Heated words: An A-Z of the climate crisis

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Before it was climate change, it was global warming. Before that, it was holes in the atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases.

Now, it’s the climate crisis, caused by a combination of rising temperatures, rising sea levels, a slowing Gulf Stream, intensifying weather events, and increasingly erratic rainfall. Hence, crisis.

When put like that, it makes sense to extrapolate that if this is what 1.1 degrees Celsius (warmer than pre-industrial levels) looks like, 1.5 degrees will be potentially terrifying. And 2 degrees all but unlivable.

As the once debated is-it-or-isn’t-it phenomenon of global warming has turned into undeniable changes we see today — from superstorms and cyclones to sweeping wildfires, record-setting summer and winter extremes, torrential rain in months that saw no rain, and snow and hail in parts that see no snow; as the climate has become more extreme and unpredictable; and as our species attempts to navigate this change, a new language has developed to talk about the phenomenon.

And so we have, for instance, ideas of climate justice and environmental racism, around which world leaders made impassioned speeches at CoP26 in November. Tulavu’s foreign affairs minister Simon Kofe stood knee-deep in the ocean, in his home country, and said to the world: “We are sinking.” Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley described a goal of 2 degrees as a “death sentence” for her nation and many other island nations that would go under.

The terms “climate justice” and “environmental racism” are pegged to the idea that attempts to mitigate rising temperatures and the impacts of the climate crisis must focus on smaller economies that stand to be worst-affected, rather than almost exclusively on keeping the world’s biggest cities and most powerful countries stable. Read more on that in this Wknd A-Z.

Similarly, the term “triple bottom line” is both a hope and a warning. It represents the idea that companies must now aim for three things simultaneously: profits, the good of the community, and alleviation of pollution. In keeping with this idea, some soft drink companies run plastic and water recycling programmes; cigarette makers plant forests. How many trees are actually planted, how much water recycled? Look at the numbers and, far too often, triple bottom line claims turn out to belong to an entirely different new hashtag: greenwashing, the practice of turning polluting activities into hollow PR exercises.

The language of climate change and conservation is a product of the times. Several new terms are succinct and catchy. Many are designed to be self-explanatory: circular economy, keystone species, net-zero emissions. It’s a language designed to encourage inclusivity, action and hope.

Some terms have become movements in themselves. Net-zero is the new ideal: the point where we can take out of the atmosphere as many greenhouse gases as we put into it, using natural and man-made carbon sinks, and as a result can keep warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius (above those pre-industrial levels from 1850).

ECO-SPEAK

Some terms matter, not because they’re new or catchy but because they’re often misunderstood, with disastrous effects. The terms “grassland” and “wasteland”, for instance, are used interchangeably by planners, with devastating consequences for the numerous species that live nowhere else on Earth, and for the delicate ecosystems they help support (as well as for basic land-use; lost grasslands mean worse flooding, poor soil retention).

Pest, similarly, is a term often misused to target majestic animals such as the nilgai, or to result in ecosystems being been devastated by the overuse of chemical pesticides.

Renewable energy and lithium-ion batteries, in the same vein, may not be the magic wand they are sometimes made out to be. Read on for more on that.

And read on also for why imperfections might be better than the alternative, why space shouldn’t be the billionaires’ newest playground, what it is that makes palm oils so awful, and just how much of you might just be microplastics.

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Agricultural land: At 145 million, the number of farmers in India has more than doubled since the 1970s, but average farm size is down by more than half, to about 1 hectare, according to the Agriculture Census 2015. As farmland in India becomes more fragmented, and the climate more unpredictable, conservationists are concerned that forest land is being usurped for farming. Meanwhile, agricultural land near India’s mushrooming cities is at risk too. What constitutes a farm, and how can we farm more sustainably? What’s the best thing to be eating, from an ecological standpoint? These will be key questions as we navigate the climate crisis.

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Big coal: India is the world’s second-largest consumer of coal, according to data from Statista. More than half of the country’s electricity is still produced by burning this polluting fossil fuel. Meanwhile, India’s population is set to hit 1.5 billion by 2030, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. To meet projected demand over the next 20 years, India will need to add enough generating capacity to power all of the European Union, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency. Will that, too, come from coal? Renewable sources are in play, but don’t have a starring role yet.

