Narrative series

Environmental Odisha

The shifting foundation — cyclones, mining ecology, the Mahanadi, heat, the energy transition.

8 chapters · 36,781 words

Read the series introduction →

Chapters

  1. 01 Chapter 1: The Storm That Changed Everything On the night of October 29, 1999, the Bay of Bengal produced the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean. Central pressure at 912 hPa. Sustained winds at 260 kilometres per hour. A storm surge five to six metres high pushing the ocean thirty-five kil 3,912 words
  2. 02 Chapter 2: The Price of the Mountain In 2007, the Blacksmith Institute -- a New York-based environmental health organisation -- published a list of the world's ten most polluted places. Alongside Chernobyl, Dzerzhinsk in Russia, and La Oroya in Peru, the list included Sukinda valley in Jajpur district, Odisha. 3,842 words
  3. 03 Chapter 3: The River That Divides Cross-domain lens: Game theory — the upstream-downstream prisoner's dilemma 5,266 words
  4. 04 Chapter 4: The Heat That Stays Cross-domain lens: Physics — thermal equilibrium and the system that cannot cool itself 4,441 words
  5. 05 Chapter 5: The Coast That Holds Cross-domain lens: Biology — ecosystem services as infrastructure, and the organism that protects by existing 4,379 words
  6. 06 Chapter 6: The Fuel That Fades Cross-domain lens: Investing — stranded assets, and the portfolio that cannot be rebalanced 4,372 words
  7. 07 Chapter 7: The Bill That Arrives Cross-domain lens: Game theory — the tragedy of the commons at planetary scale, and the player who pays without playing 3,394 words
  8. 08 Chapter 8: The Foundation Shifts Thirteen series. Approximately 610,000 words. Politics, economy, culture, migration, infrastructure, the tribal parallel civilization, the invisible half of women's experience, the churning fire of consciousness, the value chain that extracts, the long arc that bends -- or doesn' 7,175 words

Source Research

The raw research that informs this series.