The Era of Environmental Derangement: Witnessing Climate Crisis in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nupur Pancholi ◽  
◽  
Sanjit Kumar Mishra ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Cumulative Impacts ◽  
Environmental Deterioration ◽  
Human Interventions ◽  
Human World ◽  
Climate Crisis

Drawing on Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island (2019) together with his nonfictional The Great Derangement (2016), the article strives to present that while advancing endless desires, human-centric culture and the idea of ‘good life’ drive climate change and environmental deterioration. It seeks to enumerate the devastating consequences of changing climatic conditions and degenerating ecosystems and their cumulative impacts on the humankind and non-human world. It aims to locate how human life at the margins has been affected by these cataclysmic consequences through analysing Ghosh’s Gun Island. It attempts to show that human interventions had significantly fuelled the global climate crisis in the seventeenth century, decoding the myth of Bonduki Sadagar that Ghosh identifies in Gun Island.

What we can learn from the parallels between the COVID-19 and the future climate change crises

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Peter Manning
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Global Population

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak pandemic is now a global crisis. It has caused 1.6+ million confirmed cases and 100 000+ deaths at the time of writing and triggered unprecedented preventative measures that have put a substantial portion of the global population under confinement, imposed isolation, and established ‘social distancing’ as a new global behavioral norm. The COVID-19 crisis has affected all aspects of everyday life and work, while also threatening the health of the global economy. This crisis offers also an unprecedented view of what the global climate crisis may look like. In fact, some of the parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and what we expect from the looming global climate emergency are remarkable. Reflecting upon the most challenging aspects of today’s crisis and how they compare with those expected from the climate change emergency may help us better prepare for the future.

California Greenin'

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Automobile Emissions ◽  
Oil Drilling ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Environmental Deterioration ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Wilderness Areas

Over the course of its 150-year history, California has successfully protected its scenic wilderness areas, restricted coastal oil drilling, regulated automobile emissions, preserved coastal access, improved energy efficiency, and, most recently, addressed global climate change. How has this state, more than any other, enacted so many innovative and stringent environmental regulations over such a long period of time? This book shows why the Golden State has been at the forefront in setting new environmental standards, often leading the rest of the nation. From the establishment of Yosemite, America's first protected wilderness, and the prohibition of dumping gold-mining debris in the nineteenth century to sweeping climate-change legislation in the twenty-first, the book traces California's remarkable environmental policy trajectory. It explains that this pathbreaking role developed because California had more to lose from environmental deterioration and more to gain from preserving its stunning natural geography. As a result, citizens and civic groups effectively mobilized to protect and restore their state's natural beauty and, importantly, were often backed both by business interests and by strong regulatory authorities. Business support for environmental regulation in California reveals that strict standards are not only compatible with economic growth but can also contribute to it. The book also examines areas where California has fallen short, particularly in water management and the state's dependence on automobile transportation.

The portrayal of Social Evils in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Pooja Shankar ◽  
Dr. Poonam Rani
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Kamala Markandaya ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Urban People

Life is very precious for everyone. Life needs proper care and nurture. Human life depends on society. Only in a good society we can find a good life.  Life is simple, very little is needed to make it happy. But social evils insist on making it complicated. Social evils in society have become a serious concern in the present day world. It is gradually affecting roots of our culture and its blocking its rapid growth on the global chart. The aim of writing this research paper is to highlight Social Evils in rural and urban societies. This research paper will explore the meaning, reason, effect of social evils in the light of the analysis of two novels of Kamala Markandaya, an Indian English writer. The research paper entitled ‘The portrayal of Social Evils in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice.’ In this paper, the effort is made to study Kamala Markandaya’s Social Evils in Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice. We will find poverty, hunger, starvation, beggary, prostitution, crime, unemployment and many more social evils in both novels. Kamala Markandaya’s A Handful of Rice and Nectar in a Sieve nothing but an account of the suffering of the rural and urban people, and how the cruelty of social evil resulting in suffering, death and misfortune is more explicit in both novels. Poverty is the everyday reality of the characters in the both novels.  Poverty is not an abstract concept that one can really think about, it’s like wolf at the door that must constantly be staved off. Both novels are a jolt to awaken the society against social evils.  

