With the prevailing one degree rise in global average temperature compared to pre-industrial levels, the world is already suffering extensive damage. In India, the Chennai floods only exposed how tenuous our preparations are in dealing with climate change reality. For a nation constantly marked with disasters, the heatwaves that killed hundreds this summer, or the Kedarnath floods that killed thousands a couple of years ago, it’s all rather quickly been erased from public memory. Such lapses of reason in the collective consciousness appear to afflict PM Narendra Modi as well. For he comes back from Paris to announce that Rs 98,000 crore will be invested in building a ‘bullet train’, from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Really? For who exactly? There is no money to provide forest guards, who toil day and night, with boots, torches and salaries, but the needs of the rich are served with urgency. No wonder then we continue to lose critically endangered tigers and bustards by the dozens.