In his book Jeff Goodell writes; “We simply have not come to terms with it, especially in the way I am describing. It is not how anyone expects to die. In part, it’s because we live in a technologically advanced world where it’s all too easy to believe that the rough forces of nature have been tamed.
But it’s also because our world is changing so fast that we can’t grasp the scale and urgency of the dangers we face.” India came face to face with that reality over the last few weeks. Its ongoing heatwave, the longest ever, and one that saw a marathon election held, has, at last count, seen 143 recorded deaths and close to 42,000 people suffering from suspected heatstroke.
Intense heat has not popped up like a surprise shower on a balmy afternoon. India saw an extreme heatwave in March 2022, which was the hottest in India since records began 122 years ago and extreme humid heat in April 2023, where 13 casualties due to heat stroke were reported in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra on one day alone. Most recently, a study by the World Weather Attribution Initiative confirmed that one, extreme heat in South Asia during the pre-monsoon season is becoming more frequent; and two, that climate change has played a key role in ratcheting up the 2024 April mean temperature.
Extreme temperatures are now about 45 times more likely and 0.85 degrees Celsius hotter. In other words, heat across India isn’t just increasing: it is steadily ticking higher on the back of human-caused actions.
