750,000,000 people in S Asia were affected by floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, heat waves and SLR

We have entered the age of consequences from climate change due to humanity’s insatiable thirst for abundant and cheap fossil fuel energy. For thousands of years, our stable climate has been the result of a balanced carbon cycle that has allowed our civilization to become what we know today. Carbon sinks such as the oceans, forests and grasslands have balanced emissions from every source over the millennia. But that has changed since the industrial revolution because human caused greenhouse gas emissions are no longer being fully absorbed anymore. Co2 continues to compound and accumulate day after day after day. The level of Co2 has gone from 208 ppm to 406 ppm challenging the limits that most life needs to survive. The climate never received the memo to stop it’s accelerating rate of Co2, and it will continue to accelerate long after the 2100 year milestone that most people are familiar with is reached. Nowhere are these life threatening consequences more evident than in the developing world.

South Asia, a region of deep poverty where one-fifth of the world’s people live are suffering the consequences of climate change right now. International Water Management Institute’s (IWMI) research found that 750 million people in S Asia (or 10% of the global population) “were affected by floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, heat waves and sea-level rise (SLR) — all impacts of climate change or worsened by it — in the first decade of this millennium”.  

India Climate Dialogue reports:

The study used data on the spatial distribution of various climate related hazards in 1,398 sub-national areas of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. An analysis of country-level population exposure showed that approximately 750 million people are affected by combined climate hazards.

Of the affected population, 72% is in India, followed by 12% each in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The remaining 4% are spread across Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Vulnerability to five major climate change impacts (floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, heat waves and sea-level rise)  in South Asia.  

Droughts are recurrent in South Asia, and their impacts on agriculture are enormous. In 2002-03, South Asia faced one of its worst droughts. In India alone, a drought has been reported at least once in every three years in the last five decades. The country incurred financial losses of about USD 149 billion and approximately 350 million people were affected due to droughts in the past 10 years.

An increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves can lead to crop failure, increased livestock mortality, increased human illnesses and deaths, and power outages.

Vulnerability to drought in South Asia.

Exposure to sea-level rise was the highest in the states of West Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra in India, followed by Bangladesh, Sindh in Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Low-lying coastal cities particularly vulnerable to the risks of storm surges and sea level rise include Karachi, Mumbai, Chennai and Dhaka.

These cities are likely to become more vulnerable to flooding in future because high seawater levels provide a higher base from which storm surges advance. Higher seawater levels will also potentially increase the risk of flooding due to rainstorms, by reducing coastal drainage, because sea-level rise also raises the local water table.

Vulnerability to extreme rainfall in South Asia.