This found image from an online news source shows the importance of faith and ritual in India's climate change action and discourse. The ethnographic insight gleaned from this concerns how human traditions intersect with contemporary challenges, specifically in India. The sentiment I get from this image is hopelessness. The men posing for the camera - directing their attention away from the ritual - indicates a kind of non-commital to the issue at hand. This is supported by the ethnographer's decision to include the 'trending stories' sidebar, which distracts in a similar way to the camera.
This visualization presents political apathy on climate change by showing the political leaders of Tamil Nadu participating in a discrete event: a ritual praying for rain. The critical commentary is dense and layered. If I understand correctly, the critique of political apathy centers on a critique on inadequate governance and infrastructure to address cycles of flooding and drought in chennai. Yet the photo shows political leaders engaged in an action—its effectiveness in doubt—but they are not displaying apathy. The disjunction provocates. Embedded in this caption is an argument about governance, effectiveness, science, culture...that opens worlds of inquiry.
The visualisation shows us political leaders of an area experiencing both floodings and water shortages engaged in a ritual to address the water scarcity. The argument is that this amounts to political apathy, and we get a sense that this is all these leaders do in this regard.