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Circular economy: In a circular economy, as opposed to a linear economy, systems are put in place for products and materials to be shared, repaired, refurbished, recycled. The benefits are clear: it’s good for the environment, fewer virgin materials are extracted, there is less waste of production processes and raw materials such as water, and less waste makes it to landfills. The trick now is to make the circular economy scalable and profitable. Small companies are turning profits from upcycling stale bread as beer; polluted water as potable. Companies that specialise in helping others close the loop are cropping up too. See Wknd’s Urban page for more.

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Downgrade: Though each person in India generates a small fraction of the global average, put together India generates among the highest volumes of solid waste in the world. The more we consume, the more we pollute. Downgrading is simply using less stuff, thinking before you click, on everything from snacks to knick-knacks. A downgraded lifestyle, however, presents a new challenge to capitalist societies (which we all are, at this point). These economies depend on endless cycles of consumption. Finding a way to slow that cycle could be the vital climate action no one’s talking about.

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Environmental racism: Globally, and locally, when it comes to the effects of the climate crisis, the disadvantaged are disproportionately affected, while the consumption habits and lifestyles of the wealthy are sought to be protected. This disparity is now being called out, as environmental racism. Which doesn’t put us in the clear. Within India, over 40% of all those displaced are from tribal groups, though tribals comprise only about eight of the country’s population, according to a report released in 2012 by the UN Working Group on Human Rights in India. Almost worse, the projects for which such the disadvantaged are displaced tend to serve urban and / or wealthy populations and lifestyles, perpetuating a cycle of imbalance.

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Forests: India classifies orchards, plantations and monocultures also as forests. The Forest Survey of India defines forest cover thus: “All lands, more than 1 ha in area with a tree canopy density of 10% irrespective of ownership and legal status.” Some forest areas, meanwhile, contain roads, mines and agricultural land instead. And the forest tag is used to deprive forest dwellers and tribals of their right to forage, collect firewood, and otherwise live off the land (in what remain, let it be said, some of the most ecologically sustainable lifestyles in the world). In 2021, the union government announced that it is revisiting the definition of forest altogether, in attempt to “streamline” legislation. What this would mean for India’s remaining green lungs is not yet clear.

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Grasslands: They’re flat, expansive and appear lifeless. Which is one reason grasslands in India are often characterised as wastelands and left unprotected. In reality, they are vital and diverse ecosystems. India’s grasslands are home to elusive and threatened species, from the great Indian bustard to Indian grey wolf, as well as numerous endemic species of reptile, mammal, amphibian and bird. Because they are often incorrectly categorised, India’s grasslands are shrinking. Less than 15% of the Nilgiri plateau, home to unique shola grasslands, remains intact. The land here, as elsewhere, has been lost to power projects, resorts, roads, farms and homes.

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Human-animal conflict: As wildlife reserves become moth-eaten and green lungs shrink, with roads, power plants and entire townships dividing what was until recently a sanctuary, the incidence of human-animal conflict has risen. In India, new species are featuring in these clashes, from sloth bears driven into fields because the water bodies in their forests have shrunk, to elephants running amok in new parts after ancient corridors were disturbed, and snakes and leopards forced out of their homes and into human settlements that didn’t exist a few years earlier. In all cases the question is the same: How much less room can they take?

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Imperfect: There’s a case for doing a little for the environment, doing what one can, even if it can’t be done perfectly. Can’t always eat local? Be a flexitarian, eating animal-based foods in moderation. Can’t ditch all plastic? Ditch just single-use, at least most of the time. Transition slowly, set realistic goals; that way, they’re likely to last longer. The imperfect movement also refers to picking produce with blotches or blemishes over identical, waxy fruits and vegetables that look like clones of each other. See a knobbly carrot? Pick it up. It’s probably been tampered with far less than the ones with no curves.

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Climate justice: “We are sinking,” Tulavu’s foreign affairs minister Simon Kofe said, in his CoP26 speech in November. His podium stood knee-deep in sea water, in his home country. Global climate goals aim to cap warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with a worst-case scenario of 2 degrees. Two degrees, as Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley put it in her CoP26 speech, is a death sentence for the many vulnerable island nations that would be submerged. The climate justice movement calls on rich nations that have a higher historical burden to spend and do more to fight the crisis, especially by focussing on smaller economies that face a higher impact from changing climate.

