Photo by Ferdinando Scianna/Magnum
ENERGY
There is a problem built into our relationship with energy itself. Even if we ‘solve’ global warming, we face an older, slower problem. Waste heat could radically alter Earth’s future.
Read More about Deep Warming
Conserve/Resist
Modi government rushed with its plan to supply fortified rice despite internal and external expert warnings on the adverse effects of feeding it to people, particularly children. Niti Aayog reviewed the pilot studies in seven districts across India only after the government’s orders to distribute fortified rice had already been passed. It found that all of them were fundamentally flawed and had failed. The report was never made public while the government continues to push fortified rice.
Read More about Ignored health risks, bungled pilot projects, bonanza for Dutch firm: Modi Govt. forces fortified rice on poor
A pastoralist looks at Hasdeo’s Parsa East and Kete Basan (PEKB) mine that has lead to severe environmental and social issues. Residents of Hasdeo region fear their land meeting the same fate as its adjacent Korba, a critically polluted area.
Photo by Vaishnavi Suresh/PEP Collective
CLIMATE CRISIS
21st March is marked as International Forests Day: A brief look at the state of Forests and Forest Rights in India today.
Read More about On International Forests Day: Reality of Forests in India
Author (with spectacles) at Narmada Sangharsh Yatra (Struggle Journey), 1990
Photo by Shailendra Yashwant
CLIMATE CRISIS
The many faces of India’s Narmada movement: Since the mid-1980s, the Narmada valley has also been the site of one of Independent India’s most iconic and globally well-known people’s movements, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement). For the last nearly 40 years, this movement has raised questions about and tried to stop, a series of mega-dams along the river and its tributaries.
Read More about It did not stop the dam, but is it a failure?
ALTERNATIVES
After relinquishing control of forests to the villages that depend on them, forest cover in Nepal nearly doubled.
Read More about How Nepal Regenerated its Forests: Communities know their Forests Best
CLIMATE CRISIS
A development model based on local conditions and aspirations is necessary. The current crisis in Joshimath is the consequence of choosing economics over ecology or the ecosystem. It was scripted from the time we opted for a development model that instigated the open plunder of natural resources.
Read More about Joshimath Crisis is a Warning from the Himalayas
ALTERNATIVES
For years, normality has been stretched nearly to breaking-point, a rope pulled tighter and tighter, waiting for a nip of the black swan’s beak to snap it in two. Now that it’s snapped, do we tie its ends back together, or shall we undo its dangling braids, to see what we might weave from them?…
Read More about Charles Eisenstein: The Coronation
Bookshelf
From Climate and Capitalism: Evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace explains the tight links between new viruses, the epidemiologically dangerous methods of industrial food production, and corporate profits. “To understand why viruses are becoming more dangerous, we must investigate industrial models of agriculture and livestock production. But, few governments, and few scientists, are prepared to do so.”…
Read More about Big Farms make Big Flu: The deadly connection between industrial farming and pandemics
Economy
The science is telling us that the global economy will experience a depression as the reality of the coronavirus pandemic sinks in. Authorities pushing complacency as a short term financial panacea are doing an enormous disservice to the people. Instead, they should prepare to deal with a global depression while limiting the spread of the virus….
Read More about Charles Hugh Smith: Could Covid-19 overwhelm us in the months ahead?
Development/Growth
From Live Mint: Dodgy numbers, a ‘flexible’ approach to the facts and self-serving definitions beginning with how “forest cover” itself is actually defined. This is what accounts for the unanimous skepticism among ecologists and other experts of the “growth” in India’s forest cover, claimed by the recently released India State of the Forest Report 2019….
Read More about Just like the economy, India’s forests too are thriving only on paper
ALTERNATIVES
Mikhail Gorbachev, founder of Green Cross International, on the need for urgent economic and social change to promote true sustainable development that does not over-consume and waste natural resources, while at the same time ensures opportunities and peace for humanity. This 2012 interview with the former USSR President and Nobel-winner remains just as relevant today….
Read More about Mikhail Gorbachev: “We need a new economic model, the planet is overburdened”
ALTERNATIVES
Álvaro de Regil Castilla writes: Over the years, as I watched CSR evolve, it gradually became evident that it was really a hoax, for the simple reason that short-term maximization of profit is baked into the corporate DNA. Businesses thus cannot be socially responsible as long as the institutions of democracy remain captured by marketocracy….
Read More about Why “Corporate Social Responsibility” is a hoax
Development/Growth
From Great Game India: A global contest with at least 9 geoeconomic projects is underway in and around Asia. Regional powers are putting forward ambitious plans for building roads, railways, and other hard infrastructure across the region. A preview of a competition as wide-ranging as the region itself; whose long-term ecological cost will be incalculable….
Read More about Nine competing geoeconomic projects that will shape Asia’s future
Representative pic
The Hindu
Conflict/Dispossession
From ABC News: Delhi is one of 21 Indian cities that could run out of groundwater, according to a 2018 government thinktank report. Disputes over water often lead to violence, especially in the city’s unauthorised settlements. The state government and the local “water mafia” are drilling bores, further depleting groundwater and exacerbating the larger problem….
Read More about Ahead of ‘Day Zero’, Delhi’s water crisis is about to turn into a water war
Nazmul Haque
ALTERNATIVES
We come from a remote handful of living planets and moons scattered across this galaxy. We are a network of galactic gardeners who nurture life by sharing our stories, experiences, knowledge, and ideas. We’ve decided to contact you because we cherish life everywhere we find it — and life on your planet is in grave danger….
Read More about The Galactic Gardeners’ Forum pings the people of Planet Earth in the New Year
Conflict/Dispossession
PM Narendra Modi wants India to be a “$5 trillion economy” by 2024. The consequences of such high GDP growth –even setting aside questions regarding its distribution or true worth– will result in depriving the dispossessed sections of society of access even to natural resources, while driving fragile ecologies to a point of no return….
Read More about A $5 trillion economy for India: At what cost?
CLIMATE CRISIS
From Al Jazeera: Scandinavian countries have some of the highest levels of happiness on the planet, and top virtually every ranking of human development. They re worth celebrating for all they get right. But there’s a problem. They’re an ecological disaster, with some of the highest levels of resource-use and CO2 emissions in the world….
Read More about Jason Hickel: The Nordic model is a disaster for the environment
Bookshelf
From CounterPunch: He whipped out a check for a thousand dollars and said, “I bet you US$1000 that in the year 2020, we’re not even close to the kind of disaster you describe.” He had obviously planned to maneuver me into this kind of challenge. “We won’t even be close. I’ll bet on my optimism.”…
Read More about 2020: The Incipient Bet
ALTERNATIVES
Researching public perceptions of the future, I’m not aware of any progress indicators that reflect the real depth of people’s concern. The current wave of global political unrest and protest is commonly attributed to growing inequality, corruption, austerity, thwarted expectations and climate change. But the real reasons also go deeper, challenging the entire narrative of modernisation itself….
Read More about Your money or your life? Putting wellbeing before GDP
CLIMATE CRISIS
From BuzzFeed: The 2010s will likely lock down the record for the hottest decade so far. The 10-year stretch boasted many of the most expensive and destructive catastrophes ever. Here’s a review of six of the most devastating climate-records we broke this decade. Also, a short video featuring expert views on looming climate tipping points….
Read More about This was the decade climate change slapped us in the face
