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.
India has observed a significant mean temperature increase of 0.15 degrees C per decade since 1950, according to a 2020 assessment by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The observed warming is not occurring evenly across India. Warm days and warm nights have also increased at about seven and three days per decade, respectively, during the period 1951-2015. Currently, 23 States, mainly of plain and coastal regions, are considered more vulnerable to widespread heat impact. However, that doesn’t mean hilly states are safe. Although their maximum temperatures do not reach heatwave threshold levels of 45 degrees C, the population is experiencing higher temperatures compared to previous decades.
