longer over days. Mornings are often enjoyable with foggy nature. Plants shed their leaves. To most of us, this winter is the best and enjoyable as we find a large variety of vegetables available in the markets, enjoy drinking Date juice. We celebrate the season arranging a handful of pitha festivals (festivals that arrange special food items). Oh! What the childhood is!
Hence although the Basanta is a brief season, covering Phalgun and Chaitra (mid-February to mid-April) of the six seasons. Weather is pleasant during this season with its comfortable temperature, calling it as the king of all seasons. But the duration of this season has been decreased over the years when the length of winter, summer and rainy seasons increased. These were the stories of lovely seasons we had been enjoying since the history begun. Our economy, communication, trade and commerce, art and culture and our entire lifestyles as well had been reeled with these seasons.
But we, the Bangladeshis, in this region have been experiencing abnormal behavioursof the weather pattern over the years with significant negative changes in the environment and climate, life and our livelihood even though the weather patterns changed globally. We are not finding out now those of our restrained seasons in which our childhood and adolescent stories are underlying.
We, at this age of thirties, are now missing those of the days of childhood! It’s a bad thing for us to bear. Even we’ve missed the weather when my parents born. Because we can easily guess that the weather, surely, was much more comfortable during their time of birth than ours! Similarly my daughter is now nearly 12-month old. That means she is witnessing a severe hot and severe cold weather with the disastrous climate around her! She won’t believe of our childhood environment when she gets older. We’re now experiencing heatwave, drought and extreme precipitation and event life-threatening cold over the years those exclude our regular natural seasons. People suffer from floods, cyclones, droughts, salinity and river erosion, and the poorer people are affected more than others. Who are responsible behind this arrogant behaviors of nature against us?
A recent study says Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, has witnessed a rise in temperature of almost 3 degrees Celsius in a span of 20 years! According to the Climate Risk Index- 2021, on the other hand, Bangladesh keeps 7th most vulnerable to climate change. We’ve lost nearly 11,450 people, suffered economic losses worth $3.72 billion and witnessed 185 extreme weather events from 2000-2019 due to climate change (Bangladesh remains 7th most vulnerable to climate change, 2021, TBS).
United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) statistics say, the future of over 19 million children in Bangladesh is at risk by the climate change events! How dreadful it is! The people of Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti, the Philippines, Mozambique, The Bahamas, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal, however, are also in the most affected list of climate change!
Although there are other natural reasons behind the climate change crises, but the human activitiesare the main driver of climate changesince the 1800s, primarily due to burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gasetc). The usage of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas emissions that causes the raising of temperatures on earth with the emissions are continuing to rise.
Being major concern on the climate change, Carbon dioxide is said to have the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities when China, The United States, India, The Russian Federation and Japan respectively are producing most of it. Rhodium Group’s research, according to BBC report says China emitted 27% of the world’s greenhouse gases in 2019 with 10.06 billion metric tons in 2018 while the US was the second-largest emitter at 11% and India was third with 6.6% of emissions in 2019.
Facing widespread criticism Chinapromised to become carbon neutral before 2060. But this pledges are not trustworthy to the people because the heavily industrialized countries have been breaching their own promises repeatedly over climate change. It’s a good news that President Biden is appointing climate experts and comes up with taking global leadership again on the climate change issues after the Trump-debacle withdrawing them from the Paris climate agreement drafted in 2015 in a bid to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change.The Clinton administration, however, was unable to secure Senate backing for the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997. It’s the proof of long negative approach towards addressing the climate change from the US part.
Shifting to India’s school of thoughts on climate change, we see that NarendraModi has committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070. Is it trustworthy? I’m confused! But if I trust this why is it not by 2030s, 40s, 50s, 60s? Why are these pledges going far-reaching?
Leaders! We, the people of what you label as ‘third world’ categorically, are the victims of climate change by those of the high-emitters in a large portion. They are thirsty for urbanization and industrialization and they are taking part in completion to implement that! These countries are devastating us with damaging our next generations, endangering their life and livelihood. It has drastically changed our weather, with extinction of usual seasons over the years. We’ve lost at least two of the seasons due to the effects of climate change events, breaking chains of seasons. If you visit our southern parts of Bangladesh, you will find most of them underwater affecting by frequent floods, cyclones and raising sea-levels or by some other forms of climate change. Nearly 400,000 people each year enter the cities affecting by the climate change events! It’s on the rise!
To recapitulate, I think, as all assume; climate actions require significant financial investments by the heavily industrialized nations and businesses globally for the small and the overpopulated countries like Bangladesh. These countries should provide vigorous economic supports to theses developing nations to mitigate the losses. It’s a compensation from their parts not reliefs. We ask returns rather than seeking aids. We ask the industrialized countries to fulfil their commitment they made to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries in adapting and for the move of greener economic. We ask the developed countries to decrease emissionsfrom this moment as we can’t wait until 50s, 60s and 70s. We ask the developed countries to offer our kids a sound climate not relief please! Return our non-aggressive six seasons to our children.
the writer is a Dhaka-based journalist and he can be reached at [email protected].
