For Foreign Policy’s South Asia Channel, I have a new piece looking at how vulnerable South Asia is to climate change. It is based on the IPCC’s latest report on climate change adaptation, and it is sobering in its conclusions. Countries in South Asia already struggle in meeting economic development goals, a challenge that will only grow as the negative impacts of climate change (drought and sea level rise) manifest themselves over the remainder of the century:
The destruction that flooding could wreak in South Asia's low-lying and urban areas is cruelly complemented by the effects that drought and changes in seasonal rainfall will have on agriculture. Extreme heat is already disrupting the growing season for regions in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Wheat production in the Indian portion of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, a fertile area that also encompasses parts of Pakistan and Bangladesh, may decrease by up to 50 percent by 2100, harming the hundreds of millions of people who rely on it for sustenance.
The full article can be read at FP's South Asia site.
Tags: foreign policy, south asia, neil bhatiya, drought, sea level, climate change
South Asia and Climate Vulnerability
For Foreign Policy’s South Asia Channel, I have a new piece looking at how vulnerable South Asia is to climate change. It is based on the IPCC’s latest report on climate change adaptation, and it is sobering in its conclusions. Countries in South Asia already struggle in meeting economic development goals, a challenge that will only grow as the negative impacts of climate change (drought and sea level rise) manifest themselves over the remainder of the century:
The full article can be read at FP's South Asia site.
Tags: foreign policy, south asia, neil bhatiya, drought, sea level, climate change