One degree that changed everything: Rethinking our cities, restoring our seas A couple of months ago, while speaking at a public event, I posed a simple question to the audience. “How much cooler do you think Bangladesh was two decades ago?” A few participants confidently replied, “Five degrees Celsius.” Others went even further and suggested “Ten degrees.” When I revealed that Bangladesh’s average temperature has increased by roughly one degree Celsius over the last five decades, the room fell silent. —One degree? Most people could hardly believe it. Yet that single degree has altered our lives so profoundly that many of us genuinely feel as though the Bangladesh of our childhood was five or even ten degrees cooler. The scorching afternoons, sleepless summer nights, prolonged heatwaves, erratic rainfall, flash floods, waterlogging, and shifting seasons have become part of our everyday reality. This is perhaps the greatest misconception about climate change. We often assume that a one-degree increase is insignificant. But when that increase occurs across an entire country, year after year, it fundamentally changes ecosystems, weather patterns, agriculture, public health, and the way we live. If one degree can create such disruption, imagine what lies ahead if we fail to act. The Urbanization Challenge Bangladesh is undergoing one of the fastest urban transformations in its history. Today, nearly one-third of the country’s population lives in urban areas, and this figure continues to rise steadily. Cities are expanding, new townships are emerging, and millions of people are migrating from rural areas in search of economic opportunities. Urbanization is neither a problem nor something to be feared. Throughout history, cities have served as engines of economic growth, innovation, education, and social progress. The real question is not whether we urbanize, but how we urbanize. Globally, cities consume nearly three-quarters of the world’s