Subscribe via your favourite podcast app
This podcast series will be exploring how some of the most impacted communities in the world are engaging in collective action to reimagine a just and sustainable future for all.
Knowing the causes of the climate crisis is only part of the challenge. Understanding the barriers to creating change and learning about the actions and solutions communities can implement is the next step. There are various barriers to communities taking action, including how they imagine what the future can look like. Dominant ways of imagining the future, like ‘business as usual’, ‘technology will fix everything’ or ‘we are doomed’ leave communities feeling that action is meaningless. How can we inspire communities to imagine the future differently? What will it take for our future to be reimagined as a positive one where all life could flourish?
With a team of dedicated partners and researchers, the Sydney Environment Institute has been following five communities in India and Australia that are currently facing extreme impacts of climate change. We have been trying to better understand just this - how they are taking collective action to create real and sustainable futures and more positive imaginaries, even in the face of huge challenges.
This podcast series is produced by Sydney Environment Institute in partnership with the Social Entrepreneurship Association Auroville and the India and Bharat Together Foundation. This series is part of the Grounded Imaginaries project funded by V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. Available on your favourite podcast streaming app.
How can we so clearly understand the gravity of the climate crisis and what needs to be done and yet still not be acting fast enough? What gets in the way of all of us being part of making the change, or pushing for the changes that need to be made? In the opening episode of the Reimagined Futures series, Professor Danielle Celermajer reveals the barriers that are halting systemic change and the possibilities for transformative collective action.
Narrated by: Danielle Celermajer is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, and Deputy Director – Academic of the Sydney Environment Institute. She is the research lead on the Grounded Imaginaries project and Director of the Multispecies Justice Project.
Written by: Danielle Celermajer
Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright
Featuring:
Music:
Article: ‘Grounded Imaginaries: Transforming how we live in climate-changed futures’, by Danielle Celermajer, published by Griffith Review, 2021.
On the south-east coast of India in the Tamil Nadu region, we visit a living laboratory for human evolution, called Auroville. We’ll learn from their community about the power of integral yoga and integral ecology to deepen people’s understanding of their place and belonging within the larger ecological worlds.
Special thanks to Gopal, Lakshmi, Bernard and Deepika for sharing their journey with us, and to the rest of Auroville’s green workers whose work we hold in deep-rooted regard. With gratitude to the young forests of Auroville and all its creatures, who inspire us through their sights, sounds, textures, ways of being and resilience.
Narrated by: Deepthi Indukuri is a Research Fellow on SEA’s project team and is a biomedical researcher turned sports photographer turned sports physiologist. Deepthi lives and volunteers in Auroville and is intrigued by the sacred relationships between beings and their natural spaces.
Written by: Pragnya Khanna, Deepthi Indukuri, Gijs Spoor
Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright
Sound engineer: Justin Flynn
Featuring:
Music:
Film: Ever Slow Green by Christoph Pohl, 56 minutes, 2020.
Article: ‘Discover Auroville – Pebble Garden’ by Laura and Mathieu, published by D’Humain & D’Humus, 20 April 2018.
Article: ‘Auroville’s Innovators’ by Ashish Kothari, published by Vikalp Sangam, 24 January 2019.
Video: ‘Av wildlife’ by Auronevi Darkali, 16 March 2017.
Website: Inner Climate Academy - an initiative that provides spaces for inner reflection and inquiry, collaborative research, and facilitated explorations that lead to personal and societal transformation in regards to our relationship with the Earth.
Website: Auroville Repository – a collection of items pertaining to research done in Auroville and research done by Aurovilians, managed by the Auroville Research Platform, a group that facilitates research collaboration and research communication activities in Auroville.
Website: Auroville’s Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest – a database of local forest types in Auroville with a map of sites and specific details about species and their distribution.
Website: Explorer.land – an interactive digital map that connects Auroville with other international nature-based projects.
Moving to northern India, we gain altitude as we venture through the foothills of the Himalayas up to the mid-elevations of Uttarakhand. People here are facing the twin devastations of altered extreme seasonality and forms of so-called development that are overwhelming traditional lifestyles. Yet, in the face of these rapid change, two villages in this region are experimenting with regenerative farming practices that are also creating leadership opportunities for women in the community. Through their experiences, we'll learn how climate crises and people's survival are deeply interwoven.
Special thanks to all who featured in this episode and to the people of Sarmoli and Kewar who contributed to the Grounded Imaginaries project. Without their insights this project wouldn't have taken the shape that it has taken. Finally, we are indebted to the Himalayas which for centuries has nurtured, preserved and cultivated the Himalayan civilisation (mountain people) and provided vital resources like water to the people down across the plains of Northern India.
Narrated by: Ishika Ramakrishna is a researcher, writer, podcaster and dancer. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies researching human—nonhuman primate interactions. As part of her doctoral research, she has been focusing on the nuances of people's interactions with the hoolock gibbon in Barekuri, Assam, through anthropological and ecological lenses. Outside of her love for all-things-monkey, she is also passionate about science communication and nature education for all ages.
Written by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Mayank Shah, VPJ Sambhavi
Edited by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Genevieve Wright
Sound engineer: Michael Irwin
Featuring:
Music:
Article: ‘How Sarmoli became a poster child of ecotourism in Uttarakhand’ by Archana Singh, published in Mongabay, 21 June 2021.
Article: ‘Ecotourism: Munsiyari’s women of mettle’ by Archana Singh, published in The Hindu Business Line, 16 March 2021.
Article: ‘How this border village in Uttarakhand defied migration trend’ by Prashant Jha, published in The Times of India, 22 May 2019.
Essay: Homestays as Livelihood Strategies in Rural Economies: The case of Johar Valley, Uttarakhand, India by Ian Christian Macek, published by University of Washington, 2012.
