ABSTRACT

On August 5, 2010, a violent cloudburst dumped fourteen inches of rain on Ladakh, a mountain desert region in the far north of India accustomed to getting just three inches of rain in a year. Five years later, flooding recurred on a wider scale, destroying buildings, roads, fields, and orchards all over Ladakh and provoking a wide-ranging discussion among locals about the causes of climate catastrophe. In this essay, we attend to those local voices and allow the people of Ladakh to speak for themselves about the causes and consequences of climate change as well as the best forms of climate change adaptation in the trans-Himalayan region. We offer a two-year progress report on our ongoing oral history fieldwork in this unique and ecologically sensitive high desert region. At the same time, we offer some reflections on the discipline of oral history itself and the promise it offers in conjunction with community engagement to the study of climate change. The surprising fact remains that despite much recent and inspiring work at the compelling intersection of oral and environmental history, few oral historians have taken on directly the subject of climate change, and those who have tend to dwell on the specific experience of the American West. Here we join those few oral and environmental historians who are approaching climate change by way of global community engagement. Only by way of such engagement, we argue—only by following the best practices of what has come to be known as community-based participatory research, can oral history fulfill its public mission as we understand it and contribute decisively to the humanistic study of the Anthropocene.

摘要

2010 年 8 月 5 日，一场猛烈的暴雨给拉达克带来了 14 英寸的降雨，拉达克是印度最北部的一个山地沙漠地区，过去一年只有 3 英寸的降雨量。五年后，洪水在更广泛的范围内再次发生，摧毁了拉达克各地的建筑物、道路、田地和果园，并引发了当地人对气候灾难原因的广泛讨论。在这篇文章中，我们关注当地的声音，让拉达克人民为自己谈论气候变化的原因和后果以及跨喜马拉雅地区适应气候变化的最佳形式。我们提供了一份关于我们在这个独特且生态敏感的高沙漠地区正在进行的口述历史实地工作的两年进度报告。同时，我们对口述历史学科本身及其与社区参与气候变化研究的承诺进行了反思。令人惊讶的事实仍然是，尽管最近在口述历史和环境历史的交叉领域开展了许多鼓舞人心的工作，但很少有口述历史学家直接研究气候变化这一主题，而那些倾向于详述美国西部特定经历的人。在这里，我们加入了少数通过全球社区参与来应对气候变化的口述和环境历史学家的行列。我们认为，只有通过这种参与——只有遵循所谓的基于社区的参与式研究的最佳实践，