The Chronicle of Us

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project © Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project © Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2021 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Documentary, Nature & Environment
  • Locations Bangladesh, Philippines

This "The Chronicle of Us" is an ongoing project that aims to document one of the 21st-century's histories through the photo stories of people living with various impacts of climate change and portraits of climate migrants.

“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 droughts, 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.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A woman came back from a public water place with a natural pond in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Many women and girls engage in this work every morning as part of their daily work because it is hard to get fresh water near their houses due to rising salinity levels in water resources caused by storm surges, cyclones, and floods in the inland Gabura Union.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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An elderly man brings much jute on his head, Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Depopulation and an aging workforce caused by the influx of younger generations associated with climate change to urban areas have become new problems in rural areas.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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View of the inland of Gabura Union, Bangladesh. 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.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Men flatten the road to sandbag a bank in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Cyclones, floods, and landslides often destroy many riverside roads in coastal regions. Therefore, people repeatedly repair roads whenever they collapse each time.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A fisherwoman catches small fish and shrimp near the sandbags that have gradually sunken into the river due to rising water levels and frequent and intense cyclones in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. These sandbags have not fulfilled their role even though they were constructed to protect residents against natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, storm surges, and rising water levels.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Siblings spend leisurely time in the house constructed on a fragile foundation in Gabura Union, Bangladesh.Many houses by the river of Gabura Union are made with stilt houses to measure against storm surges and floods.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A young herdsman tends scrawny cattle in Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is difficult to find grass for bait because Sylhet is one of the flood-prone areas, and many grass fields have been often submerged after floods.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A boy rows a wooden boat on the Kholpetua River in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Gabura Union is located near the huge mangrove forest called Sundarbans. This forest has gradually decreased due to salinity intrusion and repeated storms.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Two women who walk on sandbags are pilled up in Gabua Union, Bangladesh. This road along the river collapsed because of rising water levels, river erosion, and repeated storm surges. Residents of Gabura Union need to go to their destination on foot because it is difficult to use the vehicle on sandbags.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Women wait for a boat to cross the river by the eroded riverbank in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Some of the riverines of Bangladesh have gradually been eroded by rising water levels and floods.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Fishermen who fish on the Kholpetua River in Gabura Union, Bangladesh. Such a peaceful scenery may be lost by the impacts of climate change in the not-too-distant future.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Men staying in the seawater near the breakwater under construction at Bohol Island, the Philippines. This area was severely damaged by Super Typhoon Rai (Odette) in 2021. Bohol Island is frequently affected by weather-related hazards like storms, cyclones, and floods.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A boy watches a movie on a hammock at Nubiangan in Manila, Philippines. Nubiangan is one of the most affected zones by rising sea levels, floods, and storm surges. Therefore, Nubiangan is predicted to sink into the sea in the not-too-distant future.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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The boys play around a ramshackle house in Batasan Island, the Philippines. Batasan Island is one of the most affected places, and it is predicted to sink into the sea in the not-too-distant future. This house was damaged by the earthquake in 2013 and super typhoon Rai(Odette) in 2021.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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The family has a peaceful time near the barricade under construction to protect residents from storm surges and cyclones. This Island is 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, property, and life infrastructures, and some residents have been forced to leave their hometowns.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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Portraits of the climate migrants, like ID cards. ID cards are the most important thing, especially for climate migrants fleeing from or lost their hometowns, to identify themselves. This picture shows the existence and faces of such people that cannot be perceived in a number.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A 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 the stations, ferry terminals, roadsides, or under elevated tracks without anyone’s protection.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A boy sleeps beneath the station passageway to shelter himself from the rainstorm. Many climate migrants live around the station in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Most pedestrians path the passageway without paying attention to people like the boy because those sceneries are often seen around the station.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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A man collects things that can be sold in the dump site in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Some climate migrants work in such places to earn daily money.

© Shunta Kimura - Image from the The Chronicle of Us photography project
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The boys play on garbage floating on the river by the Korail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 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 by Shunta Kimura

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