Environomy #6: A Challenge Across Generations
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
In this sixth and final episode of Environomy, we will explore how India has dealt with issues related to biodiversity and climate change since the 1991 economic reforms. Since the national government has taken a strong position on climate change in recent years, this episode will also try to connect the past with the present and the future. Explore other episodes of Environomy where S. Gopikrishna Warrier took us through the journey of how environmental economics got interlocked after the economic reforms of 1991. This is a journey for which he had a ringside ticket as a journalist, reporting...
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Environomy #5: The One That Got Missed
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
Though farming contributes less than 20% of India's GDP, it provides livelihood support to nearly half of the country's population. It is an extremely challenging occupation, with many from the younger generation unwilling to pursue agriculture. When the post-economic reforms financially benefited sections of Indian society, how did the farmers feel left out? In the fifth episode of Environomy, the host discusses the impact of economic reforms on the agricultural sector. Through Environomy, S. Gopikrishna Warrier takes us through the journey of how environmental economics got interlocked after...
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Environomy #4: India Buys A Fast Car
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
There are traffic jams on India’s hill stations and mountain roads across the year. It wasn’t always like this. Increased incomes of the Indian middle class after the 1991 economic reforms translated to improved mobility. Many made their way to the mountains. And the most significant impact of India's increased mobility has been on the environment of the mountains. Through Environomy, S. Gopikrishna Warrier will take you through the journey of how environmental economics got interlocked after the economic reforms of 1991. This is a journey for which he had a ringside ticket as a...
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Environomy #3: Playing With The Pillars
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
The legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, form the three pillars of Indian democracy. The legislature consisting of the parliamentarians, and legislators are the policy makers who draw up acts and policies. The executive is the government, consisting of the Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, Chief Ministers, and their officials. The judiciary are the lawyers and the judges in the courts, from the lower ones to the Supreme Court and also the National Green Tribunal. During the past three decades, the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, recalibrated their positions....
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Environomy #2: They Came, They Rapped, They Lobbied
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
In the early 1990s, the anti-Tehri dam and anti-Narmada dam movements were India's most well-known environmental protests. It was not as if only environmental activists were involved with these movements. The developments in Tehri and Narmada were watched keenly by people across the country. In the coming decade, something changed. In this episode, hear about how a distinct economic and political identity for the Indian middle class after the economic reforms of 1991 changed the way in which they dealt with environmental issues. Through our show Environomy, S. Gopikrishna Warrier will take you...
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Environomy #1: The Middle Class Unbottled
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
How did the 1991 economic reforms impact the course of the Indian environment in the past three decades? Listen to Environomy's first episode, where we will look at how the Indian middle class acquired a distinct economic and political identity after the economic reforms of 1991. Through our show Environomy, S. Gopikrishna Warrier will take you through the journey of how environmental economics got interlocked after the economic reforms of 1991. This is a journey for which he had a ringside ticket as a journalist, reporting and writing on the environment for the past three decades. Writer and...
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Trailer: Environomy
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
The economic reforms of 1991 caused a radical shift in India's economic and social structure. It gave a new life to the middle class. But did you know that the reforms also changed how India dealt with its environmental issues? Join S Gopikrishna Warrier, Managing Editor of Mongabay-India, as he takes us through three decades of India's environmental history. Delve deep into the important environmental movements in India, meet the people behind them, and learn their history and significance. The first episode will be released on February 9, 2024. Subscribe to Everything Environment by Mongabay...
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Imprints: Lake hopping with Anoop Ambili
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
Lake-hopping is Anoop Ambili’s thing. For Ambili, a paleoclimatologist, the Lonar Lake in Maharashtra, Tso Moriri in Ladakh and Renuka in Himachal Pradesh hide clues that help him reconstruct past climate changes going back to 10,000 years. Ambili is also studying microplastic pollutants in these freshwater lakes. For example, he is looking for pollutants such as microplastics in Renuka lake, a popular tourist spot and also the largest lake in Himachal Pradesh. Information about the changes in the lakes, Ambili believes, will shape how we design policies that address human-caused changes to...
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Imprints: Sifting through microfossils with Rajani Panchang
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
Looking at sediment under a microscope is a window into past environments and climates. In a dot of sediment, you may find thousands of microfossils - tiny remains of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, and plants. Rajani Panchang, an oceanographer and micropaleontologist, uses microfossils from oceans, of tiny marine organisms, to interpret how the climate and environment may have been when they were alive. Such work gives us ideas about the chemistry and temperature of the ocean, ocean currents and wind patterns of the past. Paleoclimate research eventually feeds into reports that give us...
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Imprints: Digging up bones with Advait Jukar
Everything Environment by Mongabay India
Imagine this: When modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, they saw creatures such as giant prehistoric elephants, a hippopotamus and a zebra-like horse, alongside other great beasts. Infact, these large mammals stuck around in the region for at least 20,000 years after the arrival of humans. A low-magnitude extinction began about 30,000 years ago when some megafaunal species, such as the giant elephants, started disappearing. This is in contrast to the Americas, Europe and Australia, where the arrival of humans led to more rapid, large-scale extinctions of megafauna such...
info_outlineHydropower has been an old and reliable source of energy in India. Until a few years ago, India considered a hydropower project renewable only when the installed capacity was less than 25 megawatt (MW). But then, in 2019, the government of India decided to consider large hydropower projects as renewable projects too. This makes hydroelectricity a vital part of India's clean energy targets - installing 500 gigawatt (GW) of non-fossil fuel-based capacity by 2030.
However, activists and researchers who have been working on issues related to the displacement of communities due to dam construction, and ecologists who study the impacts of dams on aquatic species and the region's biodiversity, think otherwise. They opine that the terms' clean' and 'green' used to describe hydropower could be misleading, as it does not consider the livelihoods lost and the cost of biodiversity lost at stake.
In this episode, we'll hear about how dams are perceived as a more stable source of energy when compared to solar and wind. We'll also hear about the true cost of relying on this form of energy. Our conversations raise a contentious question: Can hydropower be considered clean and renewable? Or is it simply a case of clean-washing?
Listen to GigaWhat and explore some of the biggest questions, challenges, and opportunities in India's transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Mongabay-India is an online publication dedicated to bringing you stories on science and the environment in India.
Read the full Clean energy series on our website
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Guests:
Ammu Susanna Jacob, Research Scientist, CSTEP
Shishir Rao, ecologist
Prakash Bhandari, environmental researcher and activist, Himdhara
Links:
A twin-state hydropower project could drown livelihoods and biodiversity
Fish & small hydropower projects in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India
The return of the mega hydropower projects across India
Credits:
Host: Mayank Aggarwal
Writer and producer: Kartik Chandramouli
Audio editor: Tejas Dayananda Sagar
Copy editor: Aditi Tandon
Podcast production assistant: Ayushi Kothari
GigaWhat cover art: Pooja Gupta