An Anticlimatic story

It’s the year 2173… 

the California-like fires haven’t burnt down any forests,

cordyceps¹ like fungus has not taken over the planet, and 

humans have survived to stay humane. 

Welcome to Anticlimatic!

(or did I mean, What an anticlimactic story!?)

I’m Sayesha, the perpetrator of this post and a series of future posts that are in production to blow you away… 

“Who even are you?”, you ask.

I’m one of the few lunatics who decided to go on an expedition² to Antarctica last year, only to come back and wonder, “What is my existence even worth?!” 

And this recurring thought changed the course of my life.   

I quit my 0 to 1 journey in consumer-tech (which was once a dream) in Dubai to return to India and build something meaningful to calm the heating planet. In my previous being, I dabbled across consulting, venture capital and e-commerce since the age of 19. In 2021, I fell into the MBA honeytrap and graduated from the Indian School of Business (ISB), after trying to forget the success of a self-inflicted pain guised as Chartered Accountancy (CA). While my Instagram bio boldly states “experiences over possessions”, I can’t stand giving up on a 15-year-old skirt which no longer fits me. A sports person at heart, lover of everything that’s NOT mainstream and a forever optimist. 

“Enough of you, tell me about this blog now”, you say.

Think of Anticlimatic as your supermarket for understanding Climate Change and everything that lies at crossroads with it. The aim is to not pet the surface, but dig snake holes to be able to discover the multi-order effects of this looming change.

I envisage Anticlimatic to be a hotspot for demystifying climate concepts, narratives, claims & trends; dropping climate truth bombs; and exploring the intersection of climate with human behavior, art, web3, startups… and everything else! Expect all of this with a seasoning of some humour (incl. bad jokes) & memes, a tinge of philosophy, some nerve-wracking questions, pleasant surprises and a soul bursting with hope.

As is this one, most of the future posts will be short or medium form with some occasional long forms. 

What Anticlimatic is NOT going to be - 

• chemistry equations

• jargons

• nonsense

“I’m confused! Are you anti-climate or what? What’s with the name ’Anticlimatic’?”, you quip. 

Damn! I didn’t think of that.

The name is a spin on ‘Anticlimactic’ which refers to a plot of a story going against expectations (generally disappointing). Remember Game of Thrones last season? Yes, that. 

Interestingly, “Anticlimactic” is also commonly misspelt as “Anticlimatic”.

But why did I choose a misnomer to begin with?

Climate change, still, is misunderstood / not well understood by many - some think it’s a political propaganda, some think it’s a problem meant to be solved by others. No wonder, Robert Swan, my fellow expeditioner and the first man in history to walk to both the poles, had to say this

“The greatest threat to the planet is the belief that someone else will save it”

Most narratives on climate change are gloom and doom, so much so that the most popular visual of climate change is a dystopian world. That is how we have been conditioned to expect the climax of any climate change story to be. The COVID years hammered us with the idea of “opportunity in a crisis”, however cliched it may be. Being a thorough optimist, I want to deconstruct the fuss around ‘climate crisis’, bring out the opportunities that sit like a schlep, and make it anticlima(c)tic! 

“Hmmm…let’s see what you got, kid. Do you expect anything from me?”, you wonder.

I expect three things from you:

1. Constructive and actionable feedback (good, bad, ugly) on the content - let me know what’s working, what’s not working;

2. Suggestions for future posts - what you’d like to read, where you’d like me to dig deeper holes; and

3. If you like what you’re reading here, subscribe to Anticlimatic and never miss reading any of the upcoming posts. If you believe this could be of use / interest to people you know, pay it forward and get them to subscribe too. 

See you later, alligator! Have a great week.

1. Reference credit to my husband who makes me watch The Last of Us every week only because he is in love with the game it’s based on.

Also, an interesting read on how climate change might drive fungal growth 

2. This expedition deserves a special post which I plan to release on its one-year anniversary.