Scientists and activists have warned the world about climate crisis for long. Yet, climate commitments fall short of actions needed to avoid disastrous consequences. The annual international climate summit (COP) or the environment-related days (nine in a calendar year) remind us of the challenges we face due to climate change but that effort on climate justice is too little and late.
Do we not care enough or we do not know enough to care for the environment?
Interestingly, Amitav Ghosh argues that nature does not need humans to stand up and defend it and so, instead of seeking out new ideas to address the ecological crisis, we should return to ancient stories the earth has been telling us. “We can confront the crisis not by trying to save the planet but by listening to it,” he writes in an essay, Brutes: Meditations on the Myth of the Voiceless.
American environmentalist Charles Eisenstein underlines in his 2018 book, Climate A New Theory, that much of the climate derangement comes from direct disruption of ecosystems. He says the core of the crisis is ecocide, the killing of the ecosystem, and not warming.
Vital cog in the wheel
The work of writers such as American naturalist Henry David Thoreau or environmental philosopher John Muir have helped to shape the way we view nature. But women too are vital voices who are often missing from the proverbial table.
The relationship between women and the land is difficult to trace due to lack of documentation, though women sow and till fields and shape the way their cultures relate to the land. Travel writer Suzanne Roberts gives food for thought on the masculinity of wilderness: “I realised I had been relying on a male translation of nature rather than listening to my own voice”.
In his novel Hungry Tide (2004), Ghosh portrays nature as mother and writes human beings have to take help of nature for a comfortable life. As nurturers, women have a connect with nature and fight climate change through nature-connectedness. But their voices have remained in a minority in climate discourse and nature writing.
Environmental thinker Vandana Shiva is among the few who has to her credit a score of influential books on the subject. She is one who believes women and nature are associated not in passivity but in creativity and in the maintenance of life. In her new book, The Nature of Nature: The Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change (2024), she explores the intimate links between food and climate to look deep into the root causes of climate change.
“What we eat, how we grow the food we eat, how we distribute it, will determine whether humanity survives or pushes itself and other species to extinction,” writes Shiva, while explaining the incontrovertible connections between a global warming climate and an agricultural system based on techno-optimism. She says food is the currency of life, indivisible from earth and its natural systems, and argues powerfully for a food and climate future based on regeneration or biodiversity, in partnership with the biosphere.
Turning back to nature
Like Ghosh, she writes that in an age of climate catastrophes, we need to turn back to nature and learn once again how to live sustainably on planet earth, offering alternatives that work according to nature’s ecological laws and are the real solutions to rejuvenate and regenerate the planet. Shiva analyses the false promises made by technology — oriented lab-intensive digital agriculture and calls out the fake and ultra-processed food industries that are impacting the world’s health and food security.
Another widely published author, Prerna Singh Bindra, lobbies with governments on conservation issues and in her book The Vanishing — India’s Wildlife Crisis (2017), she exhorts thinking citizens to acknowledge the Indian wildlife crisis due to development projects tearing into their habitats.
‘Sixth extinction’
Bindra travels to far-flung forests to put the spotlight on the vanishing natural heritage. India is in the midst of mass ‘sixth extinction’ is her worry, as she writes, “We are losing species in our backyard.” The once ubiquitous sparrows, or the fireflies that lit up the nights have dwindled; in the forests, great Indian bustards are down to a 100; the end of the gharial indicates the poisoning and death of the clear and fast-flowing rivers. She tells readers why extinction matters and how the fate of wildlife is linked to humans. She pushes against this “ecocide.”
Arati Kumar Rao journeyed across India’s diverse landscapes for more than a decade to study the slow violence inflicted in the fragile environment and how it impacts livelihoods. Her book, Marginlands — Indian Landscapes on the Brink (2023) throws light on the subtle tectonic changes taking place across ecosystems in India.
She cites examples of the Thar where miners bulldoze sand dunes that guard life-sustaining water; the Gangetic dolphin that now struggles for survival as its riverine habitat is fragmented by dams and roiled by incessant shipping; the cataclysmic floods that unleashes fury on Mumbai due to encroachments.
“As the spectre of climate change compounds natural and human-induced disasters, India’s most endangered landscapes are pushed to the precipice of destruction,” she warns, making her book a haunting read about failed government schemes, exaggerated promises and human follies.
Leadership qualities
There are few other books by women writers that attempt to demystify climate change, explain what the fuss is all about and why it matters to our survival.
Named one of the best books of the year by Smithsonian Magazine, All We Can Save (2020) by Ayana Elizabeth and Katherine K. Wilkinson contains essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement and reveals their leadership rooted in compassion, connection, and collaboration. “To change everything, we need everyone,” is their message.
A groundbreaking perspective is a rare anthology, Women on Nature (2021) by Katharine Norbury which has 100+ voices on place, landscape and the natural world. Another book Everglades: River of Grass (1947) by journalist and conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas is about her efforts to protect the fragile wetlands of Florida.
Nature may be complicated to write about but a gendered outlook can help to enhance the understanding of how to value biodiversity. These books are both a balm and a guide for knowing what has been done to the world, and how to save our collective future.
Published – December 19, 2024 03:42 pm IST