The Changing Earth - Climate Refugees? The Sundarbans & Oceania

Climate change will affect people in many ways.

 Sea levels are rising more than twice as fast as the global average in the Sunderbans.
The Sundarbans are a low-lying delta region made up of 200 small islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Around 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis live in the Sundarbans.  
Scientists predict much of the region could be underwater in 15 to 25 years, forcing the largest ever human migration in history.
A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London found the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 metres a year.

Oceania is a region made up of thousands of islands throughout the Central and South Pacific Ocean. It includes Australia, the smallest continent in terms of total land area.

 Many of the nations in Oceania are Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Many scientists say that Oceania is more vulnerable than most parts of the Earth to climate change, because of its climate and geography. 

 The heavily coastal populations of the continent’s small islands are vulnerable to flooding and erosion because of sea level rise. 

 Fiji’s shoreline has been receding about 15 centimetres per year over the last 90 years.

 Samoa has lost about half a metre per year during that same time span. 

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