MIASU Seminar: Hildegard Diemberger (MIASU, University of Cambridge)

In a confluence of events, climate change-related floods are occurring in the Himalaya just as motorable roads and telephone connections as well as new governance modes are arriving in places such as Limi, in Nepal's impoverished Humla district. The advent of non-compostable and plastic waste is a new phenomenon for the population and the cultural and psychological shifts required across the generations in terms of how to manage these new forms of waste is proving challenging. Both old and new challenges require an infinite number of decisions at multiple levels, involving different forms of knowledge and moral frameworks in dealing with issues of causality, attribution, responsibility, prioritization and action. In this presentation I explore ways in which understandings of the past inform visions of the future in light of radical transformations.