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Keystone species: A keystone is the slab wedged into the summit of an arch that keeps the whole thing from collapsing. A keystone species is one without which an entire ecosystem can crumble. The most recognisably significant keystone species include whales, tigers, elephants. But in delicate ecosystems around the world, a keystone species may also be a type of bee, a small amphibian, a fungus, a grass, a tree or a flowering plant. Even if all one cares about is the big picture, it is not enough to protect the large, wide-eyed and charismatic. The small and hidden can be crucial too.

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Lithium-ion battery: Electric vehicles are set to change the world in ways that may not be apparent yet. Take lithium. It’s a core component in an EV’s rechargeable battery, and as millions of EVs hit the roads over the next few years — India alone is aiming for EVs to account for 30% of all new cars sold by 2030 — expect to hear a lot more about Bolivia, home to 25% of the world’s lithium deposits. The mines are dangerous too, the extraction process expensive. And it’s still not clear how this toxic element can safely be returned to the earth.

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Microplastics: If single-use plastics are the visible threat, microplastics are the out-of-sight blight. Tiny fibres and fragments have drifted out of products (they’re in everything from tea bags to tennis balls, detergents, cigarette butts and glitter) and found their way into oceans, rivers, marine life, Arctic ice. They’re in the air, in drinking water, and in more or less every person on the planet too. Microplastics are now being linked to heightened risks for cancer and to birth defects in children.

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Net-zero: The idea of net-zero emissions is a hypothetical ideal where the amount of greenhouse gases produced would be equal to the amount removed from the atmosphere using natural and artificial carbon sinks. If the world can achieve net zero emissions while ensuring that average global warming stays under the 1.5 degree Celsius mark (when compared with pre-industrial levels from 1850), then there is significant hope that the damage already caused by human activity can be contained. On a planet that is already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in 1850, with all the climate chaos that that has unleashed, net-zero emissions holds out promise. Twenty years from now, if the world isn’t close to net-zero emissions, the result will be a climate crisis that intensifies exponentially.

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Oil palm plantations: Palm oil is in everything from shampoo to ice-cream. If an agrarian community wants to get rich quick, it’s a simple question of planting the palms and waiting for the money to flow in. It’s such an effective path to riches that, in Indonesia, oil palm plantations have replaced thousands of acres of tropical rainforest. Viral images show orangutans hanging on to remaining forest as acres burned behind them. Last year, India pledged to triple palm oil production, using land in the ecologically sensitive north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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Pest: Because of India’s tough wildlife laws (implementation is another matter), an animal whose existence is inconvenient to human interests sometimes crosses the line from wild to pestilent. So the term “pest” in India includes certain kinds of bollworm and caterpillar, but also the majestic nilgai and the wild boar. Tagging them pests means they can be killed with easily procured permission, often to prevent crops from being trampled. Even traditional pests are being mishandled. Entire bird-insect ecosystems have been wiped out by the uncontrolled use of pesticides, another instance of an invention with good intentions being misused.

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Quantification of climate change impact: How does one measure the effects of climate change or the results we want to achieve? Scientists have begun to break it down into numbers, amid a massive effort to make goals more relatable and achievable, and threats easier to understand. 1.5 degrees Celsius (above pre-industrial levels) is the number at which warming must, ideally, stop. 350 ppm is the upper limit for CO2 content in the air; the global average is currently 412.5 ppm, according to a 2020 report by the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Trillion Tree Campaign aims to increase the planet’s green cover by that much. And they’re all ways to explain climate change in numbers.

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Renewable energy: India has committed to generating half its energy from non-fossil fuels by 2030, and to generating five times as much energy from renewable sources than it does right now (this figure is currently at 100 gigawatts). There has been massive investment in renewable power technologies by some of the country’s biggest players, but critics are still sceptical about the 2030 target. A point to note here is that “renewable” refers to the source of the energy generated. The sustainability, efficiency and recyclability of the hardware used, all over the world, needs work.

