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Bangladesh's low coastline and severe weather make it especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change even predicted that the country could lose 17 percent of its land area by 2050 due to rising sea levels.

But according to a new study by a Bangladeshi research institute, the country has grown by 386 square miles since 1973 due to a freak environmental condition, whereby rivers dump sediment along the shoreline as they flow into the sea.

It's unclear to what extent this will offset the rising oceans, but a cause for optimism, however cautious, is certainly welcome.

FP's January 2006 photo essay on Bangladesh's shipbreaking industry in Chittagong shows another way that the country has used its long beaches and unusual tides to its advantage. Check it out.