ഊർജ്ജം (Oorjjam, Malayalam; English: Energy) Greetings from the Rainmatter Foundation! India faces a critical energy challenge: Despite our commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2070, we remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, which account for 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, India imports nearly 40% of its energy needs, making it vulnerable to […]
हिमनदी ताल (Himanadī tāla, Nepali; Glacial lake) Greetings! Mountainscapes can be otherworldly – the weather is unpredictable and one never knows what the next bend might lead to: a valley, a stream, a forest or a wall of rocky cliffs. The higher one goes, the more magnificent the mysteries: snowy mountains host glaciers, which give […]
हरित क्रांति (Hindi: Harit Kraanti; Green Revolution) From 10-minute deliveries to social media timelines, food has become a ubiquitous element of our lives. We are able to access food so easily and with so much abundance that most of us fail to realise how much we take it for granted – an average Indian household […]
Why did the mushroom walk into the bar? To expand its network! Jokes aside, fungi networks are so vital that they are termed the “circulatory system of the planet”. Fungi can colonise, multiply and survive in air, water, dung and even on foam. These microorganisms–neither plants, nor animals–are widely prevalent, and are present in everyday […]
ڀنڀوري (Sindhi: Bhimbhori; Dragonfly) Migrations make for spellbinding stories and compelling heroes. November started with a bird setting the record for the longest recorded flight by a land bird. An Eastern bar-tailed godwit, identified as 4BYWW, journeyed from Alaska to New Zealand, covering a distance of 12,200km, flying for more than eight days straight! Her […]
शरद (Hindi, sharad; Autumn) Salaam. When there’s a nip in the air, when there’s a cold breeze blowing, when some of the birds begin to leave, when the trees switch to a riotous wardrobe and when the leaves desert the branches to kiss the ground… can you resist the seduction of autumn? India is mostly […]
പ്രതീക്ഷ (Malayalam: pratīkṣa; Hope) What might you expect from a story of two men behind prison walls? That perhaps it’s about violence? Is bleak? Even tragic? The Shawshank Redemption is all of that. It is also an account of an unlikely friendship between two people from starkly different maps… a tale that encompasses music, […]
ತಾಪ (Kannada: taapa; heat, fire) August was the month of warnings and wildfires. The IPCC released its “most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system” as part of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The Physical Science Basis is the first of the multi-part AR6. Explore it through the many datasets on this interactive atlas. And […]
धारा (dhaara; stream) Greetings for a new month! Rain is one of the things that sets a dhaara, a stream, in motion. Record rainfall in July triggered streams and rivers to flood many regions across the country. It’s rarely possible to tame the forces of nature. Have a go at this simulation game by the UN […]
Petrichor Salud! No, you did not sign up for this. But do stay for a bit. And then some. This is our first monthly digest. We hope to encapsulate our activities and learnings from the last month, highlight the work being done by grantees, post announcements, amplify asks from the network and pin environment-related information […]