Environment
Environment
Issue Articles
Disaster at the Margins
A history of Chennai's floods
Chennai's floods are embedded within inequality and the wider ecology of disasters in low-income settlements. Seeing their regularity purely as planning and engineering problems neglects this complexity.
Pitting People against Nature
India’s conservation laws, based on pseudoscience, have criminalised people’s defence against marauding wildlife. Democratically-constituted local bodies empowered to protect nature will be a more just way of nursing our heritage to a healthy state.
The Need for An Agreement on Climate Justice
The primary goal of environmental activists campaigning on climate change should be for an equitable global sharing of the required level of greenhouse gas emissions, which is a precondition for an effective agreement. An analysis of COP26.
A ‘Licence’ to Kill in the Sundarbans
A regime of fishing licences in the Sundarbans, unchanged since colonial times, might be the single biggest everyday hazard to the lives of the fishers: on par with tigers, cyclones, and rising seas.
How and Why India’s Climate will Change in the Coming Decades
The decades ahead will see more extreme rainfall, more higher temperatures, increased warming over the Indian Ocean, rising sea levels, and greater frequency and intensity of cyclones in the Arabian Sea.
Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab
The crises of Punjab’s agriculture are rooted in the same history that made it the granary of India. Ensuring sustainability for farmers and the farm sector requires an engagement with the shifting trajectories of agriculture over the last seven decades.
Coming of Age of India’s Youth Climate Movement
A nascent but rapidly growing movement in India of young people — school and college students — concerned about climate change is now confronted with having to deal with the chilling effects of police charges on some of their fellow-activists.
Problems with the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor
Is it time to abandon the programme?
The story of India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor for close to two decades is one of rising costs, delays and the Department of Atomic Energy making never-ending promises of commissioning. Shouldn’t India then stop pursuing the breeder programme?
Pandemics: The Perils of Agribusiness Profits
The multiple pandemics of the past decades can be linked to the expansion of agribusinesses into the global South. The consequent deforestation and unregulated industrial farming of animals have produced hotspots for pathogens to cross into humans.
Contemporary Developments in India
A Conversation with Ramachandra Guha
A conversation, including by a group of college students, with the historian Ramachandra Guha on contemporary politics, environmental issues, and Adivasi rights.
Extreme events in nature: An ecological history of the present
The zoonotic disease Covid-19 is yet another warning shot to humanity. The imbalance throughout history between our ecological footprint and the earth’s biocapacity has grown to a point that it now poses a threat to civilisation. How can we deal with this?
Char Dham Pariyojana: A High Risk Engineering Exercise
The prestigious Char Dham Pariyojana to widen roads to Uttarakhand’s pilgrimage sites is being rapidly pushed forward without heed to the environmental and social consequences. Several laws have been bypassed in the process.
Is India Concerned about its Energy Security?
India's overambitious targets for solar energy could destabilize its power sector and threaten energy security. Rather than 'green' political posturing, the country must plan an energy transition based on its developmental interests.
EIA 2020: Two Steps Back…
The draft Environment Impact Notification 2020 has been widely criticised because it is not designed to protect the environment. It will further weaken the 2006 EIA and rather than deter violations, encourage them. The poorly drafted rules must be withdrawn.
The Architecture of Democracy
Central Vista and a Tale of Three Axes
The imperial Central Vista in Delhi has been transformed since 1947 into a symbol of democratic India. But the proposed redevelopment will reduce public space, highlight the spectacle of government and seems to reflect the authoritarian turn in our democracy.
Toxic Ecologies
Assam, Oil, and a Crude Future
The ecological destruction from the Baghjan gas well blowout is part of the story of Assam’s economic development. Resource extraction has been foundational to the logic of politics in Assam but has marginalised local communities.
Making Indian Cities Habitable
The Legacy of Patrick Geddes
The social & environmental problems of a rapidly urbanising India were anticipated a century ago by the Scottish town planner Patrick Geddes. It may be time to redeem & rehabilitate Geddes’ themes of respect for nature, democracy & architectural traditions.
Seven Lessons for the Future
For the World After Covid-19
The pandemic has already taught us that for a better world we cannot have the market as the backbone of the economy; we need a more inclusive politics; decentralised governance is essential; and we obviously need a more harmonious relationship with nature.
Ecology is for the People
The catastrophes in Kerala in 2018 and 2019 can be a lesson to move away from the paradigm of imposing both development and conservation from above; the state and the people must adopt new ways of functioning. It is a lesson the entire country needs to learn.
The Computer Infection of Kudankulam and its Implications
The October 2019 cyberattack on a computer system at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant points to new pathways to severe accidents that can result in widespread radioactive fallout. Attempts to lower this risk would further increase the cost of nuclear power.
A Hesitant Transition
Renewable Energy Growth and Carbon Emissions
Renewable energy capacity has expanded globally but this does not as yet mark a shift away from fossil fuels. On current trends, energy use from CO2-emitting fuels will continue to rise in the future. Talk of decarbonisation of the world economy is premature.
The Disruptive Politics of Renewable Energy
In making the shift to renewable energy, India has to manage the disruption of long-standing institutional and political arrangements in ways that enable clean energy in a sustainable manner.
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