Donald Trump's victory is deeply worrying for climate advocacy, says Amitav Ghosh

Novelist Amitav Ghosh is in Mumbai to attend the Tata Literature Live festival, where he is being presented the Lifetime Achievement Award this year. The author of novels such as The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide and the Ibis trilogy, in his latest book, The Great Derangement, changes the conversation on representation of climate change in literature. He discussed climate change, India-Pakistan relations and the Myanmar problems with Uttaran Das Gupta over telephone.

Edited excerpts:

We must begin this conversation with what’s happening at Marrakech. What do you think of the outcome of the conference?

Well, I haven’t really been able to follow it as much as I would like to, as I have been travelling. But, it seems there has been a big effort by the industrialised nations to press their agenda. 

The election of Donald Trump threatens to negate all progress on climate negotiations. What do you fear the most that might now happen?

It’s a very worrying development. Though the Paris Agreement was deeply flawed, it was better than nothing. Now, even that might be threatened. However, the Trump election was not entirely surprising. The resistance to emissions reduction targets in the US is very intense. The US economy has been hugely dependent on oil and coal: it will be spectacularly difficult to wean the country away from fossil fuels. It isn’t just the economy but also the US’s foreign policy and global strategy that are based on oil. You know, Green House Gas emissions are not just about lifestyle and economy but also about the global distribution of power. US’s dependence on, and control of, the global oil economy provides an incentive to other emerging powers to take the lead on alternative energy sources — this is exactly what we are seeing in China. 

With The Great Derangement you have changed the conversation completely on how literature focuses — or rather, doesn’t — on this crisis. You had also addressed the issue in The Hungry Tide. Do you plan to write more on the subject, or take up active advocacy?

Had I been 20 years younger, maybe I would have taken up active advocacy. However, that’s not my intention at this point.

Another book of yours that does touch upon the subject is Countdown, in which you describe how a nuclear fallout might affect the subcontinent. The recent military posturing by both India and Pakistan aggravates this threat. Would you like to comment on it?

While writing Countdown I realised that India’s nuclear strategy is based mostly on a desire for status, an aspiration to be included in the highest circles of global power. I interviewed many of India’s leading thinkers and this was the impression I got. In a sense, the policy was based on a kind of Brahminical approach — it was all about status. However, this is not how other countries — Pakistan, China — approach nuclear policy. Their policies are much more militarily oriented. 

You are no stranger to science fiction. One of your earlier novels, The Calcutta Chromosome, is a strange genre-bending ghost story and historical novel. Are you planning on writing any more of these?

I love science fiction; I love reading it and watching it. But the point I’m trying to make in The Great Derangement is that climate change is not science fiction; it is our lived reality. 

Your fiction and non-fiction have often taken us on long voyages — through time and space. Your Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma is one of my favourites. Where can we expect to travel with you in your next book?

I have been recently travelling in the far east of Indonesia; a remote area but very important in the history of globalisation. I have been interested for years in the history of the circulation of people and goods in the Indian Ocean. I am not writing a novel about it, but there might be a shorter piece.

In At Large in Burma, you had interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi, who was then fighting for the civil rights of her fellow citizens. Now in power, her government has been accused of engineering genocide against the Rohingya community. How do you see the situation in Myanmar?

Her silence on the Rohingya community is disappointing but that’s not the only instance. There is so much about her thinking that is really opaque. For instance, what is her economic policy? Earlier, we were criticising her for not being more pragmatic, or more of a politician. But now that she is being more political, that is also being criticised. It’s also important to recognise that the Myanmar army is engaged in conflicts in several different places and that she is facing a difficult situation.