“Institutions and organizations now doing carbon capture on an experimental basis and if you put them all together, the carbon they can capture in a year is almost equal to or less than the carbon that we emit in a minute, in a single minute”
In a conversation that was full of jaw-dropping insights, that was the moment when Arati Kumar-Rao and I found ourselves momentarily speechless.
In episode 9 of our fortnightly podcast From The Marginlands, award-winning climate scientist Dr. Roxy Mathew Koll joined us to discuss how the Indian Ocean is becoming the frontline of climate disruption.
From vanishing phytoplankton and marine heatwaves to misdirected geoengineering ambitions and the politics of river-linking, Dr. Koll unpacked the cascading impacts of a warming ocean on our monsoons, food systems, and our future.
It is a conversation as urgent as it is expansive; it is one that demands that we rethink the “solutions” being marketed in climate policy and development agendas. The main talking points:
The Indian Ocean as Ground Zero: How rapid warming is altering regional climate systems faster than anywhere else.
Marine Heatwaves: Their stealthy but severe impact on fisheries, corals, and coastal livelihoods, particularly across South Asia.
False Solutions: A sharp critique of carbon capture, large-scale river linking, and other techno-optimist strategies being pushed without systemic thinking.
Monsoon Disruption: How hydrological engineering projects could reduce rainfall by up to 12%, and why that matters for the subcontinent’s food security.
Science and Policy Disconnect: Why scientists must become better communicators and policymakers must pay closer attention to what the data actually says.
A Call to the Climate Frontlines: From Kerala fishers to Himalayan communities, what local knowledge can teach us about resilience, and more importantly, what is being ignored.
Here is the full episode. Comments, queries and suggestions not merely welcome, but actively solicited:
Bonus: Roxy — @RockSea on X — and his wife Sarah run a project called Gone With The Heat — “an embroidered story of coral reef bleaching under marine heatwaves. Here, they tell the story of our warming oceans through embroidered tapestries. Sample below, but check the whole site out — it is well worth your time.
I am yet to catch up with this series, Prem, but you both are doing immense service to the cause of climate change. It requires much wider dissemination.