Articles for The Wire on water pollution and scarcity in India.

“Beneath the Foam and Fire.” The Wire, 17 Feb 2017 (Originally published in May 2015). Bangalore’s system of lakes and canals took centuries to build, but their downfall was only a few decades in the making.

“A Science City Rises as an Ecosystem Disappears.” The Wire, 6 Oct 2016. As the Challakere kavals are turned into a strategic research complex, locals continue to fight to keep their ancestral rights to these arid grasslands.

“Bangalore’s Dead Fish Are Just a Symptom of the Time Bomb that Lies Ahead.” The Wire, 21 Mar 2016.  Ulsoor Lake is one of the last strongholds in a water-starved city whose hundreds of old reservoirs have largely been drained to be built upon or reduced to dumping grounds in the last 40 years.

“A Warming Earth Could Mean Monsoons Could Change Course, and India Must Prepare.” The Wire, 23 Sep 2015.  For millennia, lives across South Asia have beat to the monsoon’s largely predictable rhythm. What happens when that rhythm shifts?

Articles for The Wire from the Paris Climate Talks (COP21) in December 2015.

“COP21 Diary: A Ray of Sunshine, a Song of Despair.” The Wire, 1 Dec 2015. Sunday night in Paris, images of green trees and messages of hope were projected onto the Eiffel Tower, but there were few on the streets to see it.

“COP21 Diary: The United Nations, their Porous Borders and the People in Between.” The Wire, 2 Dec 2015. Outside of the COP21 site at Le Bourget, north of Paris, France, there is a forest of flags from across the world. 

“COP21 Diary: From the Pacific to Chennai, Those Degrees Show Us What They’re Capable Of.” The Wire, 3 Dec 2015. At the ongoing world climate change conference on Wednesday, Marshall Islands poet Kathy Jetnil Kijiner spoke before an audience at COP21 about the ocean threat to her home.

“COP21 Diary: As Talks Go On Behind Closed Doors, Scientists and Activists Fret Outside.” The Wire, 4 Dec 2015. Climate scientist and activist James Hansen was once reluctant to tell his grandchildren about climate change.

“COP21 Diary: With Conference at Midpoint, India Hard Sells Its Carbon Budget Idea.” The Wire, 5 Dec 2015. Saturday, December 5 is the rough halfway point of COP21, and an important deadline: by noon this day the first draft of the Paris climate agreement needs to be finalised by negotiators.

“COP21 Diary: The Thrill and the Challenge of Collective Action.” The Wire, 7 Dec 2015. I am lying on the ground with my face turned to the Eiffel Tower, which rises perhaps half a kilometre away into an improbably beautiful sky. I have to be careful about shifting my feet and my head so I don’t hit the individuals at either end: together, we form the top half of the letter B in the phrase “100% Renewable.”

“COP21 Diary: From Chasing Ice to Helping Climate Migrants.” The Wire, 9 Dec 2015. When chunks of glaciers break off, or “calve,” they don’t slip smoothly off to sea. 

“COP21 Diary: The Words of the Language That Makes Climate Action Affirmative and Equitable.” The Wire, 9 Dec 2015. Prior to coming to COP21, a climate scientist warned me that climate change negotiations by themselves can be as interesting as watching paint dry. 

“COP21 Diary: Climate Science is Ahead of Policy But, Thankfully, the Fear is Behind.” The Wire, 10 Dec 2015. All the way across Northern Eurasia and the Northern reaches of the Americas, groves of trees have started to take on an odd appearance.

“COP21: Camps Agree on ‘Well Below 2ºC’ But Claw At Everything Else.” The Wire, 11 Dec 2015. On Thursday afternoon at COP21, a gigantic sphere covered with a projection of the Earth drew wondering crowds in the United States pavilion.

“Le Bourget Forgoes Sleep as Draft Negotiations Continue Into Wee Hours of COP21.” The Wire, 12 Dec 2015. Even at this very late stage, debates still rage in closed-off negotiating rooms while a very sleep deprived civil society tries to make its voice heard.

“Whatever Happens Next, This is What COP21 Lets Us Do Against Climate Change.” The Wire, 17 Dec 2015. The Paris Agreement has been signed, as of Saturday December 12, and Le Bourget is closing up shop.