scholarly journals Big data for climate action or climate action for big data?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172098203
Author(s):  
Maria I Espinoza ◽  
Melissa Aronczyk
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
User Data ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Depth Interviews

Under the banner of “data for good,” companies in the technology, finance, and retail sectors supply their proprietary datasets to development agencies, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations to help solve an array of social problems. We focus on the activities and implications of the Data for Climate Action campaign, a set of public–private collaborations that wield user data to design innovative responses to the global climate crisis. Drawing on in-depth interviews, first-hand observations at “data for good” events, intergovernmental and international organizational reports, and media publicity, we evaluate the logic driving Data for Climate Action initiatives, examining the implications of applying commercial datasets and expertise to environmental problems. Despite the increasing adoption of Data for Climate Action paradigms in government and public sector efforts to address climate change, we argue Data for Climate Action is better seen as a strategy to legitimate extractive, profit-oriented data practices by companies than a means to achieve global goals for environmental sustainability.

Under the Volcano: Media, Ecology and the Crisis of Nature

2012 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Lewis ◽  
Belinda Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Human Interventions ◽  
Under The Volcano ◽  
Crisis Conditions ◽  
The One

The 2011 Japanese earthquake and subsequent malfunction at the Fukushima nuclear power plant occurred at the apex of a complex crisis of nature. While some commentators claim that the Fukushima malfunction was the result of a ‘natural disaster’, others situate the event within a broader context of human interventions in ecological and natural systems. Exercised through the global mediasphere, these environmental language wars are formed within crisis conditions and a crisis consciousness that have extensive genealogical roots. This article examines the crisis of nature in terms of contemporary and genealogical language wars that are embedded in a cultural politics of apocalysm. In particular, the article problematises the concept of ‘nature’ in terms of the disaggregation of human and non-human life systems. It argues that this disaggregation confounds the cultural politics of life (-death) systems, leading to excessive violence on the one hand, and Romantic idealisation on the other. The article recommends a reconceptualisation of nature that implicates all humans and human desires across the global mediasphere.

scholarly journals Chronology of Lake El'gygytgyn sediments – a combined magnetostratigraphic, palaeoclimatic and orbital tuning study based on multi-parameter analyses

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2413-2432 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. R. Nowaczyk ◽  
E. M. Haltia ◽  
D. Ulbricht ◽  
V. Wennrich ◽  
M. A. Sauerbrey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Far East ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Sedimentation Rates ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
Lake El’Gygytgyn ◽  
Age Model ◽  
Orbital Tuning ◽  
Lake Floor ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A 318-metre-long sedimentary profile drilled by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) at Site 5011-1 in Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, has been analysed for its sedimentologic response to global climate modes by chronostratigraphic methods. The 12 km wide lake is sited off-centre in an 18 km large crater that was created by the impact of a meteorite 3.58 Ma ago. Since then sediments have been continuously deposited. For establishing their chronology, major reversals of the earth's magnetic field provided initial tie points for the age model, confirming that the impact occurred in the earliest geomagnetic Gauss chron. Various stratigraphic parameters, reflecting redox conditions at the lake floor and climatic conditions in the catchment were tuned synchronously to Northern Hemisphere insolation variations and the marine oxygen isotope stack, respectively. Thus, a robust age model comprising more than 600 tie points could be defined. It could be shown that deposition of sediments in Lake El'gygytgyn occurred in concert with global climatic cycles. The upper ~160 m of sediments represent the past 3.3 Ma, equivalent to sedimentation rates of 4 to 5 cm ka−1, whereas the lower 160 m represent just the first 0.3 Ma after the impact, equivalent to sedimentation rates in the order of 45 cm ka−1. This study also provides orbitally tuned ages for a total of 8 tephras deposited in Lake El'gygytgyn.

