As the world barrels towards a seemingly inevitable climate apocalypse, one thing is certain: all of us maybe in the same uncharted waters, but not all of us are in the same boat. While some are in yachts and cruise ships, others find themselves in leaking dinghy boats and makeshift rafts. The scientific consensus is now undeniable — climate change is real, human-led, and urgent — and its consequences remain deeply unequal, shaped by centuries of global inequality. As climate disasters multiply and the planet approaches irreversible tipping points, understanding the historical, political, and cultural roots of this imbalance becomes vital.
Climate change is not merely an environmental issue; it is a socio-political one — built on the back of centuries of colonial extraction and inequality. Colonialism laid the groundwork for the current crisis by altering ecosystems, extracting natural resources, and building exploitative economic systems that fueled the industrial revolution in the West — at the cost of environmental degradation in its colonies in the Global South. Nowhere is this clearer than in South Asia, where over a billion people face the existential challenge of surviving a crisis they did little to cause.
South Asia's railways, ports, and plantations, for example, were designed not for local development but for the extraction of raw materials to fuel the West's industrial revolution in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Forests were cleared, agriculture was restructured, and water systems were diverted to serve imperial goals, decimating local food security and climate resilience and creating ecological imbalances that persist to this day.
Today, although South Asia contributes just 8% of global carbon emissions, it is among the most climate-vulnerable regions on Earth. A warming planet now brings erratic monsoons, lethal heat waves, and rising seas that threaten millions in coastal cities like Mumbai, Dhaka, and Karachi. As over 3.6 billion people worldwide live in areas vulnerable to climate disasters, South Asia emerges as a "climate hotspot" — not by nature, but by design. This injustice is not coincidental; it is the outcome of a global system that has long privileged some lives over others.
The Asia Society India's upcoming online workshop — held in four parts focusing on climate justice, advocacy, finance, and conservation — seeks to unpack these layered crises through a nuanced post-colonial lens. By tracing climate change back to its colonial roots, the series situates the present emergency within a broader historical context of extraction and inequality. It also examines the current financial architecture — carbon markets, loss and damage funds, and climate financing — and questions whether these mechanisms can truly address structural imbalances, or if they simply perpetuate new forms of dependency.
The series also highlights voices from the frontlines — climate activists, local communities, and indigenous leaders — who are resisting not only climate breakdown in their communities but also the global systems that exacerbate it. These stories are vital not just for their immediacy, but for what they offer: alternative ways of living, conserving, and coexisting with nature. As biodiversity collapses and conservation efforts buckle under the weight of a changing climate, it becomes clear that environmental solutions must be cultural, ethical, and locally rooted.
Learn more about the workshop and register here.
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