Climate Emergency

Plastic has infiltrated deep into our lifestyle, it is now so widespread that it is even finding its way into the water we drink, the fruit and vegetables we eat and in personal care products like your face wash! Latest studies show that microplastics have reached human bodies as well! But how do they get there? Are we responsible for this? Host Sneha Richhariya explains. This episode features con...

The agricultural industry is an important part of the Indian economy, and many startups are developing new technologies and innovations to improve agricultural practices and increase efficiency in the industry.  In this episode, host Rakesh Kamal talks to Kaushik of Kheyti farms , which helps smallholder farmers in India gain a steady and dependable income. Kheyti has developed a “Greenhouse-in-a-...

While presenting the annual budget last Wednesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman listed seven priority areas that the budget had adopted this year. Green growth and energy transition has been kept among the priority areas and lies at the front and center of this year's Budget.  In this podcast, host Sneha Richhariya speaks to Mr. Deepak Krishnan, who is an associate director for World Resour...

Indigenous people play an important role in protecting the environment. The tribals  or adivasis as they are called in India depend on the forest for their survival. They have developed sustainable practices that preserve natural resources. Indigenous people are also increasingly being recognized as key partners in conservation efforts and are being included in decision-making processes related to...

At the 68th International Whaling Commission meeting held in Portoroz, Slovenia in 2022, India, as one of the member countries, spoke about the conservation initiatives of dolphins in the country. The government officials from the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forest (MOEFCC) put forth their agenda and suggestions in the forum. They talked about the need for a more inclusive particip...

The annual Climate conference COP27 is being held next month in Egypt. This is the first time the conference is being conducted in Africa and a discussion on "Loss and Damage" is expected to set center stage. To discuss what we can expect from the negotiations this year, Climate Emergency Host Rakesh Kamal talks with Navroz K. Dubash, Professor, Centre for Policy Research.  See sunoindia.in/privac...

In the past couple of decades, we have been hearing of cloudbursts in some part of the country or another. How is the Indian Meteorological Department studying this phenomenon? Why are these incidents increasing over a period of time, and what can be done to minimize the damages cloudbursts cause, both to life and property? To understand this phenomenon, we spoke to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate sci...

Ratan Hemrom, a 33-year-old rice farmer in Birbhum district, says he will lose his home, culture and community if the West Bengal government goes ahead with its coal mine plans. He lives in the Deucha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsingha area which is also home to the largest coal block in Asia, the 2nd largest in the world. Our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to him about why the Santhal residents ar...

One of the main problems during the floods is the complete disconnection of essential services. Electricity disruption in hospitals and a lack of fuel for running generators have become a yearly problem in Assam. To address this World resources institute, India has piloted a project on adding solar panels to provide uninterrupted electricity to hospitals and the difference has been noticed this ye...

After the ivory kingpin, Umesh Aggarwal was nabbed in 2015, there were various discussions within the Kerala forest department officials on what could be the next steps to detect and prevent such crimes. The officials, after intense brainstorming, brought in a robust system by the name Hostile Activity Watch Kernel (HAWK). The system was developed by Kerala-based Leopard Tech Labs, a company forme...

Elephants are among the endangered species in India. Over the years, with demand for ivory, tuskers have been particularly targeted and killed. Despite laws, and bans in place, ivory poaching still continues. When male tuskers are poached for the ivory trade, it also threatens the future population of elephants.  In 2015, an ivory kingpin was nabbed in New Delhi for procuring tusks and creating ar...

In this episode, host Rakesh Kamal talks to Sidharth Singh and Simon Bennett who work at the International Energy Agency.  They are experts in Energy policy and have started a podcast recently called “Innovation Frontlines” dealing with the Clean energy innovation. They talk about their new podcast, the challenges innovators are facing in clean energy space and how important innov...

According to the World Weather Attribution , the heatwave in India and Pakistan this year was a one-in-a-hundred-year occurrence. With global warming, things are only expected to get worse. Heatwave advisories ask people to not step out during extreme temperatures, but daily wage labourers have no choice. With unbearable working conditions, a 2021 study published in Nature Communications found tha...

Historically India has been a handloom wearing country. Handlooms were not so easily available and would take time and were relatively expensive. But with changing times we have started to see the change. More and more clothes are now produced and more thrown away every year. We buy clothes for no reason. We buy what we feel like, we buy because there is a sale and not necessarily because we need...

The increasing threat of climate change and the contribution of waste to the emissions is something that needs to be taken seriously. And as individuals, by living sustainably each one of us can make an impact. But many of us are often stuck with questions like how do you begin this zero waste journey? where do you start?  and will it really make any difference? To know this and more in this...

To earn their daily bread, fishers from Tamil Nadu put their lives and property in peril while crossing the maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka in the Palk Bay. The large trawlers they operate, however, wreak havoc on the shallow waters and destroy the marine ecosystem. This leaves precious little marine life for the fishers across the border. What are the roadblocks India has faced in s...

Global temperatures are already 1.2 degree C higher than pre-industrial era. As the UN’s annual climate conference COP26 drew to an end with little progress on most key issues, it drew reactions of anger and disappointment from young activists. The world leaders needed to agree on some key issues: who will do how much to reduce their carbon emissions, the finance that will be given to the de...

Are green crackers, the proclaimed panacea to the problem of air pollution caused due to firecrackers, solving the problem of air pollution? And can we do without a blanket ban for firecrackers? For this episode, Hariprasad Radhakrishnan speaks to environmentalists and other experts to figure what are the possible solutions to the problem facing us this Diwali. Tune in to this episode of the Suno...

Almost every year since 1995, politicians and representatives from all over the world have been meeting in the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss ways to reduce CO2 emissions which cause climate change. Scientists have been producing reports in a collaborative manner and all say the same “Climate change is happening” and over years only say that it is worsening. All the...

In September 2020, India passed the Farm Laws without any multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary consultations or parliamentary debates. There were sweeping protests across India against these laws, which favour private investment, unregulated markets, and contract farming, among other changes. Experts feel this will push commercially viable but intensive agriculture which will not favour the farme...

While scientists discovered a new snake species in the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu, little did they know that this discovery would unearth a 185-year old problem of name mix-ups done in the past. In 2016, Deepak Veerappan, working with the Natural History Museum in London, received a new snake species from Tamilnadu. It was considered similar to banded racer (a widespread species). For this...

In April 2020 India’s environment ministry gave wildlife clearance to two infrastructure projects waiting for approval in Goa. This was another step towards allowing trees to be cut in the forests of Mollem that is part of the UNESCO global biodiversity hotspot–the Western Ghats. In Goa, this move was met with strong resistance. What initially started out as an online campaign due to C...

If you ever visit a vegetable market late in the day you will see mostly rotten vegetables and leftovers thrown around everywhere.  Some of it is stored in cold rooms but most of it, unfortunately, ends in dump yards. But one such exception is the Bowenpally market yard in Hyderabad. It got a mention in Prime Minister Modi's Man ki Baat. In this episode, we talk to Shruti Ahuja director...

In a  recent paper published in the Journal of Hydrology , scientists looked at climate change and their impact on river runoffs in the Dokriani Glacier in the Central Himalaya. To understand the impact of climate change on these glaciers, it was crucial to collect and analyse regional climate data from the field. It was found, over forty years of data analysis, that the glacier was in steady...

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Glaciology, scientists have reported their findings from the longest ever field data from the entire Himalayan range for the first time. Chhota Sigri, a key benchmark glacier or an indicator glacier for the Lahaul-Spiti region in Himachal Pradesh, was studied to understand the effect of climate change. The data looked at various components of the glaci...