Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to droughts, floods, erosions, and cyclones, Bangladesh has long been the recipient of international development funds earmarked for coping with climate change. Flawed assumptions that attribute causality solely to climate change have promoted unsustainable infrastructure such as "flood-protection" embankments. Furthermore, brackish aquaculture and high-yielding agriculture produce unintended environmental effects and further weaken livelihood capacities. At the same time, this focus on climate change adaptation diverts attention away from coastal vulnerabilities caused by underemployment, microcredit-related indebtedness, and lack of public health and educational infrastructure.
Unpacking the complexities of environmental degradation and local gendered livelihood concerns often neglected in meta-narratives of climate change, Misreading the Bengal Delta reveals that development interventions have not only contributed to but exacerbated Bangladesh's future climatic vulnerability. Combining detailed environmental history with ethnography engaging with multiple, conflicting perspectives, from poor rural coastal populations to middle-class bureaucrats, researchers, development consultants, and NGO staff, this book shows how misreading climate change has served as justification for development projects in the Global South that fail to engage with the actual needs of the communities they are intended to help.
Synopsis
Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749624
Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change adaptation. Yet, to what extent do adaptation projects address local needs and concerns? Combining environmental history and ethnographic fieldwork with development professionals, rural farmers, and landless women, Misreading the Bengal Delta critiques development narratives of Bangladesh as a ?climate change victim.? It examines how development actors repackage colonial-era modernizing projects, which have caused severe environmental effects, as climate-adaptation solutions. Seawalls meant to mitigate against cyclones and rising sea levels instead silt up waterways and induce drainage-related flooding. Other adaptation projects, from saline aquaculture to high-yield agriculture, threaten soil fertility, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Bangladesh's environmental crisis goes beyond climate change, extending to coastal vulnerabilities that are entwined with underemployment, debt, and the lack of universal healthcare.
This timely book analyzes how development actors create flawed causal narratives linking their interventions in the environment and society of the Global South to climate change. Ultimately, such misreadings risk exacerbating climatic threats and structural inequalities.
Misreading the Bengal Delta is available in an open access edition through the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Synopsis
Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change adaptation. Yet to what extent do adaptation projects address local needs and concerns? Combining environmental history and ethnographic fieldwork with development professionals, rural farmers, and landless women, Misreading the Bengal Delta critiques development narratives of Bangladesh as a climate change victim. It examines how development actors repackage colonial-era modernizing projects, which have caused severe environmental effects, as climate-adaptation solutions. Seawalls meant to mitigate against cyclones and rising sea levels instead silt up waterways and induce drainage-related flooding. Other adaptation projects, from saline aquaculture to high-yield agriculture, threaten soil fertility, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Bangladesh's environmental crisis goes beyond climate change, extending to coastal vulnerabilities that are entwined with underemployment, debt, and the lack of universal healthcare.
This timely book analyzes how development actors create flawed causal narratives linking their interventions in the environment and society of the Global South to climate change. Ultimately, such misreadings risk exacerbating climatic threats and structural inequalities.
Misreading the Bengal Delta is available in an open access edition through the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749624