ABSTRACT
Environmental conditions are changing fast as water, land and other ecological systems interact with climate change and new patterns of disease incidence. In addition, ideas of sustainability have become co-opted into inappropriately managerial and bureaucratic attempts to ‘solve’ problems which are actually far more complex and political. Solutions to the problems of drought, climate change and agricultural development in dryland India often rest on two competing narratives about water. Debates about the global food crisis have re-energized green revolution narratives which were present in the 1960s and 1970s, which see technology-driven solutions as the core to any response. Debates about climate change have triggered a renewed series of debates about energy for development. The widely recognized imperative of addressing climate change, for example, has brought global environmental change and development issues to the top of the political agenda internationally. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
