The 2011 floods
A report, issued this Wednesday by the World Bank, paints a bleak picture for the near future of Southeast Asia, and Bangkok in particular.
According to the document, the floods Bangkok endured in 2011 were but a prelude to the havoc that the city will soon see, thanks to rising sea levels and tropical storms of increased severity. Among the Bank’s prognostications was the prediction that “major portions” of Bangkok would be underwater by 2030. Future rainy seasons are liable to be less predictable, and downpour resulting from their storms is likely to do as much harm (in the form of floods and soil erosion) as it does good.
Whereas world leaders have agreed to try and curb greenhouse gas emissions in order to hold the world’s increase in temperature to a (somewhat) manageable 2-degrees Celsius within the next 100 years, the World Bank is speculating that at current rates of consumption, the planet’s temperature is likely to rise to double that amount.
In response to this temperature increase, the Bank is investing billions in bolstering infrastructure in the areas most vulnerable to climate change – Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s vice president for the environment and sustainable development, told the Washington Post that the results of climate change threaten to undo 20 years of economic development in locations such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Between 2011 and 2012, the Bank doubled its investment toward helping developing nations combat climate change.
With any luck, Bangkok will wind up on the receiving end of some of these funds, but, as recent events have demonstrated, the city is a slow learner when it comes to retrofitting its inadequate infrastructure.
Photo: Byron Perry
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