Climate Brides | Dr Reetika Revathy Subramanian | TEDxUniversityofStAndrews

In South Asia, climate change is not only reshaping coastlines and crops. It is redefining childhood. When floods, droughts, and heatwaves disrupt livelihoods, families are forced into impossible calculations. For some, marrying a daughter early becomes a way to manage risk, secure support, or enable mobility. Not simply tradition, but survival shaped by shrinking choices. Masculinities, too, are being renegotiated, as work disappears and expectations remain. Drawing on stories and research from the Climate Brides project, this talk reveals how climate shocks remake family life, gender roles, and the bargains through which child marriage is recast as survival. Ultimately, climate justice is about whose futures are protected, and whose are negotiated away in a warming world. Dr Subramanian is a Senior Research associate and BBC- AHRC New Generation Thinker 2025 who works in the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia. Her work focuses on climate change, gender and labour migration. She is the creator of the Climate Brides podcast. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx