As the idea of resilience has received more attention from policymakers as a guiding principle for climate change response and development, so too has it garnered more criticism, says David Lewis in this week’s podcast. By implying a “natural” return to a previous condition, resilience thinking could inadvertently promote limited policies that don’t go as far as they could in aiding those most at-risk.

“There was drought so we had to share the little water brought a long distance from irrigation canals to the field. This delay in rice planting is resulting in a late harvest,” explains Ratna Darai, 47, a farmer in Daraipadhera, Nepal, during an interview with The Third Pole reporter Ramesh Bhushal. An erratic monsoon means an uncertain harvest in a nation where agricultural production is not on pace with population growth. Water insecurity is a major driver of conflict and uncertainly in the world’s most populous continent.

JOWAI, India – On April 17, in a ruling that stunned miners, truckers, and owners in this region of black dust and rivers that run the colors of the rainbow, India’s National Green Tribunal ordered the state of Meghalaya’s $650 million coal mining industry to shut down.

SHILLONG, India – India’s National Green Tribunal (NGT), a judicial body with legal authority that ranks just below the Supreme Court, is quickly emerging as one of the world’s most important forums for testing the idea that economic advancement is tightly wired to public safety and the security of water, air, and land.