Constructing the Monsoon: Colonial Meteorological Cartography, 1844-1944 (original) (raw)

Science, State and Meteorology in India

Dialogue, 2020

Meteorology as a science developed from the middle of the nineteenth century in India in the government’s cradle. This, in turn, has shaped its evolution, making public service its key focus and receiving government patronage in return. Examining this relationship through the evolution of cyclone warning services of India Meteorological Department (IMD), this paper argues that historically such meteorological service has developed without adequate emphasis on theoretical advancement inhibiting the growth of the particular science. Meteorology’s entanglement with the state has resulted in its servicing of state’s institutions rather than the society at large and creating a bureaucratic environment with poor research tradition both during colonial and in the post-Independence period. This association has ensured that there is no scope for the public’s assessment of meteorological service even though it remains predominantly public-funded.

Chapter 6: The Discovery of ENSO. In Grove, R. and Adamson, G. 'El Nino in World History'

The Southern Oscillation was named in 1924 and its discovery can be traced back to colonial attempts to forecast the Indian monsoon in the late-nineteenth century. The first use of the name ‘El Niño’ to describe a climatic phenomenon appeared in South America in 1893. The term did not, however, originally mean what it does today, being used to describe a seasonal warm water current that is manifest off the coast of northwestern Peru. The history of these two distinct phenomena and their eventual amalgamation into ENSO is closely linked to the activities of the international Guano industry and to efforts to strengthen US soft power in Latin America during the Cold War. Significant advances in El Niño forecasting have occurred since the 1982 event.

Drinking the Winds: Monsoon as Atmospheric Spring

GeoHumanities, 2021

This paper explores monsoons as a set of atmospheric-orographic dynamics productive of water resources and as a site of actionable concern for landscape practice. From study to representation to design, the term “landscape practice” is used to describe a way of positioning environments as both subject and object of concern. While monsoons are constituents of many geographies, dynamics, materials and experiences, this paper focuses on the South Asian monsoon and its relationship with the Tibetan Plateau. In this region, freshwater resources are dependent on the monsoon; however, as rising global temperatures and rapid urban development significantly impact the behavior of the monsoon and the Plateau’s ability to store freshwater, the monsoon—as a kinetic body of freshwater— becomes the focal point of visual media productions and extractive technologies that require a shifting of perspective from one that privileges land to one that centers the atmosphere. The inclusion of meteorological and atmospheric material and dynamics within the space of landscape practice, constructively challenges the spatial discipline’s engagement with exploitable resources; and the monsoon provides a tangible site and set of conditions that is in urgent need of this exploration.