Entries by Keith Schneider

This is India — “Maybe Tomorrow”

Reflections of the banquet of bedlam that is modern India Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Much of the world’s tea is raised in northeast India. Workers pick tea leaves in a tea garden in Assam. Click image to enlarge. GUWAHATI, India — Beggars prowl the sidewalks of every city I’ve visited — […]

Meghalaya’s Coal Shutdown Order Tests Law and New Court’s Resolve

The big case has huge ramifications for India’s water, land, and economy. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue The April shutdown order affected virtually every business in Meghalaya’s two big coalfields — the Jaintia Hills to the east, and the Garo Hills in the state’s southwestern region. In Jowai’s crowded market, merchants complained […]

India’s National Green Tribunal Challenges Government and Industry To Follow the Law

Four-year-old court emerges as global leader in securing resources, promoting economic gain. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Courtroom Number 1 in session at the National Green Tribunal in New Delhi. The interior design conveys institutional significance, and sound and independent legal judgment. Beneath the gold and green, though, lies the spirit of […]

Earth Pushes Back

Era of indifference greets droughts, floods, storms, tsunamis. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue India’s policy of free water and free energy to farmers is draining groundwater reserves, polluting air and rivers, and generating economy-weakening brownouts with millions of electric water pumps that irrigate rice and wheat crops so big they rot in […]

Showing Off Circle of Blue Colleagues and Reporting in Traverse City

World-changing reporting fresh from northern Michigan. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: China project showed how China’s massive energy-consuming urban construction program, like this development in Xian, is producing an urgent a confrontation over water in the dry north, where much of China’s energy is produced. Click image […]