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100-Year Storms Now Expected at Least Once a Decade in Bangladesh, Study Finds

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05 May, 2025

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

What once were hundred-year extreme storms in Bangladesh could now strike the country once a decade or more due to climate change, a recent study from MIT shows.

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated places on Earth, with more than 170 million people living in an area about the size of New York state. Much of the country is made up by the huge, low-lying Ganges Delta, making it especially susceptible to flooding and extreme weather from climate change.

The study found that the “return period,” or the amount of time between these massive storms, is increasing dramatically due to climate change and that these massive storms will become more devastating, with some areas of Bangladesh potentially seeing the tide from these storms rise by more than a meter in height. 

Sai Ravela, one of the study’s authors and principal research scientist for Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at MIT, told EcoWatch that this is a first-of-its-kind study for Bangladesh that models future climate scenarios. 

The researchers used complex computer models capable of quickly simulating tens of thousands of simulations to model storm surges, tides, sea level rise and cyclones under different warming scenarios.

“The results are quite stark. No matter where you look, whichever scenario you look at. And by the by the end of the century, if you look at what a 100-year return period looks like in future climate versus present climate, you see an order of magnitude change. 100-year return periods have become 10 years,” Ravela said.

In addition to the low-lying nature of the country, Bangladesh has more than 100 polders, or low-lying land area, which were built about 60 years ago to combat coastal flooding and salinity (saltwater) intrusion into crops. But these polders might not be the best solution.

As climate change worsens, there is also an increasing overlap between the late monsoon season, which occurs between June and October, and the cyclone season. “This has never happened before,” Ravela said. “I mean, you never see cyclones in the monsoon season. Why would you?”

People wade through floodwaters in Feni, southeastern Bangladesh on Aug. 24, 2024. Sultan Mahmud Mukut / Drik / Getty Images

Because the monsoon season is worsening and lengthening, and the ocean continues to warm, the country will see these two seasons increasingly overlap. 

The study also suggests that back-to-back cyclones are becoming increasingly likely. 

“What’s happening is that outside the polder, where the channels and rivers are, there’s silt that’s getting deposited. So the river bed is rising, the land inside the polar is sinking. So when there’s a flooding event, there’s a huge amount of water that’s deposited,” Ravela said. 

He explained that because certain pieces of infrastructure, like pumps and sluice gates, don’t have the proper capacity to operate under these storms, there’s an enormous amount of saltwater deposited, salinating the soils and threatening agriculture as a result.

“And in this comes a cyclone. And what the cyclone does is it generates an enormous amount of strong tide, and the tidal amplification takes that water much further inland because of the way the river bed is, and it deposits a whole bunch of saline water inside these polders… And the economy just upends completely. [You] go from agriculture to no agriculture after just one cyclone. It takes eight years for that salinity to leech.”

Ravela said that one of the uses for the research is to understand which policies would help the country adapt to these storms. The polders, for example, are about four to five meters, which he said is not enough to compare these storms. 

“It’s a controversial point, but do you even need the polders? Are they doing any good? Why wouldn’t we just, for example, remove the poulders and let it flood?” Ravela said. “But along with that flood comes so much sediment that it makes it very appealing to grow for part of the year on it. So there are other sustainable strategies that are born out of nature-based solutions, natural wisdom… I mean it’s unbelievable how much technology we dump without really thinking through it.”

Because the salinity renders cropland unusable, like in southwest Bangladesh, many people turn to shrimp farming, Ravela said. “Everybody tries to be a shrimp farmer. But the problem with shrimp farming is it’s so capital intensive that people who own their land before doing farming — and you need large pieces of land to do shrimp farming — turn to shrimp farming, and they become indentured laborers in their own farms, because these farms are now owned by somebody outside putting in a lot of money, and then that loss of ownership is a part of their story.”

Solving creeping problems like salinization likely requires broader governmental action, like negotiating with India to allow for more freshwater to flow into Bangladesh, he said.

With so many people facing natural disasters and the loss of their land and livelihood, many are fleeing. But as one goes farther north and away from the coast, the threat of salinization diminishes, although the risk of intense storms is still present. In these middle areas, Ravela explained, people are implementing agrivoltaics, aquaculture or even going back to rice farming as the soil in certain areas, like the southwest, is leeching away salt. 

Other ways Bangladesh can prepare for these storms, he said, are by embracing old ways of agriculture. “Eight months out of the year, you grow. Four months out of the year, you let it flood, and it brings a fertile soil and the water recedes, and you can live the rest. You put your house on stilts and you migrate seasonally.  You can slow down the storm tide. For every kilometer, you can drop a meter. And there are other benefits from the perspective of biodiversity and conservation that also that brings in,” Ravela said.

“Insofar as extreme events are concerned [like] the episodic modification of the soil properties, I think we can have a handle on that in this vulnerable mid portion north of Gabura, but South of safe zones like Keshabpur and Jessore.”

The post 100-Year Storms Now Expected at Least Once a Decade in Bangladesh, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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