Article series: ‘Mongabay series: Nature-based Solutions’ published by Mongabay.
Article: ‘IUCN organises community workshop on organic farming for farmers in Uttarakhand, India’ by IUCN, published by IUCN, 13 March 2018.
Article: ‘Community Based Response To Climate Change: Experiences From Uttarakhand’ by Archana Singh, published by Counter Currents, 31 December 2017.
Article: ‘Environment, Medicine and Rural Entrepreneurship: Lessons From Uttarakhand’ by Rana Ashish Singh, Siddartha Negi and Vidya Bhooshan Singh, published by Youth Ki Awaaz, 2018.
Article: ‘Climate change is already forcing farmers in Uttarakhand to migrate’ by Kasturi Das, published by The Third Pole, 17 May 2021.
Article: ‘Baranaja: a climate resilient farming practice’ by Down to Earth, published by Down to Earth, 18 November 2016.
Report: Climate Change Adaptation: Finding Untapped Opportunities in Uttarakhand by The Energy and Resources Institute, published by The Energy and Resources Institute, 27 February 2018.
Report: Project Inception Report: Climate Smart Actions and Strategies in North Western Himalayan Region for Sustainable Livelihoods of Agriculture-Dependent Hill Communities in Uttarakhand, India by BAIF Development Research Foundation.
Report: The Role of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in UK Policy by Alexandre Chausson, Alison Smith and Nathalie Seddon, published by WWF-UK & RSPB, 2020.
Flying across the Indian Ocean to Australia, we arrive in the small town of Moruya on the southern coast of New South Wales. We’ll discover how a not-for-profit community group called Sustainability Agriculture Gardening Eurobodalla (SAGE) formed, and about their dream to develop a strong community-based food system. We will also follow them through the fires and floods and hear how these climactic disasters forced them to re-evaluate their relationship to the land.
Narrated by:
Written by: Maria Paula Cardoso Nunez, Josh Gowers
Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright
Featuring:
Music:
Article: ‘Climate change impacts and adaptation on Australian farms’ by Neal Hughes and Peter Gooday, published by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 20 May 2022.
Article: ‘Climate change means Australia may have to abandon much of its farming’ by Andrew Wait and Kieron Meagher, published by The Conversation, 6 September 2021.
Report: ‘Chapter 5: Food Security’ in the Special Report on Climate Change and Land by Cheikh Mbow and Cynthia Rosenzweig, published by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019.
Podcast: Right Fire Wrong Fire by From the Embers: Stories from the Australian Bushfire Crisis, published by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, 20 June 2022.
Podcast: ‘Bruce Pascoe at Southeast Harvest 2017’, 1 April 2017.
Website: Farm It Forward – a not-for-profit urban farming social enterprise model connecting landowners and local young people who are passionate about growing food.
Being a cold desert even higher up in the Himalayas, the Ladakhi landscape is rugged and harsh for people and nature alike. Their survival is under threat because of untimely glacial melts, altered river systems and mismanaged interventions by local governing bodies. We'll discover how this ecosystem has been altered over the last two decades, and what its youth are doing today to mitigate their intensifying water crises.
Special thanks to all who featured in this episode and to the people of Pishu who not only opened their homes to us but also their heart all throughout this project. Thank you to the city of Zanskar, which makes us realise how a region as remote as it, can become an example of how to live in this ever-changing global era thanks to people’s determination to live producing local interventions and indigeneity.
Narrated by: Ishika Ramakrishna is a researcher, writer, podcaster and dancer. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies researching human—nonhuman primate interactions. As part of her doctoral research, she has been focusing on the nuances of people's interactions with the hoolock gibbon in Barekuri, Assam, through anthropological and ecological lenses. Outside of her love for all-things-monkey, she is also passionate about science communication and nature education for all ages.
Written by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Mayank Shah, VPJ Sambhavi
Edited by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Genevieve Wright
Sound engineer: Justin Flynn
Featuring:
Music:
Article: ‘Adapting to Climate Change in the Zanskar Valley: Deep in the Himalayas, lessons from local to global’ by Lobzang Wangtak and Charlie Ashbaugh, published by Think Global Health, 10 November 2021.
Article: ‘Tourist magnet Ladakh facing water scarcity’ by Athar Parvaiz, published by The Third Pole, 1 August 2018.
Article: ‘Community initiatives tackle climate change in Ladakh village’ by Rama Dwivedi, published by Mongabay, 13 September 2019.
Article: ‘Climate change is changing landscape of Ladakh’ by Dinakar Peri, published by The Hindu, 29 November 2015.
Article: ‘While climate change takes centre stage, black carbon’s impacts on the Himalayas have taken a back seat’ by Saumya Ancheri, published by Condé Nast Traveller, 17 November 2021.
Video: ‘Pishu Water Lifting Video – 2021’ by Navikarana Trust, 23 March 2021.
Video: ‘Himalayan village split in two by climate change’ by Neha Sharma and Aamir Peerzada, published by BBC News, 11 November 2021.
We conclude the series in Perumbakkam, a community of resettlement sites in the southern Indian city of Chennai, one of the cities in South Asia most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As a result of the government’s response to flood mitigation, marginalised communities are displaced to the outskirts of the city. In this episode, we hear from the community members involved in the housing rights organisation, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC). They’ll discuss how the community now feels empowered with their issues and ideas being represented by IRCDUC in government decision-making. They’ll illustrate the importance of centring social justice and community engagement in responding to the effects of climate change. Imagining a different future is particularly difficult in Perumbakkam but be inspired as we hear from the community members envisioning ways to transform sites of exclusion into homes.
Episode released 22 March.
Episode released 29 March.