Nationalism military power and geopolitical disparities are fundamental to the dynamics that have repeatedly styed efforts to reach a global agreement on rapid decarbonisation. In that sense, it could be said that conflict and national rivalries are fundamental drivers of climate change, yet these issues are rarely discussed in conferences on global warming, which have come to be focused rather on technocratic and economistic solutions.– Amitav Ghosh
Using examples from the Indonesian island of Ternate, Ghosh examined the geopolitical disparities and colonial legacies that prevent consensus on climate change action.
It is no coincidence that the literature on climate change, which is overwhelmingly produced by Western universities and think tanks, is largely centred on technical and economic issues. As a result there is an immense gap between perceptions of climate change in the affluent countries of the Global North, which are almost all beneficiaries of centuries of colonialism, and those of the Global South, most of which were subjected to some form of colonial domination.– Amitav Ghosh
Ghosh proposed that this gap has contributed to an acceleration of militarisation in the Indian Ocean region, which he positions as ‘one of the most striking features of contemporary global geopolitics’.
Dr Jarad Zimbler, Professor Daniel Orrells, Amitav Ghosh, Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA and Dr Luca Raimondi at the Global Cultures Institute annual lecture and IATIO end of project event on 28 November 2024. Image: Richard Eaton
Amitav Ghosh and Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA in conversation. Image: Richard Eaton
In conversation with Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA, Professor of English Literature in the Department of English and former Global Cultures Institute fellow, Ghosh reflected on the pitfalls of relying solely on data to address climate change.
We have come to look at the world through a veil of statistics… People are drilled into looking at the world through numbers and in many ways, I think this actually doesn't allow them to see certain very essential human realities.– Amitav Ghosh
Ghosh also examined the dissonance between Western perceptions of climate change and the way it is viewed and experienced by people in developing countries, who are more affected by the consequences. Through his knowledge of Indian Ocean lives, Ghosh suggested that the gap between praising the ‘cognitive elite’ over those with practical knowledge leads society to value the wrong skillsets, rather than those that would be vital in a catastrophic crisis.
Because they are islands, there are these very deep community ties. In the disrupted world of the future, things like that will be very, very important – community ties, knowing your land, and knowing how to survive.– Amitav Ghosh
Mohammed Shahid Alam, Counsellor (Science & Tech, Education & Management) at the High Commission of India, London, Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London, and Amitav Ghosh. Image: Richard Eaton
About Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh is a prize-winning author of fiction and non-fiction. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and include the novels The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, the Ibis trilogy, consisting of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire, and his latest novel, Gun Island. His works of non-fiction include In An Antique Land, The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, and his latest book, Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories. Amitav Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and six honorary doctorates. In 2024, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
About the Global Cultures Institute
The Global Cultures Institute fosters interdisciplinary conversations to probe and articulate the limits and boundaries that divide us on the rounds of language, culture, community and identity. By building a critical understanding of their origins and development, the Institute shares its work through research, education and public engagement, finding ways to talk beyond boundaries.
About India and the Indian Ocean in the Early Decolonial Period: Archipelagic Imaginaries, 1950s-1970s (IATIO)
For the entire Indian Ocean region, the period between post-World War II decolonisation in the 1950s and the 1970s was characterised by vast political, cultural and economic changes. What do we know about Indian intellectual and literary cosmopolitanism in the Indian Ocean during this period? To answer this question, the IATIO project takes the concept of ‘archipelagic imaginaries’ and applies an interdisciplinary methodology, combining tools and insights from history, literary criticism and cultural studies. It draws from journals and the popular press, as well as works of fiction and selected case studies of material Indian Ocean sites of cosmopolitan encounters. The aim is to study the renewed investment in archipelagic theory and geocritical approaches.
IATIO is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 898029
Audience members at the Global Cultures Institute annual lecture with Amitav Ghosh. Image: Richard Eaton