It dates back to November last year, a period in time that will never fade out of Chennai’s memory. It took many weeks for the city to come out of the aftermath that the torrential rains had on the city. And even after the whole city was left completely paralysed for few days due to a deluge, there is nothing being done to be prepared if another one hits Chennai, award-winning author Amitav Ghosh remarks.
“I can’t say that I’m an expert on what happened in Chennai, but there certainly are multiple factors like mismanagement, overbuilding, corruption — all of which left the city helpless when a flood hit it — a price we all have to pay for our practices. And what we see is that instead of preparing ourselves for such events, we are making ourselves more vulnerable with each passing day.
Unfortunately, climate change is real and we are going to see more and more such events and we are not changing our practices. We are not one bit prepared for another deluge,” Amitav comments during a conversation with DC at Taj Coromandel, where the author has launched his latest book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable.
Amitav, who discusses the importance of looking at climate change through a cultural lens drives his point home saying, “I think food is very important aspect, when we’re talking about climate change. We have been wasting so much food, in the west and also in India. I find myself agreeing with author Michael Pollan, who says that the single most important thing you can do for the environment is to cook your own food, and cook it responsibly. We don’t realise the amount of waste we generate through the way we buy, and store our food. Sadly, we are becoming increasingly reliant on the monocultures, which are very vulnerable to drought. As environmental scholar Vandana Shiva puts it, we’re becoming food racist — we want to eat white rice, white sugar.” He adds with a smile, “I love to cook and I always prefer to cook whenever I can.”
It’s also really sad that on one hand, the Prime Minister talks of climate change — which is to his credit — and on the other hand there is no mention of better industrial practices or environment-friendly ways in ‘Make in India’ or any other schemes he talks of. And I think this is something we see all around the world. The political leaders say one thing and do another,” the author laments.
In order to change the ways the society has been taking to, for years, there is a need for mass movements, like the Occupy Movement, the author says. “I see many hopeful signs among the younger generation, who have realised that the capitalistic model in the society cannot go on and they are starting movements like the Occupy Movement, or the Dumpster Diving in the US — where young people are diving into trash cans to dig out enormous amounts of food that can actually be used — the food that is simply wasted,” he contends, adding “but it is sad that in our country people who raise issues are often stigmatised nowadays as anti-national. If a scholar like Perumal Murugan had to announce his own death for the hatred he faced for his ideas, it is an absolutely terrible thing. But we must continue to say what we think.”
Amitav, who was a writer-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, hopes that there are more writers, thinkers and artists in the country who would imagine alternative ways to our life through fiction. “What writers mostly engage in through their books in India is politics, identity, gender and sexuality — all of which are important but there is also another phenomenon of climate change in the background of all of this that we can’t afford to ignore,” he affirms.
Adding that his next book could be penned on climate change itself, Amitav says, “I will certainly be writing a novel or short stories next on climate change — through fiction. My family was forced to move due to the changes in ecology — it has had a great influence on me, and it will continue to affect many of us.”