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Sustainable materials: Since the industrial revolution, production has meant pollution. There is now a global movement to return to the locally sourced, biodegradable, non-energy-intensive materials and processes that were the norm before the machines and global supply chains kicked in. The movement has spawned vegan alternatives to silk and leather; restaurants that source only locally, or forage; concrete-free structures with built-in renewable power and water recycling plants. The challenge is to take this to scale, at affordable rates.

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Triple bottom line: This is the idea that companies must aim for three things simultaneously, amid the climate crisis: profits, the good of the community, and alleviation of pollution. This often involves changing processes and investing in pollution mitigation efforts. So there are soft drink companies running plastic and water recycling programmes; cigarette makers planting forests. How many trees are actually planted, how much water recycled? Look at the numbers and, far too often, triple-bottom-line companies turn out to be really good at something else entirely: greenwashing, or the practice of turning polluting activities into hollow PR exercises for their own benefit.

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Urban habitats: The intangibles that keep animals away — noise, lights, traffic fumes — only became apparent in the early months of the pandemic, when nilgai tiptoed down the streets of Noida, spotted deer were seen in Tirupati, and a rhino wandered into Guwahati. Nature has learnt to live alongside our concrete blocks and tarred streets. Even the cement jungle of Mumbai remains home to flamingoes and leopards, dolphins and a wide variety of intertidal marine species. But as our cities expand into neighbouring forests and green lungs, as Mumbai expands outward into the ocean via its coastal road, even these delicately reframed balances are coming undone.

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Viable population: This is the minimum number of individuals required for a species to survive and sustain itself in the wild. The number is different for different species and certain animals and birds, like the great Indian bustard and white-bellied heron, are currently at a crucial inflection point. For instance, there are about 125 individual great Indian bustards in the wild, according to data from the Bombay Natural History Society, with about 100 of these in Rajasthan and handfuls in neighbouring states. While it is likely the smaller populations will die out, the Rajasthan population, if allowed to grow now, could attain a degree of stability. And, aswith tigers and lions, could even proliferate to the point where small groups could eventually be relocated to pockets where the bird has died out.

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Waste stream: The journey of an item after it loses function is called its waste stream. Every object has one, from the Amazon carton to computer to the concrete slabs from old buildings. There can be profit in managing waste well, but new things are being invented all the time too, and it can take years to refine their waste streams. Electric vehicles, for instance, could wean large populations off fossil fuels, but the batteries contain highly toxic lithium and cobalt. How would these be disposed of? What happens to the photovoltaic cells in solar panels, after they die out? All crucial questions as more of these are made every year.

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Space X and the new-age space race: At this point, they’re essentially exorbitant, repetitive, polluting joyrides. Billionaires trying to outdo each other by bobbing about in low orbit are creating new revenue streams, with plans for regular tourist shuttles, space hotels, and more. But there is criticism that this is yet another example of short-sighted, self-indulgent, ecologically harmful excess. That they are burning up precious resources and exorbitant sums, at a critical period in the planet’s future. Only a privileged few will actually get to look down at Earth from space, and even they will have to return to it and its climate crisis.

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Yamuna, India’s waterbodies, and marine ecosystems: The Yamuna looked otherworldly, frothing around devotees during Chhath Puja in November. Sadly, it’s not alone. Mumbai’s Mithi River, Bengaluru’s lakes, Kolkata’s Hooghly are all grappling with extreme pollution from untreated sewage and industrial effluents. In the oceans, where pollution is widespread but less visible and less researched, everything from plastic waste and microplastics to sound pollution and ghost nets are altering fragile ecosystems. In Bengaluru, a citizens’ group has revived five lakes over ten years; in Mumbai, people have fought to save 80 hectares of flamingo-roosting wetlands. The plan was to turn the patch into a golf course.

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Zoonotic diseases: This is the term for diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans. It’s a term made familiar by 2020, and the bats that are suspected to have passed the novel coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, onto the human population. As more species that did not previously have contact with humans are brought into contact with us, through changing migration routes, shifting habitats, habitat destruction, etc, epidemiologists estimate that more novel diseases will emerge. The viruses we have already battled indicate why this is not a good thing: Covid-19, Ebola, Zika are all zoonotic diseases.

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