In his book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, author Johann Hari puts forth the idea that our ability to focus deeply as a species is being systematically eroded, preventing us from taking collective action against climate change. He says that a problem as complex as this requires us to come together and think deeply and creatively.
Author Yuvan Aves. | Photo Credit: Pradeep Sekar
Cartoonist Rohan Chakravarty
But young people are increasingly spending more time indoors, watching flickering screens, leading to phrases like ‘nature deficit disorder’ being coined by journalist and author Richard Louv. How will they fight for something they have such little connection with?
Yuvan Aves, the Chennai-based author, nature educator and co-founder of the Palluyir Trust, believes that children who are connected with their natural surroundings will be stewards of these spaces. “But for that to happen they have to be taken out of the classroom to be amongst nature and build connections with the outdoors. Children today no longer have the opportunity to do this.” Cartoonist Rohan Chakravarty concurs. “It takes just one walk in nature to understand why we need to protect the world around us,” he says.
Aves and Chakravarty are amongst a growing group of creators helping young readers reconnect with the natural world and offering up ideas on how they can come together and fight the climate crisis. Aves’ book Shorewalk takes readers along the coast, offering glimpses of the fascinating creatures who call it their home, reiterating why beaches are crucial to land-sea balance and alerting them to the dangers of climate change. Chakravarty’s Pugmarks and Carbon Footprints and Green Humour for a Greying Planet are filled with situational or dark humour and have legions of young fans. “When you’re communicating something as bleak and horrible as climate disaster, humour helps soften the blow,” says the Pune-based illustrator.
A dollop of humour
Author Bijal Vachharajani
Author, editor and ‘climate worrier’ Bijal Vachharajani says that humour is sometimes all she has in these difficult times. Her recent book, When Fairlyand Lost Its Magic, illustrated by Rajiv Eipe, melds together well-known fairytales, and reimagines them through a climate lens. “We’ve had wonderful feminist fairytale retellings, which have helped the stories evolve and bring them into the times we live in,” shares Vachharajani. “This made me think there’s a give-and-take between our world and the world of fairytales. So if we’re facing our biggest threat as a planet — the climate crisis — then fairyland must be facing it, too.”
This means Rapunzel can only wash her hair once a week because of a water shortage, and Sleeping Beauty’s climate anxiety keeps her up all night. Alarmed by these changes, the denizens of Fairyland, led by a gang of feisty princesses and a wolf, set off to find a way out of a story that looks like it might have a Happily Never After.
Illustrations from Bijal Vachharajani’s ‘When Fairlyand Lost Its Magic’.
Vachharajani’s pop-culture-soaked writing doesn’t shy away from portraying the grim realities of climate change while still being funny. The humour is reflected in Eipe’s detailed, black-and-white illustrations, which present the familiar characters with a wonderful Indian twist. Cinderella wears a salwar kameez and a gang of foppish Prince Charmings are seen lounging about outside an Indian chai kada (tea shop). “The illustrations have an element of art nouveau inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s work, and are imbued with a dark, spoofy bizarreness that mirrors Bijal’s writing,” says Eipe.
Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, editor at Talking Cub, a children’s imprint.
But should we be shielding children from the realities of a climate-altered world? What of climate anxiety? Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, editor at Talking Cub, a children’s imprint, recalls her then nine-year-old son Ishaan feeling anxious after reading books about natural disasters, filled with facts such as death tolls and the failure of scientific warning systems. “One way we dealt with this was to talk about the facts and the effects. Discussing it with me helped him externalise his feelings,” she says.
Ishaan, who is now pursuing a Master’s degree in Climate Change, Development, Economics and Policy from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, U.K., says the books he read as a child kindled his interest in climate change. “The climate fiction I read showed that ethics and empathy are needed to take meaningful climate action while non-fiction books revealed the ground realities of the issue,” he says. “The books were stepping stones for my coming to understand that as a global citizen it was my responsibility to mitigate the biggest crisis facing our planet.”
Power of storytelling
Timira, an arts-based therapist, educator and children’s author from Mumbai says that fiction has the power to get young readers invested in the lives and problems of characters even before the environmental problems are laid out. “Books such as Year of the Weeds (Siddhartha Sarma) and The Miracle on Sunderbaag Street (Nandita da Cunha, Priya Kuriyan), for instance, introduce ideas that are a starting point for deeper conversations and further enquiry in children.”
One book that centres their thoughts is the illustrated title We Hope: Children on Climate Change in which youngsters from across India share their feelings about how climate change is impacting them. Visually interpreted by 14 illustrators, and with contextual writing by Radha Rangarajan, the book is a reminder to listen to the voices of the young. From pointing out Agumbe’s dried lakes to the terse ‘My lungs are tired’ from a student in Mumbai, to insecurities around their future in a climate-changed world, it is at once both beautiful and sobering.
What struck me the most about this growing green shelf of books for children is that while they rarely offer a happily-ever-after, they do offer hope. A small thing perhaps in the face of the looming problems that face us, but something we must guard zealously. For our children’s sake.
The writer is a children’s book author and columnist based in Bengaluru.
