Heatwaves are deadly natural hazards: they have multiple direct impacts and their indirect effects include disrupted power and water supply, more food- and water-borne diseases, and overburdened hospitals
A mother protects her child from heat by covering his head, while returning from school in Visakhapatnam, March 13, 2024.
Anthropogenic climate change
is turning ambient heat, a relatively banal manifestation of the sun, into an
inevitable environmental hazard. In 2023, with the atmospheric carbon dioxide
level reaching new heights of 425 ppm, we witnessed the warmest decade on
record spanning from 2014 to 2023. Until a few decades ago, hazards of high
heat largely existed in confined, fire-based occupational settings or for
people who exerted in hot weather for a long time, e.g. soldiers, athletes, and
workers, and during occasional heatwaves.
Mentions of heat stroke have been found in literature since ancient times. With rising global temperatures, dangerous high heat has begun permeating our routine indoor spaces. This gradual expansion of the realm of extreme heat is potentially the gravest consequence of climate change for India.
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