A teacher explain her students about the effects of climate change during a visit to Science Express, a specially designed train which exhibits images, videos and multimedia presentations about research in science and technology during its halt in Bangalore, India, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009. Environmental activists in Asia literally have beaten the drum to pressure world leaders to reach a deal at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen to combat global warming. A week of talks among 192 countries has produced a draft agreement on climate change but without firm figures on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

According to a report published by Cyberpresse, by century's end, 200 million to one billion people could be forced to leave their homes because of global warming. These people are referred to as 'climate refugees'. What is happening in Bangladesh, for instance, is a situation of urgency, severity and nothing short of a global phenomenon. These very refugees could be forgotten by the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Seventeen year old Kajal Rani Mondol speaks almost timidly, with her eyes fixed to the floor. This is the same girl who has just spent the last two hours on stage, haranguing the audience with a loud speaker. With her troupe of actors and musicians, she travels the southwest region of Bangladesh in an effort to explain to villagers the reasons for the destructions of the levees built to protect against high tides and storms. And also, why they have gone from six seasons per year to three.

And that is how the audience appalled,  discovers, global warming, its distant origin, its many consequences, most importantly, its irreversibility.

The destruction of the huge neighboring mangrove, called the Sudarbans, is the last act of a tragedy that began 20 years ago with increasing frequency and magnitude of tidal waves. Moreover, the mangrove is a natural barrier against cyclones and waves brought on by the Bay of Bengal. People tried to adapt by converting their rice fields into shrimp farms.

The change was not without consequences on the environment and health of the inhabitants. If people have not yet left in droves, it is in large part due to timber resources, game, honey and fish from the mangrove. But with poachers increasing in number each year, they contribute to the weakening of a unique natural environment which is endangered by rising sea levels.

The point of no return is not that far off: Bangladesh is already very densely populated, and its climate refugees are seeking to flee outside the country. In anticipation of such migratory practices, India and Myanmar, its only immediate neighbors, have already hermetically sealed their borders.

Still not evident, by the middle of the century, this global crisis could lead to the forced displacement of hundreds of millions of people and the disappearance of many indigenous cultures and languages.

It was only last May, on the 25th, that the Aila cyclone devastated Bangladesh.