Indian writer Amitav Ghosh’s new book The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, argues that the origins of our current climate crisis are rooted in the exploitative practices of western colonialism.
In his book, Ghosh looks at the historical events that have led up to the kind of geopolitical and environmental crises that are marring the present.
He traces the Dutch empire's conquest of the Indonesian Banda islands for a monopoly on nutmeg production and writes about how colonial trade practices over the centuries combined with capitalism have not only led to exploitation of people but also exploitation of nature without a thought for repercussions.
In an audio conversation with The Quint, Ghosh, who is best known for his works of fiction like The Shadow Lines, The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies and various others, says that the shift towards writing a non-fiction book on climate change happened because the planet has changed.
"The world we live in today, is not the world we lived in when I wrote The Shadow Lines. Now as you can see, all these climatic events are just happening around the world and they force themselves on your attention. You can't escape them."Amitav Ghosh, Indian Author
He also recalls the two events that left a mark on him and persuaded him to focus on climate change.
"In 2000, I went to the Sundarbans in connection with my research on The Hungry Tide. There the effects of climate change are ever present. The salt water intrusions or the changes in species – all of this was very much visible there. That was when I started to take the issue of climate change seriously."
"The second thing I would say is 9/11. I was in New York the day it happened. So on one hand, you have the changes on the natural phenomena on the planet. On the other hand, you have this dramatic development on the politics and the geopolitics of the planet. Both were profound shocks I would say."
As he talks about his new book, Ghosh also says that, undoubtedly, a huge amount of responsibility for the current state of our planet lies with the developed countries like the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), which have been justifying their mindless development.
"What the UK did in the 19th century is still with us... those are historic emissions. So the UK led the way in inventing the technology for which they long patted themselves on their backs and felt that they were so brilliant to have come up with all the industrial machinery. And we are all paying the price for all this. The whole world, especially the vulnerable people, is paying the price for this."
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
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