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Article: Crowded house: Bangladesh's agonizing human problems are caused, in part, by its incredible population density.
- Article from:
- E Magazine
- Article date:
- January 1, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Earth Action Network, Inc. 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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The most densely populated nation on Earth is not Japan or China, it's Bangladesh, a country the size of Wisconsin but with half the population of the U.S. As the world's population increases geometrically, from 1.3 billion 80 years ago to 5.6 billion now and a projected 13 billion by 2040, Bangladesh makes for a sobering case study.
In the Bangladeshi village of Dhangmari, men check their nets in the Pusur River. Dhangmari is a small coastal fishing community at the edge of the greatest remaining stand of mangrove forests in the world, the Sundarbans. The men gather in bucketfuls of finger-sized fish. They will keep every one. The women cook in their bamboo shelters ...