The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation

In this disturbing study of the havoc wreaked by the 1970 Great Bhola Cyclone in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), journalist Carney (The Wedge) and political scientist Miklian (coauthor, India’s Human Security) look to the past to forecast the future of climate change. Forming in the Bay of Bengal in November 1970, the storm killed an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 people and exacerbated tensions between Bengali-speaking East Pakistan and West Pakistan, home to the capital city of Islamabad. President Yahya Khan had “promised that the days of Bengali discrimination were over,” but his botched response to the cyclone helped fuel the rise of the Awami League, a Bengali opposition party. In Pakistan’s first democratic election, held in December 1970, the Awami League took control of the national assembly in Islamabad and, with it, the prime minister’s office, but Khan refused to transfer power, triggering civil unrest, genocide, and, ultimately, the breakup of Pakistan. Carney and Miklian make a persuasive case that as climate change produces more frequent and deadlier storms, the world faces “an increasing likelihood of selective genocide and even global international war.” Shot through with colorful character sketches and lucid explanations of South Asian politics, this is an urgent warning about the links between global warming and geopolitical turmoil. (Mar.)