Portraits of the climate migrants. This image shows each climate migrant’s face, which is not visible by the number on the data.
A woman comes back from a public water place with a natural pond. Many women and girls engage in this daily work every morning, even though it is hard to get fresh water in Gabura Union due to rising salinity levels in water resources.
An elderly man carries straw, Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Depopulation and an aging workforce, caused by the influx of younger generations associated with climate change into urban areas, have become new problems in rural areas of Bangladesh.
View of the inland of Gabura Union, Bangladesh, November 2021. Salinity intrusion caused by storms, floods, or rising water levels into soil and water resources makes it nearly impossible to grow plants in such a place, even though many people in rural areas in Bangladesh depend on rice production.
Men flatten the road to sandbag a bank, Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Cyclones, floods, and landslides often destroy many riverside roads in the Gabura Union. Therefore, people repeatedly repair roads whenever they collapse.
A fisherwoman catches small fish near the sandbags that have gradually sunken into the river due to rising water levels and intensifying storm surges caused by cyclones, Gabura Union, Bangladesh. These sandbags have not fulfilled their role due to the impacts of intensifying and frequent storm surges and rising water levels caused by tropical cyclones, even though they were constructed to protect residents from such natural disasters.
A fisherwoman who looks for places that can catch fish or shrimp in the pond.
Boys play near a house that has been broken by 2009 cyclone in Gabura Union, Bangladesh.
A young herdsman tends scrawny cattle after a massive flood in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Cattle in low-lying areas like Sylhet, one of Bangladesh's most flood-prone regions, often suffer from severe food shortages due to the loss of edible grass resulting from the flooding of grass fields after floods and cyclones.
Two women who walk on sandbags are pilled up in Gabua Union, November 2021. This road along the river collapsed because of rising water levels and river erosion. Residents of Gabura Union need to go to their destination on foot because it is difficult to use vehicles on sandbags.
A boy rows a wooden boat in the mangrove forest in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. This mangrove forest safeguards the residents of Gabura Union from natural disasters, including cyclones and storm surges. However, it has gradually diminished due to the impacts of intensifying cyclones and salinity intrusion.
Women wait for a boat to cross the river by the eroded riverbank in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Many places located near the river in Bangladesh have gradually been eroded by rising water levels and floods.
A man looks after his baby by the Kholpetua River.
Fishermen who fish on the Kholpetua River in Gabura Union, Bangladesh, November 2021. Such a peaceful scenery may be lost by the impacts of climate change in the not-too-distant future.
Men stay in the seawater near the breakwater under construction in Bohol Island, the Philippines. This area was severely damaged by Super Typhoon Rai (Odette) in 2021.
A boy relaxes on a hummock in a submerged house on Binuangan Island, Manila. Binuangan, located on Manila Bay, is one of the most vulnerable places to the impacts of rising sea levels and intensifying storm surges. Manila risks submersion due to ground subsidence caused by excessive groundwater pumping, rising sea levels caused by global warming, and intensifying storm surges. Therefore, flooding into houses happens every day at high tide time.
A girl looks outside the house in the rain in Binuangan Island, Manila, Philippines. Some people living on the outskirts of Manila face the crisis of submersion by subsidence caused by groundwater pumping and rising sea levels caused by tropical cyclones.
The boys play around a ramshackle house in Batasan Island, the Philippines. Batasan Island is among the areas most affected by rising sea levels. It is predicted to sink into the sea due to ground subsidence caused by the 2013 earthquake and storm surges caused by intensifying cyclones in the future.
The family has a peaceful time near the barricade that is under construction to protect residents from high waves in Bohol Island, the Philippines. This area was one of the most damaged places by Super Typhoon Rai (Odette) in 2021. Above all, some people living in coastal zones have lost their houses and property and have been forced to leave their hometowns.
A climate migrant boy who evacuated from the south coastal area due to river erosion sleeps in the bush near Dhaka station, Bangladesh. Dhaka is one of the most overpopulated cities and has many orphans from rural areas for various climate change reasons. Some orphans stay overnight in places such as stations, ferry terminals, roadsides, or under elevated tracks without anyone’s protection.
A climate migrant boy sleeps beneath the station passageway to shelter himself from the rainstorm. Many climate migrants live around the station in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Most pedestrians pass through the passageway without paying attention to people like the boy because this scenery is frequently seen around the station.
Boys who evacuated from various local areas due to natural disasters inhale solution gum. They live with other children who are living on the roadside and often fall into a chemical addiction.
The dump site in Dhaka. Some climate migrants work in dumpsites to earn daily money.
The boys play on garbage floating on the river by the Korail slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 2024. More than 200,000 residents have lived in this slum, and many climate migrants who migrated from various areas such as Barisal, Bhola, Kuakata, or Chandpur to seek a stable, safe, and secure life are leading a life permanently or temporarily without an adequate subsidy from the government.
“The chronicle of us” is a photo story of the people living in the changing world by the impacts of climate change as one of the histories of the 21st century.
The 20th century is referred to as "the Century of Refugees," with a significant number of people compelled to leave their homes due to conflicts, genocide, racial discrimination, political persecution, ideological oppression, or religious persecution.
Since the beginning of this century, not only conflict but also irregular and sudden-onset hazards, such as intensifying cyclones, storms, floods, and heatwaves caused by global warming and abnormal weather events, besides slow-onset hazards such as sea-level rise and drought, have spurred the outbreak of migrants worldwide.
People who are forced to leave their original places of residence due to the impacts of climate change are referred to as 'climate migrants' or 'environmental migrants.'
This issue presents one of the most significant challenges for humanity, as there is concern that the number of climate migrants will rapidly increase and spread worldwide during this century.
According to the World Bank, the number of climate migrants is estimated to reach 216 million people worldwide by 2050.
Whereas such mass migration, people willingly continue to live peacefully with the impacts of climate change in their hometowns or cannot leave due to economic factors, family ties, connections to their ethnic groups, or traditional customs, despite ongoing land loss and deteriorating living conditions.
To deeply understand this issue, it is essential to know at first what is happening on the frontlines of the climate crisis, how its impacts have altered people’s lives, and how they adapt to changes in their living environments while striving to seek a safe and secure life.
Human beings have prospered in correspondence with environmental change while repeating mass migrations on several occasions in history.
The record of endless migration due to the increasingly exacerbated impacts of climate change worldwide will create our future history.
This time, I will tell the story through photographs that capture the characteristics of climate change and the portraits of climate migrants in South- southeast Asian countries and the Pacific regions as the first chapter of this project, which consists of six chapters.
As characteristics of climate change in these regions, frequent cyclones, intensifying storms, and severe and massive floods during the monsoon season severely impact rural people who depend especially on agriculture or fisheries in low-lying coastal or riverine zones.
In addition, several islands in the archipelago, including the Philippines, Fiji, Kiribati, and Tuvalu, besides some coastal regions of Bangladesh and India, which are along the Bay of Bengal, are predicted to sink into the sea in the not-too-distant future due to rising sea levels, coastal erosion by the effects of cyclones that will occur more frequently.
Rapid urbanization caused by the influx of climate migrants is also one of the characteristics of the climate change effects in South-southeast Asia and the Pacific regions.
This phenomenon exacerbates daily challenges, causing a lack of employment opportunities, reducing human security, increasing the number of orphans, raising the crime rate and environmental degradation, and heightening tensions between local and migrant populations due to accepting migrants remaining ill-preparedness in providing social services and sufficient compensation for climate migrants.
I aim to tell one of our stories of the 21st century through this project that captured fragments of histories of the people worldwide who have been inflicted great burdens by the impacts of climate change.