As pointed out earlier in many climate studies, the actual impact of climate change is disproportionate on various communities spread across the Earth. This can be clearly seen in India, when it comes to heat related deaths – a case that western policy makers and experts largely ignore in terms of data, concern and impact. Worse, the Indian state remains tacitly mute about the ongoing tragedy. Kristie Ebi, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, has been studying the human health impacts of climate change for decades. In an interview with e360, she makes a case for standardizing how heat deaths are reported and for additional investment in heat resilience. She says “Knowing how many people a year die due to heat would not only raise public awareness of the issue, but provide funds and help save lives”. Her emphasis is on human health, that she has studied for more than 30 years. Her argument is about measures that are lacking and people’s heat resilience, together reflect the magnitude of the emerging crisis.
