In the unequal world of climate change, Dr Shobha Maharaj has emerged as a voice of advocacy for scientists who are people of colour and from the Global South.
For the layman, a scientist may seem like the height of one’s profession, but Maharaj, who is a climate impacts scientist, has shed light on the uneven playing field she and others have been made to endure.
She’s an Adjunct Professor at the University of Fiji studying the past, present and future impacts of climate change, particularly as it relates to biodiversity within Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
This New Grant resident has moved from the corners of the Global South to working alongside many prominent scientists across the world. That, however, is not always as pleasant as it may sound.
She told WE magazine in a recent interview, “My experience as a Global South scientist, especially as a woman of colour, means that you are automatically placed at the bottom of a hierarchy. I really hate saying this, but there is a hierarchy. Global North white men are at the top, especially the older ones. This does not mean that every Global North white male is bad. Some are strong allies, but those who are perpetrators of this inequity often discriminate because of their innate ways of thinking; they tend to see us from the Global South, especially those of us who are not white and who are women, as inferior and not trained as well as they are.”
Such an assertion can sometimes become a call to action for women like Maharaj. She attended Naparima Girls’ High School, went on to study a BSc double major in Botany and Zoology at the University of the West Indies, and then achieved her Master’s in Environmental Biology before travelling to Oxford University for her doctorate in projecting the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. From Oxford and beyond, she would be exposed to a world where life, and her career, were not always treated fairly.
However, instead of staying silent, Maharaj would begin advocating for a fairer playing field not just for herself but for the Global South scientists around her.
“I’m a stickler for equity. I like seeing an even playing field. The playing field is definitely not even, but it also goes back to the fact that I work with SIDS and with other regions that are amongst the most vulnerable in the world,” she explained.
Maharaj said if the scientists from these parts of the world with invaluable first-hand lived experiences of climate impacts are not being heard, then most of their nuanced, important information will probably never make it to the public.
“If we continue to have our voices stifled, then it doesn’t do anyone any good, and not just us but also in terms of progressing global research. If our knowledge from invaluable front-line experience remains missing and not integrated into global science conversations, then how are we going to figure out how we are going to adapt?” she questioned.
Maharaj’s work in climate change is of little surprise to those who have known her since she was a child. She started our conversation by proudly emphasising, “I come from the bush,” referring to New Grant in Princes Town where she grew up. It is “the bush” that would develop her passion and love for biodiversity.
“This is where I spent my formative years, and I learnt a lot about life, the interconnectedness of everything and everybody, and it’s where I created the blueprint by which I live my life now,” she explained.
She added, “It’s not so much where I grew up but with whom I grew up.”
She said her parents, particularly her mother, have been her role models all her life. Along with her grandmother and parents, Maharaj spent most of her time outside the house, and that time with nature stayed with her.
Her work now focuses on finding ways to adapt and bounce back from the disharmony in the environment and the world we live in. She sees the Caribbean at a disadvantage in this global issue of climate change.
She explained, “In the Caribbean, we still have this sort of post-colonial conditioning. For example, in academia, you see teams of research scientists, often with their students, coming from Global North universities to conduct fieldwork and gather data. “They come here having made arrangements with one of our local universities. They use local equipment and often local students as well to help out, and then at the end, they go back with their research, they go back with their samples and data, and maybe mention or include the faculty that helped in their publication. “However, in terms of the intellectual autonomy and intellectual design of the research, these are, for the most part, carried out by the global North scientists–who have little to no nuanced or intimate knowledge of OUR systems.”
Hailing from a Caribbean country, Maharaj is adamant she will not stay silent while Global South countries remain victims of abuse and discrimination within the climate change system. She is determined to speak out, even if she is the only voice in the room doing so.
