Nepal should conduct ‘haze diplomacy’ to get India and Pakistan to cooperate on pollution control

We, humans, have changed the world’s ecology beyond the point of recovery, the climate crisis being the bellwether for innumerable interventions that impact the survival of all life forms. The globe has entered the Anthropocene epoch. Geology’s official time-keepers do not accept the term, but it describes what is happening to the planet.

Since all ills associated with this epoch will hurt the poorest, South Asia is getting swamped both literally and metaphorically, for we are the global centre of poverty in number and density. Sadly, South Asians are not in a position to respond locally, nationally or regionally because beyond a few scientists, we are not cognisant of the term “Anthropocene” and there is no cross-border cooperation as we approach the ecological abyss.

South Asia should have been leading the climate emergency debate at the COP-29 conference that just concluded in Baku, but our positioning is weak and scattered even though the moment is existential.

Film South Asia ’24

As the organisers of the biennial Film South Asia festival of documentaries whittled down more than 2000 submissions to less than 50 for screening between November 21-24, we noted that many films addressed the dangerously skewed nature-human interface. “Documentary in Anthropocene” was selected as the theme of the...

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