It was a December that Chennai people can never forget! Its been almost a year and four months since the Chennai deluge took place. Roads of the city were filled with gallons and gallons of water. A City that generally struggles to receive its regular share of rainfall experienced heavy down pour that left millions of people stranded on roads with no electricity and food supply for days. Transport services were shut down. Ola boats were introduced, schools were closed. The city had received more than 270 mm of rainfall in a mere 24 hours, breaking a century-old record. Though unrestricted construction and improper sewage system can be cited as few reasons for the water clogging; the main question is where did all this rain come from? The answer is climate change. When we talk about climate change its no longer about polar bears stranded on melting glaciers! Climate change has come to our homes to haunt us in the form of extreme heat waves, unprecedented rain, rising sea-levels, changes in precipitation resulting in flooding and droughts, intense hurricanes, degraded air quality and without doubt this is one of the major threats to human health in the 21st century.
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made it clear that, unless steps were taken, manmade climate change carried "the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems." Health scientists have warned that in the coming years nearly 200 million people are at a risk of being displaced due to disappearing glaciers and melting polar ice caps.
"The global public health community views Global warming or Climate Change as the biggest public health threat of the 21st century," noted Dr Banalata Sen, Advisor, Center for Environmental Health, Public Health Foundation of India. "Climate change is manifested in events like extreme temperature changes like heat and cold waves, changes in rainfall patterns leading to floods and droughts, poor air quality, intense weather patterns giving rise to increase in number and intensity of storms including cyclones. All these environmental changes have direct or indirect effect on the physical, social, and psychological well being of the public. Climate change will also increase the risk of vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, etc. Vulnerable populations like the poor, children and the elderly, or those with pre-existing conditions like asthma or cardiovascular disease are particularly at risk."
Developing nations in South Asia are highly vulnerable to climate change, warn experts. Recent earthquake in Nepal, ongoing erratic devastating winter rains/hailstorm in Pakistan’s north and India, increased incidences of typhoons in Philippines, recent cyclone vardah in India are few incidents that provide a fresh reminder of how natural disasters can reverse economic and social gains, with massive loss of life and livelihoods. Reports state that people in Asia and the Pacific are four times more likely to be affected by disasters than those in Africa, and 25 times more likely than in Europe or North America. Incidents of precarious weather extremes are occurring in the Asia-Pacific region more often than any other region of the world. This gives the region, which accounts for nearly half of heat-trapping global greenhouse gas emissions, a huge stake in mitigating global temperature rise while adapting to already rising climate change impacts in shape of floods, typhoons, cyclones, sea level-rise and heat-waves.
The first major health impact of climate change is the rise in rates of mortality and diseases caused by extreme weather events. These include floods, droughts, tsunamis, heat-waves and other disasters which kill thousands of people in both the developed and developing worlds. "Many countries are experiencing more floods and landslides due to intense and frequent precipitation," stated, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, World Health Organization’s director for Southeast Asia, "Several cyclones have hit the region in the last 10 years. Floods in Myanmar in 2015 and in Sri Lanka and DPRK in 2016 have killed and injured many people, displaced several hundreds of thousands of people and damaged health care facilities. A study in India showed an increase in heat wave. In 2015 over 2500 people died due to heat wave in south India. Droughts have affected parts of India and Sri Lanka in recent years which...
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