Everything Environment by Mongabay India

The economic reforms of 1991 caused a radical shift in India's economic and social structure. It gave a new life to the middle class. But did you know that the reforms also changed how India dealt with its environmental issues?

Join S Gopikrishna Warrier, Managing Editor of Mongabay-India, as he takes us through three decades of India's environmental history. Delve deep into the important environmental movements in India, meet the people behind them, and learn their history and significance.

The first episode will be released on February 9, 2024.

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Lake-hopping is Anoop Ambili's thing. For Ambili, a paleoclimatologist, the Lonar Lake in Maharashtra, Tso Moriri in Ladakh and Renuka in Himachal Pradesh hide clues that help him reconstruct past climate changes going back to 10,000 years.

Ambili is also studying microplastic pollutants in these freshwater lakes. For example, he is looking for pollutants such as microplastics in Renuka lake, a popular tourist spot and also the largest lake in Himachal Pradesh. Information about the changes in the lakes, Ambili believes, will shape how we design policies that address human-caused changes to natural ecosystems.

In this episode, you'll hear what India's lakes tell us about our past, present and future. If you listen to Ambili's poignant observations of lakes and the challenges they face today, I'm sure you'll look at these water bodies from a different perspective.

Guest: Anoop Ambili, Assistant Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER-Mohali

Host and producer: Sahana Ghosh

Co-producer and cover designer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar

Copy editors: Sapna Verma and Priyanka Shankar

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Looking at sediment under a microscope is a window into past environments and climates. In a dot of sediment, you may find thousands of microfossils - tiny remains of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, and plants.

Rajani Panchang, an oceanographer and micropaleontologist, uses microfossils from oceans, of tiny marine organisms, to interpret how the climate and environment may have been when they were alive. Such work gives us ideas about the chemistry and temperature of the ocean, ocean currents and wind patterns of the past.

Paleoclimate research eventually feeds into reports that give us the large picture of climate change and our means of recovery. It starts with studying sediments.

Guest: Rajani Panchang, oceanographer and micropalaentologist, Savitribai Phule Pune University

Host and producer: Sahana Ghosh

Co-producer and cover designer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar

Copy editors: Sapna Verma and Priyanka Shankar

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Imagine this: When modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, they saw creatures such as giant prehistoric elephants, a hippopotamus and a zebra-like horse, alongside other great beasts. Infact, these large mammals stuck around in the region for at least 20,000 years after the arrival of humans.

A low-magnitude extinction began about 30,000 years ago when some megafaunal species, such as the giant elephants, started disappearing. This is in contrast to the Americas, Europe and Australia, where the arrival of humans led to more rapid, large-scale extinctions of megafauna such as woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers.

So why did the megafauna persist even after the arrival of modern humans on the Indian subcontinent? Why did some species disappear? Why do we still have animals like elephants, tigers, and rhinos in India but not elsewhere on the planet? In this episode, we have paleobiologist Advait Jukar, who is trying to answer these questions. And his clues lie in fossils. His work helps us understand how biodiversity has changed through time with the arrival of humans and climate change.

Guest: Advait Jukar, Gaylord Donnelley Postdoctoral Associate, Bioanthropology and Archaeology at Yale University

Host and producer: Sahana Ghosh

Co-producer and cover designer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar

Copy editors: Sapna Verma and Priyanka Shankar

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India's renewable energy dreams have been big since the country shifted gears post-Paris climate summit in 2015. The country is now working towards achieving 500 GW of installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. However, every choice has a cost. Rapid renewable energy installation and the transition have left several aspects overlooked. And they have given rise to new issues.

Issues related to land availability and acquisition for mega-renewable projects, impact on biodiversity, lack of involvement of local communities and gender-based plans, lack of financing solutions, absence of waste management and recycling policies, etc.

Considering its impact on society, experts fear that the clean energy sector will follow in the footsteps of the fossil-fuel industry.

The shift from fossil fuels to renewables is needed eventually, but it poses loud questions: What will happen to the states that'll stop producing coal? What'll happen to the millions working in coal and related industries? Are they skilled enough to switch to the renewable sector? Also, is renewable energy coming up in coal-dependent regions in the first place, or is it happening elsewhere? How will the state departments and economy cope with this shift?

In this episode, we will try to understand the challenges that this sector's rapid but probably unplanned growth has thrown. We will examine if there are solutions and what needs urgent attention.

Listen to GigaWhat and explore some of the biggest questions, challenges, and opportunities in India's transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Mongabay-India is an online publication dedicated to bringing you stories on science and the environment in India.

Read the full Clean energy series on our website

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Guests:

Bhargavi Rao, Senior Fellow and Trustee at Environment Support Group

Balasubramanian Viswanathan, Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Selna Saji, Research Analyst, Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Credits:

Host: Mayank Aggarwal

Writer and producer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayananda Sagar

Copy editor: Priyanka Shankar

Podcast production assistant: Sapna Verma

Episode cover art: Pooja Gupta

What can shells tells us about marine paleoclimate? Shells and molluscs store a wealth of paleoclimate information. Molluscs build their shells with calcium carbonate from the sea water. Their shells record the sea water chemistry, which lets us decipher the changes that occurred in their environment.

Paleoclimate scientist Devapriya Chattopadhyay studies mollusc fossils which help reconstruct the marine paleoenvironment. Her findings revealed that even periods of slight warming affected mollusc diversity in an area considered to be less affected by changes in the climate. In the context of present-day climate change, this paleoclimate research is considered to be very useful in bridging some knowledge gaps.

