We've viewed nature as something to dominate. Now, we live with consequences.
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My wife and I are based for five months at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India, as part of my research sabbatical from the University of Maine. When we arrived six weeks ago, little did we know we would experience unprecedented monsoon deluges and devastation. Even elderly Indians had never experienced anything like this. Poignantly, our experiences have coincided with the COP21 climate change gathering in Paris that has considered issues threatening our future life and even survival on planet earth.
This is a century record for monsoons in Chennai. Dec. 1 was the heaviest day of rain since 1901. Until last week, we were without power. Tens of thousands have had to be rescued for their lives, more than 400 have been reported dead, and there is widespread suffering. As usual, the poor and powerless suffer the most. There are now predictions that, with so much sewage in the water, with water-borne diseases and with unsafe food and water, there will be widespread epidemics.
It's hard to describe what has been happening, with multiple causes sometimes described as a "freak" combination of factors. Climate change is clearly a factor with the extreme weather conditions. Along with the unprecedented monsoon deluges, the Indian Ocean here is the warmest it has ever been, releasing more precipitation. This year here is on record to be the warmest year ever recorded, as it is throughout the world. There are El Nino and other forces relevant here. This incredible monsoon is sometimes described as an overwhelming force of nature, but this also involves human forces.
There are clear human developments of the past few decades based on profit-driven greed, political corruption, overdevelopment without proper infrastructure and lack of environmental concern and protection. Once again, we have humans who do not see value in nature and in how we are integrally part of nature but instead view nature only as something that is there for us to dominate and exploit.
The traditional villages had natural systems for dealing with rivers, lakes, wetlands and water spillovers. Developers with capital rapidly destroyed this. They filled in waterways, with river and other water encroachments and all kinds of new housing and businesses, even mall constructions, without concern for infrastructure, drainage and how they were blocking or destroying the natural flood and other water networks. There was no place for the flooding water to go. The major rivers overflowed, and the power plants were flooded. Add to this political lack of preparedness and inaction, blatant corruption, demand for bribes before allowing any relief to go forward, and you have more of the devastation.
In many ways, we are fortunate to be living in an apartment in a new experimental building with its low cost and environmentally friendly construction. Although we were without AC power, we had a solar-powered DC light and fan in two rooms. Such experimental, solar-powered, DC technology was designed by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who has his Ph.D. from UMaine and is one of India's leading scientists, and his team. This experimental technology has great potential for developing more low-energy, sustainable, decentralized, affordable alternatives, especially for the Indian masses who are often off the grid and suffer the most. For example, of his 50 innovative start-up projects, Ashok's team is now working to provide free, DC, solar electricity for 5,000 houses of the poor in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Such DC technology will cut consumption and cost by 50 percent from the dominant AC technology in India.
Amid so much suffering, there are daily accounts of amazing, heroic rescue and relief efforts and the incredible kindness and selfless actions by ordinary people. Nearly all this has come from civil society, despite the economic and political power structure, with individual, volunteer and grass-roots efforts. There are widespread moving reports of people engaged in rescue and relief efforts, overcoming the rise of fear, intolerance, religious prejudice, lack of compassion and violence, that has defined recent political, religious, and other developments in India, as well as in Maine and in the U.S. Efforts such as these and those by so many Mainers working for nonviolent, sustainable, peace and justice alternatives, are what inspires us and gives us hope for the future.
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Posted by: Lakshminarayanan <adayaranumon@gmail.com>
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