The unlikely protector against Bangladesh's rising seas
Nothing could have prepared Mohammed Shah Nawaz Chowdhury for the sobering reality of Kutubdia Island. The island, off the coast of southern Bangladesh, was rapidly eroding into the sea, causing both land and life to retreat. Many packed up and moved. Those who couldn't, stayed – inching back, as the island they had called home for generations changed around them. "These were families I had gotten to know, trust and respect," he says. "It regularly moved me to tears."