Rebecca Klenk's journeys to the Himalayas reveal just how much has changed in the face of climate change and lavish consumption. Her story is a powerful reminder to reconsider how global middle class consumption is reshaping everyday life for people in vulnerable communities.

Rebecca Klenk is a sociocultural anthropologist, affiliated with the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Department, who teaches in Interdisciplinary Programs and travels to Himalayan India whenever possible. She was born in Boston, raised mostly in New York, and spent a long time in Colorado, Alaska and Washington before moving to East Tennessee. Rebecca earned an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Colorado College and a doctorate in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington. Her long-term ethnographic research on economic development, education, social justice activism, and gender issues in India appears in scholarly journals and edited volumes and in her book, Educating Activists: Development and Gender in the Making of Modern Gandhians.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx