New Delhi, India
The Asian Dilemma in the face of Ecological Breakdown
Asia is home to the biggest fossil fuels hub on Earth, the world's factory floor and the most populous consumerist market. While humans exhaust natural resources and degrade ecosystems at the fastest pace in history, the consumerism narrative remains in the driver's seat. Will Asia take up the challenge of systemic change, or perpetuate the status quo?
Eight megatrends in focus
Asia’s main oil and gas supplier, West Asia, has promoted a fossil fuel-based model of development across the region for decades. Will the Arabian Peninsula utilize its vast solar potential to advance Asia's electrification? Read more.
Human population growth have a profound effect on natural resource depletion, and ecosystem alterations. Demography is a critical matter in Asia, home to the world's two most populous countries, India and China. Read more.
Globalization connected consumers to geographically-distant producers, and Asia emerged as the world's factory. But at what cost? Environmentally intensive supply chains, and local ecosystems shouldering external costs. Read more.
Rapid urbanisation and the rise in popularity of low-density housing have accelerated human colonization of land across Asia, while the growth narrative has sidestepped the long-term costs of wiping out ecosystems. Read more.
Asia's population makes it a key player in global consumerism. But Human comfort, often branded as the ultimate societal goal, has silenced questionings of lifestyles that are growingly insulated from the natural world. Read more.
Beyond China’s rapid rise as a global leader in electric vehicles, Asia's mobility landscape is diverse, ranging from West Asia's car-centric cities to extensive rail and transit networks across South and East Asia. Read more.
Cities in West Asia have punched above their weight. The desert region is the world’s epitome of economies that leverage imports to shoot past growth and population levels that ecological capacities can sustain. Read more.
As India vies for the title of the world's food basket and China operates the world's largest fishing fleet, biodiversity and natural ecosystems bear the toll of environmentally intensive diets and fossil fuel-based farming. Read more.
Sebastian Castelier is a journalist and photojournalist who chronicles the consumption-driven capitalist system exceeding Earth's regenerative capacities in the era of ecological breakdown, with a focus on Asia, the world's most populous continent. Over the past ten years, his reports have been featured in 15 languages.
