We are blasting through our Northern Tour of India and at the same time that it is exhausting, different, and just generally overwhelming, I have also somehow found the time to reflect on the entire trip here. There are some constants on life in India that I’ve noticed and some things that are different depending on where you are, in the north or the south and if you are in a ...
India 2017
Air Pollution: Don’t Let our Future Go Up in Smoke
As I walked out of the airport in Delhi, we were greeted with a thick brownish-grey smog in the horizon. Immediately it felt like home - Santiago, the capital of Chile – which is also one of most the highly air polluted cities of the world. Back home when I wake up, I enjoy the clean air because the heavy-duty air filter in my bedroom is constantly on. The only way to ...
The Ganges: Pure and Polluted
The Ganges River, or Gangaji, is the second most polluted river in the world, according to science. However, if you ask one of the bathers in Varanasi, they will argue that nothing can pollute the river because it is holy. Science and religion have different definitions of pollution, which has had catastrophic effects on the Ganges. Last week, I visited Varanasi, one of ...
Environmental Injustice: A World In Crisis
You are woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of screams. When you go outside you find chaos, people are running from a thick white cloud, one that quickly engulfs you leaving you gasping for air. You try to run, but cannot escape. You are clinging to life. One by one you watch the life disappear from the eyes of your neighbors, your family, and your friends. Their ...
International Environmental Racism
Made in China. What do you first think of when you hear these words? Does a McDonald’s toy come to mind? What about a Wal-Mart gadget? Made in India. Do you think of jewelry or clothes? These words are on most mass-produced items that are sold in America. It is unexpected to buy an item that says, “Made in The United States of America.” Many of the US’s products are made in ...
Drinking Pesticides: The Effects of Climate Change on Farmers
Do you know where your food comes from? Apart from the supermarket or vendor that you buy your food from, do you know who grows this food? Have you had a conversation with the farmer? Not many people know where their food is grown or by whom, or if these farmers live happy lives with enough money to care for their families or if they barely make ends meet. For thousands of ...
Ecofeminism and Why Scientists (and everyone else) Should Care about the Humanities
We just came back from Bangalore where we studied for a while at a place called Visthar in the outskirts of the city. While at Visthar, we had a series of lectures about the environment, specifically how to care for the environment and for the people, animals and plants that make it up. Here’s a highlight reel of our time at Visthar, the lectures and experiences that I most ...
The Unexpected
This is a list that I have been compiling over the last months of my stay in India. Here are a few things that I did not know before coming and some that I wish I had known. 1. You will get used to all of the people. After your first experience of being squished in a train during rush hour you will be desensitized to the amount of people on the street and in public ...
Violence Against Women in India
Today is the day you’ve been looking forward to. You’ve been asking for a sibling for as long as you can remember. Your whole family has waited in anticipation for the birth. As you sit in the hospital with your family, you notice everyone is on the edges of their seats. It’s like they’re on a game show and have just answered the million-dollar question except they don’t know ...
Child Marriage: The Unspoken Reality and Its Impacts
“Little did I dream then that one day I should severely criticize my father for having married me as a child.” This excerpt is taken from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography; as an adult he recognizes the immorality behind the fact that he was married off at the age of thirteen without being fully conscious or being asked his opinion. This freedom fighter’s story is not ...
