Amitav Ghosh On Why We Shouldn't Give Up On Climate Activism

I run out of original ways to define Amitav Ghosh. Novelist? Historian? Social anthropologist? Cultural commentator? Climate activist No. He’s singular, he’s unaffected, he calls the bluff. I'd say he’s something of a truth-teller.

In his recent work, appropriately titled Wild Fictions, the latest Erasmus Prize awardee shucks open widely accepted narratives and beliefs that have occupied his mind for the past 25 years. For instance, in the essay whose title gives the book its name, Ghosh rejects the Eurocentric view of nature as unspoilt, uninhabited wilderness. “The Romantic imagining of nature as pristine is a dangerous fantasy. It ignores the intricate, millennia-long co-existence of humans with the natural world, particularly indigenous populations. These communities, through their deep knowledge and intimate connection to the land, have been stewards of the environment for generations,” says Ghosh, who in Wild Fictions unfurls previously unpublished essays on the planetary crisis, history, meditations on historiography, travelogues, conversations and more.

As we come perilously close to breaching the world’s average surface temperature goal (1.5°C) originally set for 75 years from now, there’s panic and uncertainty around the future of humanity. “The damage to our planet is profound, undeniable. We are witnessing mass extinctions, the collapse of entire ecosystems, and the destabilisation of the climate system. The loss of biodiversity, particularly in the tropics, is staggering,” Ghosh says, precise as ever. “But to declare defeat is to surrender,” he continues—not out of the dull need for balanced opinions, but from the kind of truth-telling that has come to define his work. “We must acknowledge the scale of the crisis while simultaneously recognising the resilience of nature and the enduring wisdom of what Ramachandra Guha calls ‘ecosystem peoples’— those whose livelihoods depend on the environment and who engage with it daily, such as farmers, fisherfolk, forest dwellers and more. We should not put all our trust in ‘experts’ who often have little knowledge of ground-level realities.”

Often, reading or receiving information about how doom is unfolding at a catastrophic level can trigger numbness and disavowal. Ghosh opines, “You’re right—the sheer volume of information, the constant stream of alarming news… can be paralysing. However, there is now a great deal of research to show that fear and outrage can also galvanise people to act.”

The need to convey the alarm and urgency with optimism is being felt now more than ever. “We need to find ways to communicate the urgency of the situation without falling into the trap of apocalyptic pronouncements. We need to emphasise the interconnectedness of all life, the beauty and fragility of our planet and the potential for human ingenuity and resilience. We need to cultivate a sense of collective agency,” says the author, who time and again has found ways to tell stories about environmental decline and human actions.

The Green Cannon: 4 Lesser Known Eco-Fiction Masterpieces

Parable of the Sower

A novelist on Ghosh’s radar, Octavia E Butler, in this book, follows a young woman with 

hyper empathy building a new belief system in a climate ravaged America.

Reef

Romesh Gunesekara's coming-of-age novel, set in Sri Lanka, follows a servant’s reflections on his relationship with his employer and the political turmoil that transforms their lives.

In Ascension

A marine biologist’s deep-sea discoveries lead to cosmic revelations, challenging the 

boundaries between science, nature and personal destiny, in this book by Martin MacInnes.

The New Wilderness

Diane Cook's novel follows a mother and daughter struggling to survive in a government-controlled wilderness experiment, testing the limits of human adaptation.