An open letter to Samir Shukla

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For other readers:

According to his TOI blog, Samir Shukla is a Visiting Professor of Bionics at IIM Ahmedabad. He writes on various platforms such as Times of India, Economic Times, DNA India, Medium and Quora.

I am writing this letter in an admittedly agitated mood. If you go through his blog, you may reach the same stage. I encourage you to go through his posts on any topic of your interest and concern, and get familiar with his style of writing and (presumably) thinking. He has advice for scientists, economists, feminists, activists, the judiciary, etc etc., without having any apparent expertise in any of these fields.

However, I must point out, he is not wrong everywhere, so I am restricting the content of this letter to the concept of climate change.

TLDR? Summary:
  1. Common man - do not believe fake experts.
  2. Media houses - raise standards for your platforms, do not enable the spread of misinformation.
  3. Dr. Shukla - please educate yourself or don't spread misinformation.

Dr. Shukla,

Your blog introduces you as an academic associated with a prestigious institution of India. As an Indian, an academic and a student of climate science, I am outraged by how you use your blog to spread misinformation and impede the efforts of everyone who is trying to solve a global crisis. Since you are an academic, I hold you accountable to the higher standards of academia. Simply put, you cannot get away with spreading lies or creating confusion by saying "I didn't know better". In academia, if you don't know better, you learn. Academia also doesn't run on "opinions" even though blogs do.

So please take a seat and allow me to teach you some basic concepts, that you should have learnt before propagating your hardened and appallingly wrong opinions.

Sept 20-27, 2019: The week when over 6 million people around the world demanded for more political action to solve the climate change crisis, you chose to write a series of posts spewing contempt on climate scientists and activists.
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(1/4) September 24 : "Stolen dreams of Greta from Stockholm Vs. Unrealized dream of Geeta from Alirajpur"

This page has transcripts for some speeches by Greta Thunberg:
I request you to open the page and search it for the word "rich". Please repeat for the word "India".

Greta Thunberg speaks of the inherent inequality of this crisis at pretty much every opportunity she gets. She has spoken about the problems of developing nations at global summits. She has openly challenged political leaders who claim they are trying to solve the climate crisis but are not doing enough. When this made people uncomfortable, they decided to tune out everything else but focus only on taking offence to 3 words - "How dare you". Paid media helped.

Everyone who is talking about this constructively is aware of the needs of the developing nations. This is an essential component of any policy research. Kindly do not profess to have discovered the plight of Geeta from Alirajpur, poverty in India has been a matter of international concern for decades. If you care about poverty in India, do not use it as a tool to hinder climate action.
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(2/4) September 25: "Climate change and poverty: "Tera Mera Hamara, Mera Mere Baap ka" "

"If at all climate change arrives", as it already has in Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala, Odisha etc. in the form of floods, in north and central India in the form of heat waves, all over India in the form of agricultural losses, etc. etc. etc., it will cause more misery to Geeta than Greta.

The climate does not care who caused it to change, nor does it handpick who to affect. The social cost of carbon is the highest for India in the entire world. For every ton of CO2 being emitted in the world, India loses about US$ 86. Greta comes from a country with a negative carbon cost. So in all fairness, the fact that she is trying to solve the crisis at all merits appreciation.

I am all for upping the ante on diplomatic fronts. I would presume that the diplomatic forces of the country are aware of the dynamics of international relations, and the common man need not dwell on them. The common man needs to focus on climate action on individual and political levels, but you clearly don't seem in favour of that.

Please read:
  1. India lost $79.5 billion due to climate-related disasters in last 20 years: UN
  2. Climate change is a global injustice. A new study shows why.
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(3/4) September 26: "A short history of a dying planet for the young climate change crusaders from India"

I will not focus on the woolly and fatuous history lesson that you are as unqualified to give as you are to speak about climate change. I would like to inform you though that technology transfer has been an essential component of climate conversations since at least 1990, when the IPCC released its first report. Perhaps it may interest you that Dr. P R Shukla at Ahmedabad University is co-leading the IPCC Working Group on Mitigation of Climate Change. I trust him to oversee that India does not get a bad deal out of this.

The problem is not that the West is out to get us. At some point, we will have to stop cribbing about historical emissions, get up, and actually do something about our own problems. Perhaps you would also like to write a short history of political and industrial propaganda to cover-up for climate inaction in India?

Some relevant links:
  1. India's National Action Plan on Climate Change needs desperate repair
  2. Panel pulls up govt. for diverting coal cess
  3. India's approach to adaptation: A good start but lacks a strong long-term focus
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(4/4) September 27: "To sentimental Indian kids: If climate change is REAL, you will have a WAR at hand"

An article questioning the veracity of a global crisis on the day of a historical global strike asking for action to solve the said global crisis surely deserves to be recorded as a historic example of propaganda to hinder climate action. But I have no doubt that such attempts are a dime a dozen.

Your article has important clues to your misunderstanding of the situation. Perhaps you imagine the climate crisis as a global natural disaster which will annihilate all populations at the same time. And till it reaches epic proportions of an extinction event, you may perhaps not be able to identify its signs. Perhaps it doesn't seem worthy of your belief till it's an apocalypse. Not sure if you heard "prevention is better than cure".

Please pick any link in this list and try to understand the reality of climate change for Gujarat:
  1. The parched lands of Gujarat bring climate change into stark view in India
  2. Gujarat is battered by heat waves, floods, drought. How are its cities coping?
  3. Flood could be new normal in Gujarat
  4. Climate change in India: Gujarat faces problem of plenty
  5. Flood fury: Climate change denial won't help
I hope that by reading about Gujarat, this will seem more real to you. (Please correct me if your residence is not in Gujarat.)
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Conclusions

There is a full Page 2 to this post dedicated to pointing out your fallacies. But in the interest of the reader's time, I conclude this page with the following requests:
  1. Dr. Shukla and all other academics around the world who pose as climate-change experts: please stop. You may have sufficient expertise to comment on many other issues and contribute to those discussions, but your credibility -- as well as the credibility of institutions you're associated with -- takes a massive hit when you treat such a critical issue with such nonchalance / bias. I'm sure that your blog will continue to garner readership and will probably also be popularized by forces that seek to benefit from the misinformation. Please know that not everyone is a fool.
  2. Media houses such as Times of India and DNA India - please do not allow your platforms to be misused in the name of "expert" blogs. The climate change crisis is particularly acute for India. Your ethical responsibilities towards responsible journalism also require higher standards for Opinion pieces on your platforms.
  3. Readers and general public - there is significant misinformation being propagated by powerful groups with a lot of money. When you see an article that rejects climate change, double-check the credentials of the author.

More clarifications on Page 2 →

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