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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Be Alarmed About Climate Change - It Might Just Be Good For The World
David Wallace-Wells’ intimidating lead story in New York Magazine, with its foreboding headline The Uninhabitable Earth (accompanied by an image of a fossil) and its doomsday warnings of economic collapse, famine and “a sun that will cook us” has predictably resulted in another climate change battle online. Wallace, quite coldly, lists out all the information we already have about climate change and draws terrifying conclusions. He warns that we are still a little distance away from comprehending the full horror of it and it is time we understand that the threat is much closer than we think it is. The article has expectedly gone viral and has spawned a lot of dismayed annoyance - this time from many staunch climate change warriors as well.
People are shaming the author for what they term the ‘Hollywoodisation’ of climate change, accusing him of overstating the evidence, calling him out for being an alarmist and generally doing a disservice to the climate change debate in this age of denial.
This Slate article by Susan Matthews that I am recommending, though, is rather contrarian and makes several valid points in support of Wallace's piece. It would be better for readers to familiarise themselves with Wallace’ piece before reading this reaction post.
One of the main points the author makes is that since climate change is an “unusual problem” that requires us to be selfless in the long-term, addressing it cannot be done by relying on everybody being psychologically self-possessed enough to work for the infamous "greater good". So logically, the opposite must be true - which means, as she says, we should stop guarding ourselves against alarmism, depression and despair when it comes to climate change. It might just convince people to elect leaders who “care about the survival of all humans rather than a few”.
Ultimately, if it manages to scare people into taking it more seriously, she argues that the negatives of perpetrating the doomsday scenario is worth it.
