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Prodigal Earth :

A Discussion on Environment and Ecology

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Our planet is dying. Well, not entirely, but it is certainly on its way to becoming completely uninhabitable to a range of plant and animal species, human beings included. Our temperatures are rising at an alarming rate. Within the next twenty years, it is expected to rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which was the limit agreed upon by the Paris Accord of 2015. In an intricately interconnected planetary system, one thing often leads to another. So, our sea levels are also rising as the polar ice caps melt, there are disastrous wildfires in various parts of the world. While some areas are witnessing droughts, others are submerged underwater due to heavy rainfall. This isn’t the first time, though. There have been significant changes in the planetary climate before, even global warming. Human civilization came around after the last ice age ended around 11,700 years ago. Then why should we be scared? Because this time around, it is an exclusively anthropogenic climate change, meaning that it is almost entirely the result of human activities. Also, it was never this fast. Climate change happened over thousands of years and even then it would always be accompanied by mass extinctions. Indeed, according to researchers, the sixth mass extinction is well under way with species disappearing faster than ever before, restructuring our ecologies for the worse. What is awaiting us is complete chaos and potential annihilation. The COVID-19 pandemic is only a teaser to what is to come, it seems.
Since its inception in 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided ‘…regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as…adaptation and mitigation options.’ The IPCC periodically produces Assessment Reports which summarise the state of ‘knowledge’ on climate change at that given point of time. It is currently in its sixth assessment cycle. Of the three working groups contributing to the report, the first one has released its findings and it immediately made waves across the world, in both scientific circles and among the masses. It reinforced the culpability of human activities in ushering in climate change, mostly through indiscriminate emissions of greenhouse gases or (GHG). It stated categorically that not a single region on Earth remained untouched by these disastrous anthropogenic changes. And, if we didn’t bring down GHG emissions immediately, this was it for us.
Things look bleak, but there is time yet. Even now, there are many futures open before us and our actions in the ‘now’ will decide where we will end up. We need to rethink our relationship to the world and the ‘resources’ we extract from it, recalibrating the ‘value’ of the environment. The capitalist celebration of unbridled consumption must be critiqued and alternative systems of production, consumption and conservation must be conceptualized while avoiding obvious pitfalls such as the rallying cry of ecofascism. We must forge new and more intersectional ways of looking at and dealing with our planet, our Prodigal Earth, taking into account identity politics as well as various forms of social inequalities. It is a daunting project with a mind-boggling range of variables, but, it needs to be attempted, urgently. Third Lane’s special issue on climate change represents an attempt at thinking critically and finding solutions to this crisis, no longer looming, but present. The authors, experts in their respective fields, illustrate various pathways to the future by highlighting the effects of climate change in the present and our responses to the same. From extreme weather events like cyclones and droughts, to extraordinary natural and climate-friendly sewage treatment infrastructures in the form of the East Kolkata Wetlands, from cultural responses such as cli-fi to socio-political issues like that of climate refugees, these eight original essays present a compelling account of the strange times we are living in and possible futures, both good and bad.
The stakes have never been higher, the time has never been more right.

Troubled Waters : Conservation narratives From endangered ecosystems

Storms and Droughts : The Lesson In Disasters

Beyond Human : Re-Thinking The Climate Crisis

In Perspective: East Kolkata Wetlands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuP6zR-dkdM&ab_channel=ThirdLane

Podcast : East Kolkata Wetlands Part I

The East Kolkata Wetlands, a sprawling expanse of forgotten haven lies nestled near the Salt Lake urban hub. These wetlands, recognized by Ramsar as a wetland of international importance, are a self-sustained biological wastewater treatment plant – quietly channeling the city’s waste on a daily basis into fish feed, and producing tonnes of vegetables and fish in its wake. This fragile and now endangered waterscape has been systematically misrepresented in and erased from public imagination for decades now, while the city and its people bask in the newfound glories of urbanism.

Dhruba Dasgupta considers herself a spokesperson for the East Kolkata Wetlands. A tireless crusader for the conservation of the wetlands along with its people, she graciously offered to take the Third Lane team along with her on a journey to her beloved wetlands, to discover for ourselves what makes this ecological wonderland tick.

Narrator: Dhruba Dasgupta

Videography and Editing : Saikat Palit