Page 120 - BB_Textbook
P. 120

Step Three. Conduct a Pair, Square, Share exercise in class after everyone has listened to the parable. During your class exercise, keep good notes and begin thinking about what you might journal at the end of this chapter.
“Will Climate Change Sink the Mekong Delta?”
David Brown, Pacific Standard (20 October 2016). Adapted from the original.
Step One. Listen to this recording and follow along with the text. Be prepared to identify the author’s main points, and write down a response to the current threats to the Delta.
Neuroscientists say that our human brains are not “wired” to respond to “large, complex, slow-moving threats.” We are wired to handle immediate threat, and the options are “fight, flight, or fright.” But something that takes so long to emerge draws apathy, not action.
So it is in the Mekong Delta, home to one-fifth of Vietnam’s population. It is gravely threatened by climate change and human-driven catastrophe, but there seems to be little sense of urgency. Because the stakes are so high, there will be a growing catastrophe if knowledge, skills, and action do not come into focus.
The Mekong Delta’s average elevation is less than two meters above sea level. The annual flooding through an extensive network of canals, dams, and sluices produces abundant fruit, coconuts, river fish, and shrimp. Chinese and French colonizers tamed the wild delta over the course of centuries. Tens of thousands of laborers dug the canals and drainage ditches. In later decades, machinery accelerated the process, even as war retarded the progress of the Delta.
After the American War, the 1986 Đổi Mới renovation policies funded repair and extension of the Delta’s water management infrastructure. With high-yielding rice
varieties, expanding paddy, emphasis on double and triple cropping, and eventual reintegration into global trade, the Delta’s economy enjoyed prosperity.
But is this prosperity of the last thirty years sustainable?
At Can Tho University, the DRAGON (Delta Research and Global Observation Network) Institute examines a century’s worth of Delta hydrological and climate data. The findings of the Institute are that no delta area anywhere is more vulnerable than the Mekong estuary to the advent of climate change.
The anticipated one-meter sea level rise by the end of the 21st Century could displace five million people. If the sea rises two meters, then some 75% of the Delta’s 18 million residents will be forced to move. Moreover, uneven rainfall and the effect of Chinese dams are altering the natural process of flooding, transportation, and salination. Looking ahead, rice yields will be adversely affected as temperature rise; salty tidal waters will push further upstream and
ruin fertile paddy; riverbanks will erode; and farmers will likely leave the Delta to seek factory and construction jobs elsewhere.
1. One main point of the author is: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
2. Another main point of the author is: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
  120 CHAPTER 2 | CLIMATE
BENDING BAMBOO


















































































   118   119   120   121   122