Asian Insider

S1E81: Profound destabilisation: Author Amitav Ghosh on climate change, the future - Asian Insider Ep 82

Jan 4, 2022

Amitav Ghosh discusses the planetary crisis and climate change, focusing on destabilization in countries like Britain, India, Myanmar, and Egypt. He talks about a revolution from the right, the risks of global conflicts, and offers advice to younger generations in a bleaker world.

20:01

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Episode guests

Amitav Ghosh

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Reframing climate change beyond Western discourse, highlighting societal implications.

Warning on potential human self-destruction amidst global power shifts and geopolitical tensions.

Deep dives

Redefining Our Relationship with Nature

The discussion centers on reevaluating the concept of nature due to its colonial baggage and dualistic implications, emphasizing the need to move away from such dualisms and explore alternate ways of framing the world. This shift presents a challenge given the embedded nature of existing concepts, with a necessary yet challenging change in perspective pointing towards an inevitable transformation in how we perceive our world.

Intro

5min

Exploring the Global Destabilization Caused by Climate Change

3min

Impacts and Responses to Climate Change: From the Poor to the Middle Class

4min

Speculations on the downfall of the human species and the future of US-China relations

4min

Challenges and Advice for the Younger Generation in a Turbulent World

3min

Synopsis: Each month, The Straits Times' US Bureau Chief Nirmal Ghosh presents an Asian perspective of the week's global talking points with expert guests.

In this special episode, Nirmal Ghosh speaks with author Amitav Ghosh, a prolific writer who has written such classics as The Hungry Tide, The Glass Palace, and In An Antique Land, among others, that have been translated into dozens of languages and read across the planet. His most recent is The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.

Highlights (click/tap above):

03:45 The framing of the planetary crisis and especially in relation to climate change, tends to be within the Western discourse, as a bureaucratic business best left to technocrats and the diplomats

05:00 How climate has destabilised countries, from Britain, to India, Myanmar and even Egypt

08:15 We are seeing a revolution, not from the poor, but from the right

12:00 On China, the US, and why human beings are perfectly capable of ending their own existence long before the climate does

16:20 Advice, words of wisdom to the 10-to-15-year-olds growing up in this bleaker-looking world

Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim & Fa'izah Sani

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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