The climate crisis never seems far from the mind of award-winning Indian writer Amitav Ghosh. From his home in New York, he spoke to DW about his latest book.
Amitav Ghosh is one of the few major authors to use literature to examine the global climate crisis. The award-winning Indian writer's books include The Glass Palace and Sea of Poppies.
His latest work, the illustrated book Jungle Nama, is about human greed, the forces of nature and the importance of balancing the two.
Amitav Ghosh spoke to DW from his home in New York, where he's been living for many years.
DW: You've been writing passionately about climate change for years in novels, and also the essay, The Great Derangement. Last week saw deadly floods in Asia and Europe, wildfires and heat waves in North America — what's been going through your mind?
Amitav Ghosh: First of all, I think of myself as writing about the reality of today rather than about climate change exclusively, because I think climate change is not just one thing — it's "everything change," as Margaret Atwood famously put it. These floods, and the other climatic events around the world, really show us that we are in the time of "everything change."
You live in the United States, you're originally from India and your books take place in South Asia, in regions that are affected by floods and have been for some time. But you write about the disparities between rich Western countries and developing countries in the east. Do you think that the events of the last weeks are a signal that we're really all in this climate crisis together?
Yes, absolutely. It was interesting to see one of the interviews that were conducted in one of the German flooded areas, a woman saying, "we don't expect this to happen in Germany."
That's really been the attitude for a long time, that these things happen somewhere else. And as we can see now, that's not the case. These things are happening everywhere. In fact, within Europe, there are countries that are among the worst affected. Italy is one of them.
I want to talk about your latest work, called Jungle Nama, a collaboration with the artist Salman Toor. It's a very old story from the Bengal region in India and Bangladesh about a forest deity called Bon Bibi and a greedy merchant who's looking for honey, which you've retold in verse. What makes this story so relevant for us today?
The story really conceptualizes the fundamental conflict of climate change, which is between the human search for profit and the needs of all other beings. And that's a remarkable thing, that's what interests me.
Image: HarperCollins India
Can you tell us a little bit about what it's about?
It's about a merchant who's already rich, but he goes into the forest to basically despoil the forest and seize anything he can. And while he's there, he falls into the clutches of a tiger demon and he makes, as it were, a pact with this demon, a pact to leave behind a member of his group. And then, the deity, Bon Bibi, intervenes and saves the child.
You have in the past lamented the portrayals of climate change and climate crises. Are these exaggerated science fiction tales or more niche stories? How is it that you would like to see climate change portrayed by artists and authors?
I don't know. I don't imagine that I'm laying down the law for a writer. That's not at all the case. I think every writer will write about these things in their own way. I think it's impossible to imagine that we ask writers to create, as it were, climate propaganda. I don't think that that would work at all. So that's not my idea.
The one thing that interests me, that presents itself as a challenge to me as a writer, is to write about our times as they really are. And we can see that our times are now completely changed from, let's say, even 30 years ago. This is what we should reflect in our work, what I should reflect in my work.
Do you have hope that authors like yourself can help in the fight against climate change?
Realistically speaking, as authors we have very little influence in the world, so it's not with that intention that I write. I write because I've always written about the real world and the world that we live in — and I don't feel that we should exclude this from our narratives.
In pictures: Deadly extreme weather shocks the world
From the Mediterranean to Germany to California and beyond, dramatic pictures of the severe impacts of extreme weather have been dominating the news this summer. Is the climate crisis to blame?
Image: Jon Nazca/REUTERS
Rainfall best ally for Spanish firefighters
A wildfire that burned through at least 7,780 hectares (30 square miles) in about a week and devastated forests in southern Spain was brought under control thanks to steady rains. The downpour helped the firefighters, who were backed by some 50 aircrafts. The blaze was one of the most difficult to combat in recent times in Spain. Some 2,600 people were forced to flee their homes.
Image: Jon Nazca/REUTERS
Fierce flash floods in Europe
Unprecedented flooding — caused by two months' worth of rainfall in two days — has resulted in devastating damage in central Europe, leaving at least 226 people dead in Germany and Belgium. Narrow valley streams swelled into raging floods in the space of hours, wiping out centuries-old communities. Rebuilding the ruined homes, businesses and infrastructure is expected to cost billions of euros.
