Survival in the world's most vulnerable climate

Asma doesn't know much about global warming but she knows what it is like to burn her fingers every day making bangles for other people to wear. The 10-year-old was sent to work after flooding forced her family to move from a low-lying island on the Ganges to the slums of Dhaka.

Sosi hasn't heard of climate change either, but he can tell you what it is like to lose everything in a terrifying torrent of water. And Hasina, who is living on one meal a day after her home was destroyed in a cyclone, just wants to know that she will be able to feed her baby tomorrow.

These Bangladeshis are living on the margins, their aim not much more than survival, yet they and others like them will be the centre of attention as world leaders meet in Copenhagen to discuss climate change.

Poverty, weak government and lack of resources are behind many of the problems of Bangladesh and other developing countries. On top of that, Bangladesh lies on the Ganges delta and has always suffered floods. But, according to scientists, charities and non-governmental organisations, global warming is set to make life significantly worse for millions of people in similar situations around the world.

In Bangladesh, aid workers describe climate change as a fact of everyday life, "like the traffic in London". The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the region is the most vulnerable to global warming and the World Bank has described Bangladesh as the most "vulnerable climate in the world".

Last week, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research warned that by 2100, as polar ice melts, sea levels will rise by almost 1.4m. This is more than double previous estimates, and for Bangladesh it could be catastrophic.

Britain's Department for International Development has warned that a fifth of Bangladesh could disappear if sea levels rise by more than one metre.

This would destroy crops and livestock, spread disease and leave an estimated 30 million people homeless.

Sitting outside her makeshift bamboo hut, Hasina Begum, 23, says she survives on one meal of rice and vegetables a day and is worried for her 2-year-old son, Mizan, who has already been to hospital with diarrhoea this year.

Children are also in danger of dysentery, mumps and scabies because of the living conditions.

Sosi Bhuson, 52, is the spokesman for the community. He says this used to be a "well-to-do" area, but the crops will fail this year and maybe even the year after that, because of the salinity in the soil.

The IPCC estimates that production of rice might drop by 8 per cent and of wheat by 32 per cent over the next 40 years, as temperatures rise in Bangladesh.

Inland, at the madrassa, the old men complain about the weather. But this is no small talk. They talk of catastrophe: the weather has turned against them, crops have failed and cows have stopped giving milk.

Their greatest fear now is that the community will die out; already, their grandchildren are leaving for the cities. Many of the families moving into the overcrowded streets of old Dhaka from flood-prone areas are forced to send their children to work in order to make enough to survive. Save the Children estimates that almost five million children, like Asma, are working in balloon factories, aluminium plants and chocolate factories.

Saleemul Huq, a member of the IPCC and adviser on climate change to the Bangladeshi government, admits there is a danger that all the world's problems are blamed on climate change. But he asks the sceptics to look at what is happening in Bangladesh - and to consider the thorny problem of "global justice".

Bangladeshis have one of the lowest carbon footprints per head in the world, at 1.1 tons a year, compared with 29 tons for the average American and 15 tons for Britons, yet they are suffering most from global warming.

"It is time for rich countries to accept their responsibilities in terms of reducing emissions and providing assistance to developing countries that did not cause the problem but are going to suffer the consequences," says Huq.

LIFE ON THE EDGE

* Bangladesh lies on the Ganges Delta and is prone to flooding.
* The region has been described as the most "climate-vulnerable in the world".
* A fifth of the country could disappear if sea levels rise by more than a metre.
* This would leave an estimated 30 million people homeless.
* Bangladeshis have one of the lowest carbon footprints per capita in the world.