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Article: The first refugees of global warming.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- May 4, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Laurie Goering
ANTARPARA, Bangladesh _ Muhammad Ali, a wiry 65-year-old, has never driven a car, run an air conditioner or done much of anything that produces greenhouse gases. But on a warming planet, he is on the verge of becoming a climate refugee.
In the past 10 years, the farmer has had to tear down and move his tin-and-bamboo house five times to escape the encroaching waters of the huge Jamuna River, swollen by severe monsoon downpours and greater glacier melt in the Himalayas.
Now the last of his land is gone, and Ali squats on a precarious piece of government-owned riverbank _ the only ground available _ knowing the river will ...