Children of the earth

India’s performance at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference —also known as COP26 — has been much applauded within the country and outside. Now that the show in Glasgow is over, it is time to examine how optics and action can go hand in hand.  

How can the lofty “Panchamrit” strategy become intelligible and meaningful at the household level? How can policy imperatives enter conversations between parents and children, and inform what they eat, where they travel, what they buy, and how they treat waste? Authors, illustrators and publishers who create books for children have made an enormous contribution in this regard. The Indian market is flooded with books on climate change.

Coral Woman (2021), written by Lubaina Bandukwala and illustrated by Sanket Pethkar, revolves around a homemaker named Uma Mani who falls in love with coral reefs, learns to swim and dive in her 50s, and uses her skills as a painter to create awareness about the impact of climate change on marine life and coastal communities. Her interest in coral reefs begins with colours and shapes, and gradually she learns about the complex underwater ecosystem.

Conceptualised by Avid Learning, and published by HarperCollins India, this book is based on Priya Thuvassery’s 53-minute film Coral Woman (2019). Ms Bandukwala writes, “The Indian coast is home to 5,790 sq.km. of coral reefs. These reefs are home to 262 hard corals, 145 soft corals and 1,087 reef fish species.” The book draws attention to coral reefs in the Lakshadweep islands, Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

Though coral reefs protect the coast and small islands from tidal waves and erosion, untreated sewage is discharged into the sea. Additionally, there are piles of clothes discarded on the beach by pilgrims visiting Rameshwaram, hot water and fly ash from a thermal plant, and waste from hotels. Ms Bandukwala writes, “Pollution causes acidification, which can limit coral growth. It can damage coral skeletons and slow the growth of new ones.”

This book informs readers that the biggest blow to coral reefs has come from global warming. Ms Bandukwala writes, “In 2016, there occurred an event that ecologists call the second global bleaching event in which sea temperatures rose, bleaching reefs around the world including those in the Gulf of Mannar. As many as 16.2 per cent of corals in this area were lost then.”

Ammu’s Bottle Boat (2021), written by Niveditha Subramaniam and illustrated by Aindri C, highlights “what plastic in the ocean can do.” Published by Tulika, this book is about a girl who is shocked to discover straws, packets, caps, spoons and jars in the habitats of marine creatures. Since bags can get stuck in the guts of birds, and bottles can end up in the bellies of whales, she learns to recycle and dispose garbage — “things we must make time to do.”

Another book that is concerned about the health of the ocean is The Black Tide: 1978, The Sinking of the Amoco Cadiz (2021). Originally written in French by Marie Lenne-Fouquet, it has now been translated into English by Nakashi Chowdhry. It foregrounds the perspective of Yann — the son of a fisherman who learns about a shipwreck and an oil spill — and is based on an incident that took place in the Atlantic Ocean off the shore of Brittany in France. 

Going by the account in this book, on March 16, 1978, an oil tanker was shipwrecked and its broken hull emptied 2,27,000 tonnes of oil over 300 km of the coast. Yann says, “Every day, after school, my friends and I go and help clean up. It’s been weeks, but I feel like the heaps of lifeless animals covered in black glue and the clumps of oil are no smaller.” Yann’s father reminds him that human beings are capable of the worst but we can learn from our mistakes.

This book has illustrations by Marjorie Béal, and it has been published by Puffin Books with support from the Institut français. It shows how different species depend on each other — a theme that reappears in the book Earth, Our Home: Poems of Climate Change (2021), with poems by Karthika Naïr, Salil Chaturvedi, Anushka Ravishankar and Sampurna Chattarji. 

Pratham Books has published this collection, with illustrations by Aindri C and additional text by Bijal Vachharajani, who writes, “Our planet is now warmer because humans are pumping more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and, at the same time, cutting down more and more trees. Glaciers and ice caps are melting, the sea level is rising and we are seeing extreme weather events such as floods and droughts more frequently.”

Through the medium of verse, readers get to learn about forests being cleared for coal mining and oil palm cultivation, and creatures such as leopards, elephants, sloth bears, orangutans, dolphins and sharks that are endangered due to poaching, habitat loss and pollution. These books evoke empathy but do not go down the path of guilt-tripping children for the mistakes of their ancestors. They give a reality check, speak of solutions, and ignite hope.