In this episode of Imprints, Chattopadhyay talks about her fossil-hunting adventures, interesting discoveries and the people she encounters on the field. She also speaks about how infrastructure development could erase records of natural history and the challenge that India faces in setting up a museum for natural history.

Guest: Devapriya Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor, Earth and Climate Science, Paleobiology and Marine Ecology, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER)

Host and producer: Sahana Ghosh, Contributing Editor, Mongabay-India

Co-producer and cover designer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar

Copy editors: Sapna Verma and Priyanka Shankar

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Links:

Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity

Predation to climate change: what does a fossil shell tell us?

Response of the Oligo-Miocene Bivalve Fauna of the Kutch Basin (Western India) to Regional Tectonic Events

The Distribution Pattern of Marine Bivalve Death Assemblage From the Western Margin of Bay of Bengal and Its Oceanographic Determinants

It is fascinating how scientists unearth data for climate science in unusual locations. Atreyee Bhattacharya's work takes her to lakebeds and libraries. She's a paleoclimatologist who looks back at past climates to develop the context for understanding recent climate change.

She analyses sediments drilled from old lakes and scours British archival records to reconstruct past rainfall changes. This aids in predictions of future climates.

"Without paleoclimate research, we just wouldn't know that we are in a climate crisis."

She looks at paleoclimatology as a guidebook to human society - when did humans prosper and didn't due to climatic factors? Using this knowledge, scientists can work with policymakers to mitigate adverse outcomes.

In this episode of Imprints, Atreyee talks about the toolkit for her profession, her work with economists to understand past famines, the importance of paleoclimatology and the challenges it faces.

Guest: Atreyee Bhattacharya, Research Faculty, University of Colorado, Boulder

Host and producer: Sahana Ghosh

Co-producer and cover designer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar

Copy editors: Sapna Verma and Priyanka Shankar

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Show notes:

Atreyee Bhattacharya

Most famines in south India under British rule due to minor rainfall fluctuations, rather than extreme events

A paleoclimate database for the Indian subcontinent

India has an ambitious clean energy target that needs technology and innovation. While government and private sectors have their role to play, startups are critical for innovation and faster execution. They identify local, national and global problems, find opportunities and develop solutions.

India is home to the third-largest startup ecosystem, with about 57,000 startups. A fraction of this number is working in sustainability and solving climate change issues. Worldwide, it's noted that the number of government policy measures to help startups get new clean energy technologies to the market, has risen sharply since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

From bringing solar power-based products to provide job opportunities in rural India, to companies innovating to increase the life of batteries, startups are addressing various needs of the different stages in the renewable energy journey.

But are they enough ideas? Enough startups? And enough support for such startups?

And more importantly, is there money to be made? Is there money to invest?

In this episode, we will speak to stakeholders involved in a startup's journey to success. A co-founder, an investor and an incubator.

Listen to GigaWhat and explore some of the biggest questions, challenges, and opportunities in India's transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources.

Guests:

Pankaj Sharma , co-Founder, Log 9 Materials

Smita Rakesh, Vice President and Partner at Social Alpha

Arpit Agarwal, Director, Blume Ventures

Credits:

Hosted by Mayank Aggarwal

Produced and scripted by Kartik Chandramouli.

Edited and mixed by Tejas Dayananda Sagar

Copy edits by Priyanka Shankar

Episode artwork is by Pooja Gupta

It is fascinating how scientists unearth data for climate science in unusual locations. Fossils, trees, lake sediment, other natural objects, and archival documents are like time portals. They tell us when and how ancient organisms and ecosystems experienced past environmental changes.

On Imprints, you will hear how scientists look at the past to understand the modern climate. The show will shine a light on a lesser-discussed science in India. We will listen to five paleo scientists who put our Earth in context and suggest actions to mitigate future climate change impacts and biodiversity loss.

Subscribe to our podcast for updates about the show.

Host: Sahana Ghosh Producer and cover art designer: Kartik Chandramouli Sound editor: Tejas Dayanand Sagar Copy editor: Aditi Tandon

We are all familiar with the buzzing sound under high-voltage power lines and transmission towers. The electricity passing through it is generated from coal power plants, solar parks, wind farms, dams and other sources. It passes through transmission networks and substations to eventually reach the end users.

Day by day, the share of renewable power entering this system is increasing. However, the solar and wind farms that are coming up or expanding to meet India's renewable energy goal are concentrated within a few states. India will need to upgrade and expand its transmission infrastructure to evacuate the power generated here and feed it into the national electricity grid to be distributed across all regions.

The transmission infrastructure in India needs two trillion rupees! But there isn't enough money flowing for the development.

Without adequate transmission systems in place, renewable energy plants can turn into stranded assets. And that's a fear for project developers and investors.

Listen to GigaWhat and explore some of the biggest questions, challenges, and opportunities in India's transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Mongabay-India is an online publication dedicated to bringing you stories on science and the environment in India.

Read the full Clean energy series on our website

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Subscribe to our newsletter

Guests:

Balawant Joshi, Managing Director, Idam Infra

Deepak Krishnan, Associate Director, WRI India (Energy)

Links:Financial Constraints in Renewable Energy Sector, Ministry of New And Renewable Energy

Power Map of India

Renewable Energy Industry in India, IBEF

Renewables Integration in India, IEA

Renewable Energy Management Centers

Credits:

Host: Mayank Aggarwal

Writer and producer: Kartik Chandramouli

Audio editor: Tejas Dayananda Sagar

Copy editor: Priyanka Shankar

Podcast production assistant: Ayushi Kothari GigaWhat cover art: Pooja Gupta