Media for Climate Justice

Media CAMPAIGN for climate justice 2013 - 2014 a Pipal Tree publication Media campaign for climate justice Compilation of monographs from the 2013-14 media project of Pipal Tree Contributors: M.N. Kulkarni | Mallikarjuna Hosapalya | Anitha Pailoor | Poornaprajna Belur Nagesh Hegde | Nakkeeran | Sumana Narayan | Kirubakaran | Shantha G Muhammed Noushad | Sandeep K | Naseera | Jisha A.S | Ranjith Kavumkara Translators: M.N. Kulkarni | Divya Sharma | M. Mahadevan | Sandeep K Editors: Eugene Lawrence | Shabin Paul Design and layout: Ananda Siddhartha Cover picture: Mallikarjuna Hosapalya Published: December 2014 Published by: Pipal Tree, Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Dinnepalya, Kaggalipura Post Bangalore - 560 082 India | Phone: +91-80-28432725 | Email: [email protected] Website: www.pipaltree.org.in | www.climatesouthasia.org Contents 1 The Driving concern 29 The cost of electronic waste Kirubakaran 3 Mitigation and adaptation measures for the agricultural sector to cope with 31 Climate justice for Dalit women in a caste climate change effects rooted society M. N. Kulkarni Shantha G 7 Millets for a changing climate 34 Toiling for a better climate Mallikarjuna Hosapalya Muhammed Noushad 11 Terrace Gardening for a green future 36 The receding songs of the rain Anitha Pailoor Sandeep K 13 Tanks, the lifeline of villages 40 Attapadi under threat of climate change Purnaprajna Belur Naseera 15 Green economy: alternate pathways to 43 Wayanad: A case of Kerala’s petroleum highway environmental degradation Nagesh Hegde Jisha A.S. 18 Mangrove forests and thermal power 45 What changing climate has to do with stations dams? Nakeeran Ranjith Kavumkara 26 Climate change and fisheries Sumana Narayan The Driving Concern he impact of climate change on forest, mountain, arid, international debate and action. semi-arid, coastal and urban ecosystems, particularly Pipal Tree discerned that in the context of India, the media, Tthose encumbered with poverty and deprived of protective especially the Indian languages media, has a vital role in mechanisms against this looming disaster, will be enormous. creating awareness among the general public and in engaging That this tragedy is not due to a manifestation of nature, where policy makers on aspects related to climate justice. Following they might console themselves as victims of a cosmic design, through that discernment, Pipal Tree had facilitated an alliance but entirely man made, made by the affluent which dominate of freelance writers, journalists, social researchers and activists political, economic and social decisions, is a bitter pill to swallow. since 2012 to make use of the space available in the media for Since the industrial revolution, the predominant development stories and articles aimed at creating awareness on climate change model has been that of reaping and overexploiting the resources of mitigation and adaptation measures. the earth. Accredited Scientific bodies across the world caution us This release is a compilation of articles written and published on temperature increases, glacier meltdowns, extreme changing by fourteen freelance writers from the three South Indian states of weather patterns endangering our bio- diversities and yet, save Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the campaign on climate some micro and local endeavors to address the issue, there is little justice during the programme year 2013-14. or no evidence of any significant or visible effort made on a global Writing on mitigation and adaptation measures for the scale by governments to tone down their electoral priorities and agricultural sector to cope with climate change effects, M. N. compromise on their own pursuits of development. Kulkarni, an activist from the Tumkur area of Karnataka details Therein lies the fundamental question of justice. Policy options the benefits of Integrated Farming System (IFS) to protect the on how to fairly share the benefits and burdens livelihood of dry-land farmers in times of climate adversity. of climate change need to be the Mallikarjuna Hosapalya, director of Dhanya, an NGO subject of both national and concerned with millet cultivation, follows up with his article on how millets will play a huge role in the future of food and food security in adverse conditions of climate change in dry land agriculture when rain fall pattern can no longer be certain. Taking an urban slant, Anitha Pailoor, a freelance writer and activist, sees a positive outcome in terrace gardening in that it effectively addresses climate mitigation if adopted by urban residents at scale: massive reduction in carbon foot prints due to travel time of food production from source to the dining table, non dependence on chemical fertilizers and machinery dependent on fossil fuel. Poornaprajna