1st Edition
The Crisis of Climate Change Weather Report
This volume outlines the specific conditions and responses to climate change in India. It discusses various aspects of the planetary crisis that have acquired widespread global urgency: global warming induced by anthropogenic emissions, largely owing to the fossil fuel-based economic growth model; severe environmental decline; and the catastrophic consequences that threaten the very foundations of modern life, which has been based on using nature as a ‘resource’ instead of as an ecosystem in which human life exists. The book brings together contributors with expertise in fi elds as varied as national security, public policy, environmental law, climate justice activism, anthropology, restoration ecology, conservation biology, wildlife ecology, the health sector and medicine, conservation science and sustainability, gender, humanities and the creative arts. It includes a new spectrum of responses—holistic or alternate, literary and the arts, dance and poetry—and their interface with climate change, which are often left out in science and policy circles, and an unusual ground-up approach with grassroots movements’ perspectives along with theoretical practices and a Gandhian way of thinking in a global economy.
Comprehensive, accessible and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of environmental and sustainability studies, natural resources, environment and technology, sociology of development, development studies, public policy, energy and environment and urbanisation. It will also interest practitioners, policymakers, think tanks and NGOs working on climate change issues.
Preface
Omita Goyal
Foreword
Karan Singh
Introduction
Ravi Agarwal
Part I: BROAD PERSPECTIVES
1. New Imperatives for International and Domestic Climate Policy: Rethinking India’s Approach
Navroz K. Dubash and Lavanya Rajamani
2. India’s Moment to Lead the World to Sustainability is Here
Wagaki Wischnewski, Barron Joseph Orr, Pradeep Kumar Monga
3. Disaster Management: Institutionalising Risk-Informed Planning
Janki Andharia
4. Catch 22 and Double Whammy for South Asia in a Warming World
Sagar Dhara
Part II: LANDSCAPES OF CHANGE
5. Forests and Climate Change in the Anthropocene
Ghazala Shahabuddin
6. Adapting Agriculture to Climate Turbulence
Suman Sahai
7. Elephants on the Move: Implications for Human–Elephant Interactions
Nishant M. Srinivasaiah, Srinivas Vaidyanathan, Raman Sukumar, Anindya Sinha
8. Achieving Gender Equality in the Face of a Climate Crisis
Nitya Rao
9. The Future of Health in a Climate Crisis
Soumya Swaminathan and Poornima Prabhakaran
10. Rethinking Institutions for India’s Transitioning Electricity Sector
Kaveri K. Iychettira
11. The Coast is Un-Clear
Madhuri Ramesh
12. Climate Change and Rural Water Security
K. J. Joy and Veena Srinivasan
13. Dealing with India’s Plastic Waste: Why Single-Use Plastic Bans may not Work
Aravindhan Nagarajan
14. Climate Change and Security
Uttam Kumar Sinha
Part III: NEW HORIZONS
15. ‘The Air in Her Lungs is a Destitute Pigeon’
Nitoo Das
16. Climate Change and Beyond: A Holistic View
Bharat Dogra
17. A Transdisciplinary Conceptualisation of Climate Change: An Educator’s Journey
Vandana Singh
18. Performativity and Ecology
Navtej Singh Johar
19. The Possibility of Acting in Climate Change: A Gandhian Perspective
Paulina Lopez and Ravi Agarwal
20. From ‘Climate Change’ to ‘Climate Justice’: ‘Civil Society’ Movement(s)
Soumya Dutta
Biography
Ravi Agarwal is Founder-Director of Toxics Link, New Delhi, India.
Omita Goyal is Chief Editor, IIC Quarterly, India International Centre, New Delhi, India.
