Here we have cult science in action: they take something real and link it to their doomsday cult. The only thing bizarre is that these people are more nuts than Scientology, than Jim Jones, than Heaven’s Gate
The bizarre link between rising sea levels and complications in pregnancy
Today, 30-year-old garment factory worker Khadiza Akhter lives in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Her small concrete house is clean and organized. Green shutters frame the windows, and clothes hang on lines outside her front door. A water spigot sticks out of the concrete next to the drying laundry, and the turn of a white plastic knob is all it takes for clear, clean water to rush out. Akhter calls it “a blessing of God.”
Akhter grew up some 180 miles south of Savar, in Satkhira — a district home to 2.2 million people on a river delta where, in recent decades, fresh water has become scarce. As sea levels rise, rivers dry up, and cyclones become more severe, Satkhira and the other low-lying districts that surround it have been among the first in the world to experience the sting of climate change-driven saltwater intrusion — the creep of seawater inland.
The memory of drinking water tainted with salt is burned into Akhter’s mind. “It felt like swallowing needles,” she told Grist and Vox in Bengali. “It doesn’t quench your thirst.” The water was so salty Akhter couldn’t properly clean herself with it. The sodium in the water prevented soap from forming bubbles and left powdery streaks on her skin as it dried. Her hair fell out, and she itched all over.
They always have to have a story of woe, eh? If she lives that far south of Savar, then she’s on the Bay Of Bengal, and, yeah, the seas are slowly rising. That’s what happens during a Holocene warm period. And an Interglacial period.
Studies have shown that saltwater consumption has negative, long-lasting effects on nearly every stage of a woman’s reproductive cycle, from menstruation to birth. Akhter knew that if she stayed in Satkhira and started a family of her own there, she’d be putting herself in real danger. She’s not the only person in her region to leave in search of cleaner water. Millions of Bangladeshis have been internally displaced by flooding in the past decade, and experts say saltwater intrusion is one of the factors driving migration from rural regions of Bangladesh to urban centers.
Yet, roughly 40% of the world’s population lives within 100KM of an ocean. They want to live near the ocean. And no one has whined about it. And people still have babies living near the oceans. In 3rd world nations people try to live near the oceans so they can catch seafood.
As usual, it is a long, long, long, boring Vox piece, which misses that instead of implementing climate cult initiatives, we could help them with desalination.
Read: There’s A Bizarre Link Between Pregnancy And Climate Doom Or Something »
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