Cooling a warming India: ecology and equity in our time
Hosted by the Department of Geography and Environment and the Global School of Sustainability
In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)
Tuesday 12 May 2026 6.30pm - 8pm
Climate change has made episodes of extreme heat more frequent and intense. As north Indian cities prepare to tackle this crisis, they must contend with systemic vulnerabilities built into the urban environment that privatised, market-led solutions have exacerbated.
This talk will examine housing and work, sleep and sociality, as key aspects of everyday life where strategies to create more equitable and sustainable access to cooling must focus.
Meet our speaker and chair
Amita Baviskar is Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology and Anthropology. Her research and teaching address the cultural politics of environment and development in rural and urban India. She focuses on the role of social inequality and identities in natural resource conflicts. Currently, she is working on ‘Heat, Dust, Rain: Experiencing the Anthropocene in Urban India’ while continuing to study the politics of food and changing agrarian environments.
Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies and the Head of the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE.
More about this event
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Launched in 2025, the Global School of Sustainability at LSE (GSoS) is the centre of social science expertise for sustainability impact at LSE. We work in partnerships across the LSE community and beyond to advance pioneering sustainability research and global policy engagement.
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