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ZEE JLF 2019: Green Cause - Let’s talk climate

Distinguished environmentalists and climate warriors will speak of their experiences, learnings, and discuss the ingenuity and initiative required to adapt to changing climate while attempting to reverse its shattering consequences

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Described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival has always been a sumptuous feast of ideas. To be held from January 24th to January 28th, the annual festival will be back with a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sportspersons and entertainers on one stage. These speakers will converge to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue on an array of topics.

Planet Earth is in grave danger and the world is in panic mode. The disruptions of climate change can no longer be ignored. The 2019 edition of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival will have timely and urgent conversations on environmental issues that need serious attention. From salvaging nature and natural inhabitants to smart waste management and harnessing the sun’s potential to yield energy for clean air, speakers from all walks of life will deliberate on these topics through a literary prism.

In the session Climate Change: A Call to Action, academic at Australia’s Griffith University Darryl Jones, alongside Norwegian writer Maja Lunde and Indian author Mridula Ramesh will be in conversation with Marcus Moench, founder of ISET-International. This panelof distinguished environmentalists and climate warriors will speak of their experiences and learnings, and discuss the ingenuity and initiative required to adapt to changing climate conditions while attempting to reverse its shattering consequences. 

The panelists for the session Waste of a Nation: Swacch Bharat will examine the crisis of waste management that threatens to engulf the country. Professor of Anthropology and South Asia at the Australian National University Assa Doron,journalist and educationist Shubhangi Swarup, and Sanchaita Gajapati, founder of SANA, will be in conversationwith Robin Jeffrey; a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.

They will have an impactful discussion on different aspects of sanitation practice and their implementation including the traditional kabaadiwalas, ragpickers, and the stigmatised sanitation workers working in inhuman conditions with sewage and toxic chemicals.

Rural India continues to remain on the periphery of media consciousness, even as agrarian woes proliferate and compound every day. The session Gaon Connection: Addressing Rural Distress, will examine the causes and consequences of this indifference and the issues that need to be consistently highlighted to address this imbalance. Here, Sanchaita Gajapati, will join journalist and author Vikas Jha, and Neelesh Mishra, founder of Gaon Connection, India’s biggest rural media platformfor a conversation with Namita Waikar, author of the novel The Long March and the managing editor of People’s Archive of Rural India.

Solar energy is the green activist’s buzzword as the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on Earth. Its potential is nearly limitless — every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. In the session Towards Sun and Clean Air, corporate powerhouse Naina Lal Kidwai and Varun Sivaram, senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, will discuss how solar power can become the centrepiece of a global clean energy revolution with Marcus Moench.

While climate change is hurting nature, inhabitants of the natural world are also at risk. Having written several books for children and young adults, including international bestseller The History of Bees, which examines our relationship with nature and humanity, master storyteller Maja Lunde, will also be in conversation with Pradip Krishen. Imagine a World Without Bees will be a session to mull over the pertinent question - What would happen if bees disappear? Lunde will bring alive the human and planetary consequences of disturbing the balance of nature.

Janaki Lenin, author of My Husband and Other Animals,will be joined by her husband Rom Whitaker,a renowned herpetologist and wildlife conservationist. The session named after her book will be a crucial one on the balance of man and nature. Another author, Isabella Treewill tell us the story of the Knepp experiment; a pioneering re-wilding project in England’s Sussex countryside which uses free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. In the session named after her book Wilding: The Return to Nature, Tree will tell us how she and her husband, Charlie Burrell, made a spectacular leap of faith; they decided to step back and let nature take over. Personal and inspirational, Wilding challenges conventional ideas about our past and present landscapes and points the way to a wilder, richer future where farming and nature can work together.

For over a decade, the five-day programme has hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcomed over a million book lovers from across India and the globe. Here’s to yet another year of the literary jamboree set against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi Palace in capital Jaipur.

How to save the earth 

  • The panelists for the session Waste of a Nation: Swacch Bharat will examine the crisis of waste management that threatens to engulf the country.
  • Janaki Lenin, author of My Husband and Other Animals,will be joined by her husband Rom Whitaker,a renowned herpetologist and wildlife conservationist. 
  • In the session Towards Sun and Clean Air, corporate powerhouse Naina Lal Kidwai and Varun Sivaram, senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, will discuss how solar power can become the centrepiece of a global clean energy revolution.
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