As Cyclone Roanu approached the coast of Bangladesh last May, 10-year-old Mohammad Hossain worried about his father, a fisherman out at sea in the Bay of Bengal. But the schoolboy, who lives in the Kutubdia Para neighbourhood of Cox's Bazar, a town on the southeast coast of Bangladesh, knew what to do. He sent his father, Ramzan Ali, a text message, asking him to return to shore and take shelter. Fortunately, Ali was close enough to the coast to receive the message. He forwarded it to fishermen on other boats, an...

If global warming carries on without action Bangladesh could disappear with one third of the country already less than 3 metres above sea level as cyclones and flooding will become more devastating. But Bangladeshis refuse to be helpless victims. At home they are raising the land to match sea level rise and already saving thousands of lives with improved cyclone defences. And this week in Marrakech, Morocco, they will be taking a leading role in the CoP 22 climate change negotiations – trying to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees to halt sea level rise, and pushing for compensation for the damage already done by industrial country emissions.