KHIROD C. MOHARANA, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad Khirod C. Moharana CAN WE MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE WITH A NEW CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION? Abstract Earth’s climate has been changing and this is an undisputed fact today. The uniqueness of the present climate change is its time span. In about a hundred years the climate has changed noticeably. Various disciplines have been researching on the causes and impact of climate change as well as the ways to adapt and mitigate it. Anthropology is in a unique position to understand climate change due to its holistic, historical and comparative approach. It has been revealed by recent studies that the present climate change is anthropogenic. Why is it so? Which human activities have triggered environmental change in such a massive scale? The present paper attempts to answer this question by bringing “consumption” to the forefront of analysis by linking it to the global forces of capitalism and consumerism. The paper examines the historical and contemporary economic factors which explain the surge of consumption in recent time. With an objective to understand whether we can change our consumption pattern the paper analyses some of the recent works on the nature of consumption as well as examines three non- consumeristic worldviews, namely the Ho worldview, the Jain philosophy and the Gandhian view. Using secondary sources and primary sources involving anthropological fieldwork, the paper proposes an alternate model of consumption based on inputs from the understanding of how constructed needs are consumed by the consumers today as a result of the interplay between the dominant economy, the state and the consumers. Keywords: Consumption, Climate change, Culture, Mitigation. Recived: 5 th April 2018 Revised: 18 th June 2019 Accepted: 25 th June 2019 Climate Change and Consumption Earth’s climate is changing. In fact it has always been changing. But what bothers us now is the speed with which it is changing. It has been estimated that earth’s average surface air temperature has increased by about 0.8°C since 1900, with much of this increase taking place since the mid-1970s 1 .