Military Leaders Urge South Asian Countries to Put Aside Animosities in Face of Common Climate Threat

Jul 6, 2016 | Sreya Panuganti
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Despite a long history of confrontation and simmering tensions, three senior retired military leaders from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India urge the nations of South Asia to unite around a common rising threat in a new report.

Lt. General Tariq Waseem Ghazi of Pakistan, Maj. General A.N.M. Muniruzzaman of Bangladesh, and Air Marshall A.K. Singh of India, members of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change, write that India’s nearly two-year-old drought is just the “first hint” of destabilizing climate challenges to come.

The authors warn that social and economic changes driven by competition over rapidly depleting natural resources will lead to forced displacement across South Asia. Heavy flooding led to the movement of 1.5 million people within India and more than 20 million people within Pakistan in 2010. The report states that climate change could bring 62 million people below the extreme poverty line in South Asia by 2030.