Opinion: Why Climate Change Is A Health Crisis

The monsoons made a late start in most parts of the country this year. Predictions of lower-than-normal rainfall in some parts only inflamed public anxieties in the summer that witnessed 96 heat-related deaths reported from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Soon after, July brought on the kind of monsoon deluge that prompted the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue alerts in yellow, orange, and red to Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Visuals of floods became the feed of the daily doom scroll over the last few weeks and the Delhi government evacuated over 16,000 people, and over 14,000 people took refuge in tents under flyovers.

In 2021, the UN World Meteorological Organization warned that the effects of climate change, such as increased CO2 concentration, ocean acidification, increased global mean surface temperature, ocean heat content, sea-ice extent, glacier mass balance, and sea-level rise are expected to negatively impact 16 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. National efforts made towards reducing poverty, malnutrition, providing clean water, and sanitation are being directly thwarted by climate change and extreme weather conditions. Consequently, the climate crisis is a veritable human health crisis.

Where climate impacts health