New Delhi, Delhi, India: As the world faces escalating climate breakdown, Amitav Ghosh continues to write with future generations in mind. While confronting environmental collapse and human responsibility, he consciously avoids a tone of constant despair, choosing clarity over hopelessness.a

After decades of exploring colonial history and human movement, Ghosh now focuses on what he sees as humanity’s most urgent crisis: the destruction of the natural world. In works such as The Great Derangement and his upcoming novel Ghost-Eye, he criticizes extractivism, warning that political leaders mask inaction through polished greenwashing.

Speaking in New Delhi, Ghosh said humanity is accelerating toward disaster instead of correcting course. His new novel, built around reincarnation, uses the idea of the “ghost-eye” as a symbol for seeing possibilities beyond immediate reality, including alternative ways of living with nature.

Despite the gravity of these themes, Ghosh finds motivation in everyday joys, especially time spent with his young grandson. That personal bond shapes his contribution to the Future Library, for which he is preparing a manuscript that will remain unread until 2114. He describes it as a message to the next generation, asking how today’s adults responded while the world was burning.

Aware that the future will look radically different, Ghosh remains cautious about the power of literature alone to change history. Yet he continues to write in the hope that stories can spark reflection, encourage ethical responsibility, and help future readers imagine new ways of understanding a fragile and uncertain planet.