Embargoed until 0001 09 November BST 2009
Gabura - From Daily Life to Disaster: Oxfam presents extraordinary interactive online documentary on impact of climate change in Bangladesh
Today Oxfam launches a landmark online interactive documentary to expose the tragic impact of climate change on a small village in Bangladesh and the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Aila on the community earlier this year.
Gabura: From Daily Life to Disaster, released in partnership with the Guardian newspaper, enables the audience to experience stories from all walks of life in the small community of Gabura before and after the cyclone hit the area.
Featuring extraordinary footage of the cyclone’s trail of destruction - the e-documentary allows the audience to chose its own journey through the community and to be immersed in the lives of local residents.
The work captures the shocking moment when Cyclone Aila swept over the region in May this year, killing hundreds and causing chaos and devastation for the community.
It also shows the stark reality of climate change and the impact is has had on the lives of residents. From widows whose husbands were killed by starving tigers, to farmers girls blighted with skin diseases by increasing salt levels in the water, the people’s voices are captured in a unique way.
Sandhya Suri, director of Gabura: From Daily Life to Disaster, said: “This explorable documentary bears witness to the devastation wreaked by one catastrophic event and the everyday disasters created by climate change in a new and innovative format.”
“It also provides a rare, visceral experience of what it is like for a small impoverished community to suffer a disaster - from the hours before the cyclone hits, to the horrific impact itself and its devastating aftermath.”
Oxfam is launching the e-documentary ahead of crucial UN talks on climate change in Copenhagen in December.
The charity is calling on the world’s most powerful leaders to negotiate a deal that prevents dangerous global temperature rises and protects the world’s poor, who all too often bear the brunt of climate change’s deadly impact but are least responsible for causing it.
It also comes as Oxfam is encouraging people to join the UK’s biggest ever climate change march, called The Wave, in London and Glasgow on December 5 to demand that the UK government pushes for the right deal at Copenhagen.
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive, said: “With this remarkable online documentary, Oxfam has broken new ground to tell the world that climate change is real, it costs lives, and that we can help to combat its effects.
“But while the medium is different our message remains the same, that now more than ever we need a deal at Copenhagen to aid those affected by climate change, and we need the public to help make it happen.”
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For more information, images, video footage and interviews, contact Sarah Brown in the Oxfam media unit at +44 (0) 1865 472 237 or +44 (0) 7920 274 063. E-mail: sabrown@oxfam.org.uk
The documentary will be found after launch at:
www.oxfam.org.uk/gabura and on the Guardian website.
High-resolution images and stills from the documentary can be downloaded from here: (please credit EPA/Abir Abdullah):
http://wordsandpictures.oxfam.org.uk/?c=5849&k=95c094457f
Note to editors
· According to science reports presented at the climate summit in Copenhagen earlier this year:
- 26 million people have already been displaced because of climate change and
- 200 million people may be on the move each year by 2050 because of hunger, environmental degradation and loss of land.
· 375 million people may be affected by climate-related disasters by 2015 - Oxfam research
· $150bn is about the same amount that was spent on bailing out AIG during the financial turmoil last year
Oxfam’s climate change campaign is calling for:
- Rich countries to lead on cutting global emissions by 40% on 1990 levels by 2020
- Rich countries to commit to $50bn a year in adaptation funding so that poor communities can protect themselves from the effects of climate change
- Rich countries to help developing countries cut their own emissions by committing $100bn a year
BANGLADESH
· 80% of the landmass of the country is floodplain
· Population density is 1045/km sq, the 11th highest in the world
· Population is 149m, projected to grow to 231m by 2050
· It has less than 10% of South Asian land mass but channels more than 90% of South Asian water to the Bay of Bengal
Average carbon emissions - US: 20 tonnes; UK: 9 tonnes; Bangladesh: 0.3 tonnes
Tags: Bangladesh, Barabara Stocking, climate change, cyclone aila, Gabura, Oxfam