scholarly journals TESTING OF CHLORELLA/SCENEDESMUS MICROALGAE CONSORTIA FOR REMEDIATION OF WASTEWATER, CO₂ MITIGATION AND ALGAE BIOMASS FEASIBILITY FOR LIPID PRODUCTION

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judita Koreivienė ◽  
Robertas Valčiukas ◽  
Jūratė Karosienė ◽  
Pranas Baltrėnas
Keyword(s):  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Lipid Production ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Inorganic Phosphorus ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Treated Wastewater ◽  
Algae Biomass

Industry, transport and unsustainable agriculture result in the increased quantity of wastewater, release of nutrients and emission of carbon dioxide that promotes eutrophication of water bodies and global climate change. the application of microalgae for phycoremediation, their biomass use for human needs may increase sustainability and have a positive effect on the regional development. The experiments were carried out in order to establish the feasibility of treating the local municipal wastewater with microalgae consortia and their biomass potential for biofuel production. The results revealed that Chlorella/Scenedesmus consortium eliminated up to 99.7–99.9% of inorganic phosphorus and up to 88.6–96.4% of inorganic nitrogen from the wastewater within three weeks. The ammonium removal was more efficient than that of nitrate. Chlorella algae grew better in diluted, while Scenedesmus – in the concentrated wastewater. The consortium treated wastewater more efficiently than a single species. The maximum biomass (3.04 g/L) of algal consortium was estimated in concentrated wastewater. Algae accumulated 0.65–1.37 g of CO2/L per day in their biomass. Tus, Chlorella/Scenedesmus consortium is a promising tool for nutrients elimination from the local wastewater under the climatic conditions specific to Lithuania. However, none of the two species were able to accumulate lipids under the nitrogen starvation conditions.

scholarly journals Management of changes in the insurance industry in the conditions of climate crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 166 ◽  
pp. 13006
Author(s):  
Nelia Nagaichuk ◽  
Olena Shabanova ◽  
Natalia Tretiak ◽  
Anatoliy Marenych ◽  
Hanna Chepeliuk
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Theoretical Generalization ◽  
Scientific Task ◽  
Natural Climate ◽  
Climate Crisis

The insurance industry is rather effective in overcoming consequences of natural disasters. Insurance companies play a key role in financing natural disasters consequences, at the same time they sustain record losses and are in difficult financial conditions. Taking into account the above said, the issues of management of insurers risks is up-today and is connected with climate change. In article the content of “climate risk” as risk is specified, the emergence of which is caused by human activity, which leads to pollution, resulting from industrial activity and other sources that greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) which are capable to absorb a range of infrared radiation generate and, as a result, predetermine warming of the global atmosphere that brings to change of structure of the world atmosphere and adds natural climate instability during the certain periods of time. The most destructive dangers threatening to mankind owing to global warming are systematized. Types of risks and their sphere of manifestation in Ukraine are outlined. The directions of adaptation of the insurance industry to changes, caused by climatic crisis are defined. Due to results of the research, the theoretical generalization and author’s solutions of a scientific task are offered, which appear in the development of scientific and methodical approaches and justification of practical recommendations about modernization of activity of insurance companies and reinsurers in the conditions of risks, generated by global climate changes. Scientific novelty of the research: specifying the role of the insurance industry regarding the prevention of risks connected with global warming.

scholarly journals The El Niño: A Meteorological Risk Factor for Vector-borne Diseases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi Patel ◽  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Climate Crisis

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been ravaging numerous coastal and inland communities with excessive flooding and drought conditions, causing immense economic loss, and the incidence of many neglected tropical diseases. Affecting over 60 million people directly, El Niño remains one of the greatest enigmas to human health, and combined with the ever-escalating global climate crisis, El Niño events are only projected to increase in magnitude in the coming years (WHO, 2016).

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