Belur, freelance development journalist, journeys back into ‘Time’ and essays on the traditional value of water tanks once sacred and abundant in villages which provided ample water requirements for agriculture, human and cattle needs for the village community but now lay waste as garbage dumps and contaminated pools. He urges that these water bodies be restored especially with the onslaught of climate change for these restored water bodies can be instrumental in meeting water shortages when other water resources diminish. Nagesh Hegde, veteran writer, climate change watcher and faculty at the Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore, in his ‘Green Economy’, offers an alternative model of development over the present environmental unfriendly model fashioned after insensitivity and greed. He emphasises that if efforts are not made to affect the shift, the destruction of civilization as we know it now will be inevitable without any recompense for redemption. His argument is persuasive and carries a huge element of appeal. 1 Hitting at the nerve of the endangered coastal belt of Tamil arid, rocky stretch of land into an oasis as it were, where today, Nadu, prone to devastating cyclones and tsunamis, Nakkeeran, a various specious of reptiles, birds and other creatures thrive on prolific freelance writer from Tamil Nadu, establishes the intrinsic water bodies. The simplicity of his words reflects the simplicity nature of mangroves as defenders against violent weather and the and single mindedness of Abdul Kareem’s passion for nature: An cradle of bio diversity that nourishes local fisher folk economies outstanding journey of perseverance! and livelihoods, and that of farmers engaged in inland agriculture. Who would have considered frogs as significant in our Nakkeeran’s writing is contemporary but also educative in that environmental balance? On a scholarly note yet poetic in he draws attention to the abysmal disregard of the importance description, Sandeep, a young teacher and budding writer, writes of these mangroves in the quest for development in the form of on the relevance of frogs in the environmental balance in Kerala. power plants which will dot the entire coastal belt of Tamil Nadu The symphony of croaks from the frogs heralding the onset of the and change climatic conditions irreversibly. monsoon in Kerala and their mating season, the comfort felt by Sumana Narayan, a freelance writer and activist from Tamil the farmers that the rains would sing again and the assurance that Nadu presents the plight of fisher folk, especially those who are the crops can be raised, touches the reader romantically only to still practicing artisanal methods of fishing in the face of varying dissipate into a soliloquy of awareness that this quaint amphibian weather and unpredictable sea conditions. friend of Man is rapidly disappearing as a result of changing Kirubakaran writes about the scourge of the electronic era, agricultural practices with the use of toxic fertilizers and pesticides where unusable computer components and other hazardous and land use patterns which is inducing climatic changes where accessories are dumped on large areas of land, contaminating the these amphibians are destined to be casualties. earth and ground water. A timely piece of journalism at a time, Two women writers, Jisha and Naseera take on the issues of when no adequate thought has been given to safe disposal by the the environment in Kerala. While Naseera writes about climatic authorities, supposed to put in place environmental and public changes occurring in Attapadi, Kerala due to environmental safety measures. degradation caused by changes in agricultural practices, over Shantha G., activist and executive director of DAWN, an NGO exploitation of ground water and infrastructure developmental in Virudunagar, Tamil Nadu, focused on women’s issues, paints work, Jisha takes on the resort and construction industry which an overwhelming cameo of the agony a community of women will is rampantly destroying the pristine nature of Wayanad in Kerala. undergo with climate change steaming in; Dalit women! Treated Ranjith Kavumkara, a research scholar writes on the calamitous as a lowly member even in this lowly and contemptuously treated effect construction of dams have on indigenous habitats, river humanity because of a caste system, women who are scorned by systems, people’s lives depend on and how such constructions the authorities, women who cannot draw water from the village actually result in negative impacts on the climate. wells, women who have to walk mile after mile to collect water, It is hoped that the efforts of these fourteen freelance these women will be subjected to the worst imaginable hardship, journalists, when read in the

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