Climate Change and the Bay of Bengal: Evolving Geographies of Fear and Hope
Nihit Goyal
Chaturvedi and Sakhuja argue that due to the multiscalar, transborder Due to the multiscalar, challenge posed by climate change, transborder challenge traditional state-centric notions of security posed by climate change, and sovereignty, while not obsolete, are losing relevance. The authors posit traditional state-centric that state-centric, military-strategic notions of security responses to climate change will result in and sovereignty, ‘geographies of fear’ in the Bay of Bengal. Instead, they call for reconceptualization while not obsolete, of the Bay of Bengal as a semi-enclosed are losing relevance. sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which demands regional cooperation from states bordering an enclosed or semi-enclosed sea. According to the authors, this vision of the bay, anchored in ‘geographies of hope’, can lead to a scenario in which the bordering states respond to the opportunities and threats posed by climate change in a ‘proactive, pre-emptive, and humane’ manner. The book is reasonably comprehensive in its scope, covering geographies, climate impacts, national response strategies, and regional organizations concerning the Bay of Bengal. It draws on scholarly literature, relevant documents, and speeches from world leaders to present its case. The authors use numerous examples to illustrate the existing vulnerabilities and challenges posed by climate change in the Bay of Bengal ecosystem. Further, the argument is taken to its logical conclusion by making specific recommendations for promoting regional cooperation in the Bay of Bengal. The intended audiences of the book are practitioners and scholars in the field of geopolitics, especially those with an interest in the bay or in climate change. While the book’s message is equally relevant for those in the field of climate policy, its slightly technical style may reduce accessibility for a wider audience. The six chapters of the book (apart from the conclusion) build the argument gradually. The introductory chapter analyzes the prevailing metanarratives of climate change and finds that they privilege the global and local scales over the regional and the local in an effort at consensus building, even though climate change is multiscalar and considerable uncertainty is associated with its complex spatio-temporal pattern. Positioning the Bay of Bengal as a semi-enclosed sea under UNCLOS III, the chapter makes a case for regional cooperation amongst its littoral states to ensure ‘human security’ during this transition. The second chapter maps the Bay of Bengal, describing the complex ecosystem of geography, topography, rivers, deltas, seasons, marine life, people, and institutions in which it is embedded. The communities of this region depend heavily on their ecosystem, relying primarily on fishing, forestry, offshore oil and gas exploration, and tourism for livelihoods. The chapter finds that communities of the bay are exposed to coastal erosion, river flooding, and tropical cyclone activity, which cause significant loss of lives and livelihoods. For example, though Bangladesh and India experience only 5 percent of the tropical cyclones in the world, they account for 76 percent of the deaths due to cyclones (53 percent and 23 percent, 48
Asian Journal of Public Affairs | 2016