For about a decade now, I have worked on climate emergencies with the objective distance that a journalist is trained to maintain.
Bear with me as I list out some of my work.
Since 2012, I have reported on how the largest contiguous forest area in India is under threat of excessive coal mining.
Working with the Adivasis for years gave me an insight into their relationship with land, resources and wildlife. In the central Indian forest regions, where the Adivasis live, I witnessed the transition from a sustainable, barter economy to a money economy. Struggling to see Adivasi women transition from gathering forest produce to counting currency in small shops is a learning that is hard to forget. That defined their changing their relationship to the forest and land, in order to accommodate large scale mining of fossil fuels.
I have been Certified as a trainer by the Center for Investigative Journalism’s Open Climate Reporting Initiative.
In 2022, I worked as a fellow with the Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development, to understand climate change-induced migration in the Himalayas.
In 2023, I travelled the 1500-mile length of the River Ganga to report on the effects of climate change on the Gangetic plain - which houses 600 million people. I worked closely with the Himalayan tribes, Dalits and fisherfolk near the Bay of Bengal. My work highlights the challenges of balancing climate change and emissions-heavy economic growth.
In September 2024, I completed a one year fellowship on climate adaptation and leadership called the Indo Pacific Leadership Lab organised jointly by the East West Center and the Japan Foundation. As a part of the inaugural cohort, I visited communities in Hawaii, Fiji and Okinawa to deeply study leadership patterns in climate adaptation among vulnerable oceanic communities.
Now, would you be surprised if I said the pace at which humans are wrecking nature became scary to me only this year? It did. All the clinical distance I had maintained melted into mush when I became a parent this year.
When I think of how my children would experience climate emergencies, I feel the anxiety in my bones. How long can I keep them away from an AC room? Would air conditioning reduce their immunity? How many times should I filter the water they drink? Questions and more questions.
Our story this week is from Bhopal, where kids are facing the impacts of climate change in their everyday life. To find out how they are dealing with the anxiety, read the story here:
Madhya Pradesh experienced the highest number of extreme weather events. Its children are the most affected.
By Nidhi Sakre and Rishabh Shrivastava
Climate change is no longer only shaping the world children will inherit. It is reshaping the childhood they are living today. For them, the clearest signs of climate change are not the floods or the wildfires they watch on television. They are far more routine: a football practice cut short by sudden rain, a sleepless night after relentless heat, a classroom entered in exhaustion, and a school calendar that quietly bends to the weather.
Are you a parent? Do you have similar questions? Different ones? Write to me.
Warmly,
Raksha.