Global climate crisis intensifies as extreme heat waves ravage Northern Hemisphere

Is she very hot! Astonished, Aghast, Gaping. I am not talking about so-called National Crush Rashmika Mandanna nor am I talking about one of the most emerging actresses of India Jhanvi Kapoor, I am talking about our mother Earth. The summers of 2021, 2022, 2023, and the coming 2024 are not new, as an extreme heat wave is engulfing the whole subcontinent, especially north India, and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere of the earth. The years preceding the second decade of the twenty-first century were not soothing either as the heat was excruciating and pushed vulnerable societies in the developing and underdeveloped world against the wall. This can be well understood by a rare example of the hapless government of an Indian state, i.e., Bihar, enforcing section 144 on June 17th of 2019 in Gaya city. It was the first instance where a climatic condition forced the government to impose a section of the Indian constitution to prevent unlawful assembly. This year in Delhi, Mungehpur’s automatic weather station recorded a temperature of 52.9˚C sans its authenticity.
Coming to the main topic of climate change, which is the main focus of discussion, it refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the commencement of the industrial revolution, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, which generate greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. Clearing land and cutting down forests (which act as the lungs of the earth or carbon sinks) can also release carbon dioxide. The main greenhouse gases that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane.
Glacial sea-ice extent reached a record low in the four and a half decades since satellite data was available. Arctic sea-ice levels remained well below standard. Extreme weather events ravaged all inhabited continents, aggravating food insecurity, and population displacement, and impacting vulnerable people. These are only a few of the effects of climate change. Even though researchers explicitly agree that climate change is real, there are still many myths and a lot of confusion around the phrase, “Is the Earth becoming Hotter?”
One way to measure the Earth’s warming is to observe the effects of rising temperatures. Oceans are getting warmer, snow and ice cover are depleting in the Northern Hemisphere, the Greenland ice sheet is shrinking, and the sea level is rising.
Universal climate change is not a future problem. Variations to Earth’s climate caused by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner. Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.
“The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming.” — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.
Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900. The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 3 degrees Fahrenheit) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.
The harshness of effects triggered by climate change will be subject to the path of imminent anthropological activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a livable future.”— Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Speaking in the context of India, severe heatwaves could slow or reverse India’s progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without heat impact assessments. Deadly heatwaves fueled by climate change since the beginning of the new decade of the twenty-first century have made almost 90 percent of Indians more vulnerable to public health issues, food shortages, and increased risks of death, a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge reported in the PLOS Climate journal. India presently uses a national Climate Vulnerability Indicator (CVI) to measure climate vulnerability and make plans for adaptation.
The CVI includes many different socioeconomic, biophysical, institutional, and infrastructural factors. However, it doesn’t have a physical risk indicator for heatwaves, which is a key missing factor that would help policymakers consider how extreme heat actually impacts the Indian population.
The new study is the first to include a “heat index” to measure the recurring impacts of Indian heatwaves on the country’s population. The index measures how hot the human body feels relative to the surrounding conditions when humidity and air temperature are added together. The findings suggest that the CVI undervalues the main risks and threats of heatwaves to the Indian population because it does not include any kind of heat stress measure. This missing element also makes it harder to identify areas of the country, like Delhi and other large urban areas, that are most vulnerable.
Heatwaves (“loo” in Hindi) are the extremely hot winds blowing in the summer season, and according to health experts, high air temperature poses greater health risks and even mortality. India’s ninety percent area is exposed to severe heatwaves, including most parts of north India, central India, and west India, and since 1992, twenty-four thousand deaths have been recorded in India due to exposure to severe heatwaves. Severe heatwaves blow from mid-March to June and sometimes extend to the month of July if the monsoon does not arrive on time. Experts define a heatwave in a particular area as when the normal temperature exceeds forty degrees in plains, thirty-seven degrees in coastal areas, and thirty degrees in mountainous areas. Also, meteorological experts declare that if in a particular location, the temperature exceeds forty-five degrees for two days, it is said to be engulfed in a severe heatwave.
According to studies by Sweden’s Institute of Environmental Medicine, New Delhi’s Centre for Chronic Disease Control, and the Centre for Policy Research New Delhi, if a heatwave persists for two days at a particular location, it increases the risk of mortality by 14.7%. When a human body suddenly experiences hot temperatures after average temperatures, our body sometimes does not regulate temperature effectively, which leads to muscle cramps, fainting, nausea, exhaustion, heatstroke, dehydration, and hyperthermia leading to high fever, eventually sometimes leading to death. Any new health challenge posed by nature and most of the time by disturbing anthropological activities, women, children, the elderly, weak, and poor people from the developing and underdeveloped world are the first victims. Let us pray to God to save and provide us relief from every catastrophe, especially the severe heatwaves this time and in the upcoming times.
Dr Rayees Bhat works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at GLA University, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr Sajood Maqbool Bhat, based in Kashmir, works as an independent analyst and researcher. Feedback at [email protected]

Dr Rayees Ahmad Bhat and Dr Sajood Maqbool Bhat