The rise of extremes

During the early stages of the pandemic, social-media posts began flagging the return of wildlife to public spaces that were deserted due to COVID-19. Air pollution also reduced as industrial activity, ground and air transportation came to a standstill. But these gains were short lived, and, given the current health crisis, more enduring crises have been pushed into the background.

In this podcast, which is part of our special series Unmasking Southasia: The pandemic issue, we talk with environmental historian Sunil Amrith on climate change, global inequality and migration.

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This is an edited transcription from the podcast. Please listen to the corresponding audio before quoting from it.

Raisa Wickrematunge: Hi everyone, and welcome to Himal podcasts.

I'm Raisa Wickrematunge, and I'm here with Sunil Amrith, the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History, and current chair of the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University.  

We're actually chatting with Sunil as part of the special issue we're working on, on Southasia post-pandemic.  

Welcome to Himal podcasts, Sunil!

Sunil Amrith: Thank you for having me Raisa.

RW: So just to start off, in your book Unruly Waters you note how "the history of water is more than a mirror to human intentions. The history of water shows that nature has never truly been conquered." What would you say are some of the factors that have contributed to the growing frequency of these events?

SA: I think there are two things we need to consider: The first is the question of whether there is a change in the climatic patterns going on, and the second is to really focus on the social and economic changes that might magnify the impact of each one of these events.