A study on our neighbouring country, Bangladesh revealed that extreme heat, humidity and other climate changes have impacts on mental health in terms of depression and anxiety. The study showed that the overall prevalence of depression is 16.3 per cent, compared to the global rate of 4.4 per cent. Anxiety rates were also higher in the country compared to the rest of the world, 6 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

The scope of climate change is not limited to Bangladesh only. Almost every country needs to worry, and India should particularly think about it. What Uttarakhand’s Joshimath has recently faced should be indeed alarming. The footprint of climate change can already be seen in every corner of the planet – erratic weather patterns, rising sea levels and melting glaciers due to climate change.

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These changes are affecting human health, food production, clean water access, wildlife, and the economy at large. It seems that the climate crisis is threatening to undo the last fifty years of progress in development, particularly infrastructural development. Having caused damage to Mother Nature, we are now getting a dose of our own medicine.

A study shows extreme weather events due to climate change have led to 17 out of 20 people in India being vulnerable to disasters like floods, drought and cyclones. UNICEF’s 2021 report titled ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’?(CCRI), presents the first child-focused global climate risk index. The report ranks India as 26th?out of 163 ranked countries. This implies that children in India are among the most ‘at-risk’ for the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection. Air pollution is identified as one of the biggest risks to children.

Recently, India has taken steps towards education on climate change and its impact on health. India will upgrade its medical syllabus in which students will be taught about the harmful effects of climate breakdown on human health. The National Centre for Disease Control, National Medical Commission and other medical education bodies would form a panel to discuss how to add this to the syllabus for all medical courses in India.

This landmark decision was made after a two-day national conference on Heat Waves and their consequences at IIT Bombay. At least now we seem to have taken seriously that the intensity of heat waves would increase and that it is important to reduce their impact on health, ecology and the economy.

Many nations are now researching this threat and acknowledging that as bad as the storms are outside, the storms are inside as well. WHO says areas with weak health infrastructure, mostly in developing countries, will be the least equipped to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.

India is not on the list of countries with good health infrastructure. So, upgrading the medical syllabus needs to work as well as improvement in health infrastructures. This unfolding crisis would not only be tackled by producing more doctors but by building better health facilities. And protecting the natural environment shouldn’t be forgotten.

WHO writes, ‘while no one is safe from these risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and worst by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it – people in low-income and disadvantaged countries and communities.’ But nature is wreaking vengeance on everyone.

This distressing situation cannot be solved at high speed. We cannot stop global warming overnight and cannot establish infrastructure in minutes. We can slow the rate and limit the amount of global warming by reducing human emissions of heat-trapping gases and with proper planning to get health untouched by any climate crisis or environmental destruction. Now it’s time to fix our broken relationship with mother nature.

(The writer is with the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Dhenkanal.)