My overarching goal is to examine the social effects of changes in South and Southeast Asia's annual heartbeat, the monsoon, through observations at the local level. My proposed research project for the summer of 2024 focuses on the Indian city of Varanasi and the various communities living in this ancient place. The local climatic changes in recent summers include higher and longer lasting heat and a nearly dried up holy river Ganges. When the monsoon arrives, dangerous wet bulb temperatures have in some cases been observed in the last years. In the beginning of the wet season, torrential monsoon rains and floods occur more often now. In addition, the relatively strong El Niño in 2023 and 2024 could lead to even more variability in weather patterns. In Varanasi, I try to find out how different socioeconomic, ethnic and caste groups perceive these changes, experience the effects and whether those environmental and climatic changes alter the relationships between the groups. This summer research trip aims to fill the research gap on what happens before the outbreak of “climate conflicts” and to shed light on the under-researched topic of “climate cooperation” using ethnographic methods. Examining the monsoon, and generally tropical areas, through a climate conflict lens represents an understudied topic.