Overview

Abstract

Bangladesh, it is by now well known, is one of those poor countries which face the irony of adapting to and mitigating the consequences of global warming and climate change which are, by and large, not of their own making while they have in general the least human, societal, technological and financial capability for such adaptation and mitigation. Yet, they, including Bangladesh have signed international agreements and treaties related to climate change and abide by their provisions. Towards this end, they need to equip themselves with the knowledge of potential climatic changes and their national consequences, particularly vulnerabilities and find ways and means to adapt to and mitigate them. While the generation of such a knowledge base is only the first step towards actions at local, national and international levels, this is an absolutely necessary activity. What is more, this has to be an ongoing exercise as the nature of investigation leaves many scopes for uncertainties, ambiguities and differences in interpretation. In Bangladesh, as the discussion that follows would amply show such a process has been continuing for at least one decade and the present study is only one, albeit an important one, link in this chain.