Opinion: Climate crisis causing families to shun farmers for arranged marriages

Dr Luiza Campos (UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering) and her colleagues write how climate change has altered social norms around the world, and offer an in-depth look at the resulting marriage crisis in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The devastating effects of climate change on the natural environment are already well known. Temperatures are increasing. The frequency of extreme weather events is on the up. Sea levels are rising. But the social and cultural effects of the climate crisis are discussed less often. Is the climate crisis already changing societal norms? And if so, how? These were the sorts of questions that took us to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where we interviewed over 1,000 farmers between November 2018 and June 2019.