Heat spells, increasing temperatures, unexpected heavy showers, floods etc. have become a new reality for people of India.
Similar story has been clearly depicted by the IPCC AR6 report. A comprehensive and devastating view has been conventionalized in the climate documents already.
IPCC has raised concerns as there remain no pathways to control the accentuating scenario: the planet is coming closer to its directed failure.
“During the 21st century, snow-covered areas and snow volumes will decrease in most of the Hindu-Kush Himalayan and snowline elevations will rise and glacier volumes will decline”.
But where are we heading to: studies reveal a grim future
According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020 which got released by an environmental think-tank Germanwatch during COP 25 meet in Madrid, India stands as the fifth-most vulnerable country in the world for when it comes to experiencing extreme weather events.
Nearly 740,000 annual deaths in India point to an abnormally high heat and cold temperatures seem to be impacted by climate change, based on The Lancet Planetary Health journal.
This excessive heat is accounted to cost 73 extra deaths per every 100,000 people by the end of this century, if the emissions continue likewise.
Therefore, India has recorded the highest number of mortalities in 2018 due to catastrophic climate events alone in the world taking nearly 2,081 lives.
A new Study and a new threat:
‘Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ 2021 finds India to have grown 15% more vulnerable to heat extremes than back in 1990.
Due to this reason alone, the world has been doomed to lose 295 billion hours of potential work in 2020 alone due to heat exposure.
Titled “2021 report on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future”, the document reflects urgency and extremities surrounding climate change and public health.
Lancet is well known to provide sheer scientific literature on the basis of relationship between climate change and public health.
The Executive Director explains: “Climate change is here and we’re already seeing it damaging human health across the world. As the COVID-19 crisis continues, every country is facing some aspect of the climate crisis too.”
“The 2021 report shows that populations of 134 countries have experienced an increase in exposure to wildfires.”
“Millions of farmers and construction workers could have lost income because on some days it’s just too hot for them to work. Drought is more widespread than ever before.”
Worst-affected age groups:
The elderly (above 65 years) seems to have been more impacted with this heat exposure: additional 3.1 billion days of their ages have been under climatic pressures.
“Heat-related mortality for people older than 65 years increased throughout the study, reaching a record high of almost 3,45,000 deaths [globally] in 2019 – 80.6% higher than in the 2000-05 average”.
Worst-affected regions reported:
It can be seen that medium HDI (Human Development Index) countries are undergoing the worst impacts of heat stress worldwide.
The three most populous countries across the globe but within the range of medium-HDI (Human Development Index) group i.e. Pakistan, Bangladesh and India reported the gravest of losses (In 2020, 216-261 hours lost per every employed person).
Egypt, Nigeria, India, China and Indonesia were the topmost five countries with vulnerable public exposed to heatwaves.
“Furthermore, populations in countries with low and medium levels of UN-defined human development index have had the biggest increase in heat vulnerability during the past 30 years, with risks to their health further exacerbated by the low availability of cooling mechanisms and urban green space.”
The medium-HDI countries suffered nearly three times in terms of economic losses incurred due to climate change stress than their counterparts in very high HDI countries.
The report is based on 44 indicators of health impacts those could be seen impacted by climate change.
It has also indicated that the key trends are getting worse and creating even more health and social inequities after the Pandemic has stricken.
“Although socioeconomic development, public health interventions, and advances in medicine have reduced the global burden of infectious disease transmission, climate change could undermine eradication efforts”.
This untimely weather patterns have even documented to threaten our global food systems as many of them struggle to be climate change and disaster resilient:
“In parallel with drought, warm temperatures are affecting the yield potential of the world’s major staple crops – a 6.0% reduction for maize; 3.0% for winter wheat; 5.4% for soybean; and 1.8% for rice in 2020, relative to 1981–2010 (indicator 1.4.1) – exposing the rising risk of food insecurity”.
“These are grim warnings that for every day that we delay our response to climate change, the situation gets more critical,” the lead author explains with caution.