1st Edition
The Politics of Climate Change and Uncertainty in India
This book brings together diverse perspectives concerning uncertainty and climate change in India. Uncertainty is a key factor shaping climate and environmental policy at international, national and local levels. Climate change and events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and changing rainfall patterns create uncertainties that planners, resource managers and local populations are regularly confronted with. In this context, uncertainty has emerged as a "wicked problem" for scientists and policymakers, resulting in highly debated and disputed decision-making.
The book focuses on India, one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world, where there are stark socio-economic inequalities in addition to diverse geographic and climatic settings. Based on empirical research, it covers case studies from coastal Mumbai to dryland Kutch and the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal. These localities offer ecological contrasts, rural–urban diversity, varied exposure to different climate events, and diverse state and official responses. The book unpacks the diverse discourses, practices and politics of uncertainty and demonstrates profound differences through which the "above", "middle" and "below" understand and experience climate change and uncertainty. It also makes a case for bringing together diverse knowledges and approaches to understand and embrace climate-related uncertainties in order to facilitate transformative change.
Appealing to a broad professional and student audience, the book draws on wide-ranging theoretical and conceptual approaches from climate science, historical analysis, science, technology and society studies, development studies and environmental studies. By looking at the intersection between local and diverse understandings of climate change and uncertainty with politics, culture, history and ecology, the book argues for plural and socially just ways to tackle climate change in India and beyond.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003257585, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
1 Climate change and uncertainty: politics and perspectives
Shilpi Srivastava, Lyla Mehta, and Hans Nicolai Adam
2 Uncertainty from "above": diverse understandings, politics and implications
Lyla Mehta, Hans Nicolai Adam, Mihir R. Bhatt, Synne Movik, Lars Otto Naess, and Shilpi Srivastava
3 Uncertainty and environmental change: kutch and the Sundarbans as environmental histories of climate change
Vinita Damodaran, Rohan D’Souza and Subir Dey
4 Between the market and climate change: uncertainty and transformation in kutch
Shilpi Srivastava, Lyla Mehta, Lars Otto Naess, Mihir R. Bhatt, and V. Vijay Kumar
5 The certainty of uncertainty: climate change realities of the Indian sundarbans
Upasona Ghosh, Darley Jose Kjosavik, and Shibaji Bose
6 Climate change and uncertainty in India’s maximum city, Mumbai
Hans Nicolai Adam, Synne Movik, D. Parthasarathy, Alankar, NC Narayanan, and Lyla Mehta
7 Bridging gaps in understandings of climate change and uncertainty
Synne Movik, Mihir R. Bhatt, Lyla Mehta, Hans Nicolai Adam, Shilpi Srivastava, D. Parthasarathy, Espen Sjaastad, Shibaji Bose, Upasona Ghosh, and Lars Otto Naess
8 Conclusion
Hans Nicolai Adam, Lyla Mehta, and Shilpi Srivastava
Biography
Lyla Mehta is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, and a Visiting Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Hans Nicolai Adam is a Research Scientist at the Section for Water and Society at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) in Oslo, Norway.
Shilpi Srivastava is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.
"From climate change to Covid 19, we are living in a highly uncertain world – yet also one of intense politics of life, knowledge and policy around what uncertainty means and for whom. Unpacking these politics in relation to some of India’s most dynamic yet vulnerable places, this volume combines sophisticated conceptual analysis with new empirical insights aimed at charting transformative future pathways. Compelling reading for scholars and practitioners alike." – Professor Melissa Leach, Director, Institute of Development Studies
"This volume deepens our understanding of the tremendous uncertainties that climate change is introducing in different ecologies in India. The authors also highlight how affected communities are dealing with the impacts of these uncertainties on their livelihoods. It is this micro-level perspective that gives the book its distinctive value." – Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament and former Minister of Environment and Forests
"Addressing the existential challenge of climate change is compounded by the contested nature of knowledge on climate change impacts and solutions. By interrogating how experts, knowledge intermediaries and everyday people address uncertainties about climate change, this book provides a framework for how we know, and therefore, communicate, about climate change. Building on empirical cases from India, but with implications for wider geographies, the authors powerfully argue for appreciation of diverse ways of knowing and plural rather than unitary solutions, thereby contributing both to conceptual literature and climate practice." – Navroz K. Dubash, Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
"Climate change is rife with uncertainties, starting from what will change, how much and when to how it will affect our day-to-day lives and what can we do to adapt to these changes. As an atmospheric scientist, I have always focused on minimizing the uncertainty in climate projections with the expectation that it will lead to better adaptation strategies. But this book shows us that uncertainty is so deeply ingrained in the whole process that is may be better to "embrace rather than eliminate uncertainty". I particularly liked the case study approach that allowed me to understand how climate risk is perceived at grassroots level. Overall, I strongly recommend this book for climate scientists interested in expanding their understanding of uncertainty in climate change." – Somnath Baidya Roy, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Earth System Dynamics