Image: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
Europe on fire
While half of Europe is drowning, elsewhere areas are going up in flames: Large fires raged, particularly in Greece, Italy and Turkey. They have caused unforeseeable monetary damage, while thousands of people in Europe have lost their homes and their belongings.
Image: ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP
Record heat in Italy
In addition to deadly wildfires, Italy also battled record heat temperatures, with the Italian Health Ministry issuing the maximum possible heat warning level for many cities. On the island of Sicily, 48.8 degrees Celsius (almost 120 degrees Fahrenheit) was measured on August 11 — a new European heat record. The heat could make existing fires worse, or lead to new ones.
Image: Andrew Medichini/AP/picture alliance
Still out of control
Meanwhile, the Dixie Fire continues smoldering in California. It's California's largest fire on record, and among the most destructive in the state's history — it wiped the town of Greenville off the map. Although it's about 60% contained, the fire continues to burn two months in. Meanwhile, hot and dry conditions continue in the region, spreading fears of more fire.
Image: DAVID SWANSON/REUTERS
Extreme rainy seasons
Earlier this summer, record floods also hit parts of India and central China, overwhelming dams and drains and flooding streets. The downpours have been particularly heavy, even for the rainy season. Scientists have predicted that climate change will lead to more frequent and intense rainfall — warmer air holds more water, creating more rain.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Greece melts down amid heat waves
As nations flood in northern Europe, Mediterranean countries like Greece were in the grip of several heat waves. In the first week of July, temperatures soared to 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit). Tourism hot spots like the Acropolis were forced to shut during the day, while the extreme heat also sparked forest fires outside Thessaloniki, which helicopters tried to douse.
Image: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images
Sardinia scorched by 'unprecedented' wildfires
"It is an unprecedented reality in Sardinia’s history," said Sardinia's Governor Christian Salinas of the ongoing wildfires that have scorched the historic central western area of Montiferru. "So far, 20,000 hectares of forest that represent centuries of environmental history of our island have gone up in ashes." Around 1,500 people were evacuated from the island by the end of July.
Image: Vigili del Fuoco/REUTERS
Heat records in the US, Canada
Intense heat is becoming more common, as seen in late June in the US states of Washington and Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Scorching temperatures under a "heat dome," hot air trapped for days by high pressure fronts, caused hundreds of heat-related deaths. The village of Lytton recorded a high of 49.6 Celsius (121 Fahrenheit) — and burned to the ground the next day.
Image: Ted S. Warren/AP/picture alliance
Wildfires sparking thunderstorms
Heat and drought are fueling one of the most intense wildfire seasons in the West Coast and Pacific Northwest regions. Oregon's Bootleg Fire, which burned an area the size of Los Angeles in just two weeks, was so big it created its own weather and sent smoke all the way to New York City. A recent study said the weather conditions would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change.
Image: National Wildfire Coordinating Group/Inciweb/ZUMA Wire/picture alliance
Amazon nearing a 'tipping point'?
To the south, central Brazil is suffering its worst drought 100 years, increasing the risk of fires and further deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Researchers recently reported that a large swath of the southeastern Amazon has flipped from absorbing to emitting planet-warming CO2 emissions, pushing the rainforest closer to a "tipping point."
Image: Andre Penner/AP Photo/picture alliance
'On the verge of starvation'
After years of unrelenting drought, more than 1.14 million people in Madagascar are food-insecure, with some now forced to eat raw cactus, wild leaves and roots, and locusts in famine-like conditions. With the absence of natural disaster, crop failure or political conflict, the dire situation in the African nation is said to be first famine in modern history caused solely by climate change.
Image: Laetitia Bezain/AP photo/picture alliance
More people fleeing natural disasters
The number of people fleeing conflict and natural disasters hit a 10-year high in 2020, with a record 55 million people relocating within their own country. That's in addition to some 26 million people who fled across borders. A joint report released by refugee monitors in May found that three-quarters of the internally displaced were victims of extreme weather — and that number is likely to grow.
