Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Climate change and infectious diseases


                                                             


Bangladesh has been one of the victims of climate change. From 1971 to 1998, there have been greater temperature variations between seasons: higher temperatures during the monsoon season and slightly lower temperatures in the winter. The temperature increase in monsoon season has been greater than the temperature decrease in winter. Thus, the overall mean annual temperatures have been increasing. These trends in temperature variations are expected to become more pronounced in the years to come. By the year 2100, it is expected that the annual mean maximum temperatures will increase by 0.88 °C and the annual mean minimum temperatures will decrease by 0.11 °C.


These two trends combined will result in an increase of 0.39 °C in the overall annual mean temperature. Small changes like these can have a great effect on climate and natural disasters. Increase in temperature will cause mild melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which along with an expected overall monsoon rainfall increase of 588.65 mm by the year 2075 will result in increased severe flooding in inland areas. It is also expected that floods will be followed by drought due to 


a significant decrease in precipitation during the winter months.
Bangladesh is also facing a greater rate of sea level rising than other countries, with an increase of to 4.0 m to 7.8 m on different coastal stations. Such sea level rises will submerge low lying coastal areas and will result in salt water intrusion into aquifers and rivers. Lack of fresh drinking water, inability to grow crops, and submerged low-lying coastal areas could result in displacement of six to eight million people by the year 2050.

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