Global warming and Bangladesh - we found another myth

Another big chunk falls out of the United Nations' wall. The IPCC's report is being found to be based, not on top-quality peer-reviewed research, but on anecdotes, students' term papers and popular press accounts. Bangladesh is said to be in trouble. Wrong! Investors Business Daily

According to the 2007 report, melting glaciers and polar ice would lead to rising sea levels and just a three-foot rise would flood 17% of the low-lying country of Bangladesh by 2050 and create 20 million refugees. Now comes a study from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) that says the IPCC forgot to factor in the 1 billion tons of sediment carried by Himalayan rivers such as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra into Bangladesh every year. CEGIS director Maminul Haque Sarker told AFP that "studies on the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, including those quoted by the IPCC, did not consider the role of sediment in the growth and adjustment process of the country's coast and rivers to the sea level rise." Even if sea levels rose according to IPCC predictions, Sarker says, natural sediment deposits would cancel the effect of any rise.

They forgot the dirt. The article goes on to cite evidence that the sea level has not risen during the past 50 years.