Desk
Here is an illustration of the connection among wars, sea-level rise and disappearance of coastal areas into water:
The Syrian regime’s use of barrel and chemical bombs on civilian targets has been, in effect, releasing the harmful gases into the air, causing rise in temperatures. Similarly, harmful gases are being released into the air by the artillery firing and missile attacks in Yemen and Ukraine, which too causes rise in temperature. The temperature rise means the atmosphere becomes increasingly warmer.
This warming atmosphere melts the mountain ice and polar glaciers in the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Himalayas and elsewhere. Ice and glaciers turn into water — which then flows into the seas and oceans of the world, raising the average global sea level.
This rise in the sea level makes the coastal landmass comprising Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand and extremely vulnerable.
Already Bangkok (Thailand) has been sinking 10 centimetres every year, placing the city at risk of submerging into the sea within a matter of few decades. There is the possibility that 6-8% of ‘flood-prone’ Bangladesh may be submerged under water by 2030. As for Myanmar, a substantial portion of the country’s coastal areas is predicted to be submerged under water by 2050.
German scholars from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PICIR) warned that if incentives of the global warming are not reduced immediately worldwide, a series of unstoppable events will be triggered, causing dramatic rise in sea-levels and total annihilation of coastal areas inhabited by millions of people.
According to international affairs columnist Bahauddin Foizee, taking the PICIR’s warning into consideration, it may well be suggested that the countries, which are the major victims of environmental deterioration, should make sure that the increasing trend of worldwide wars and conflicts is reduced, since these wars and conflicts are the major incentives of global warming.
Failing to do so would mean that millions of coastal inhabitants living in the coastal areas around the globe could face a survival threat.
Environment Observer 