Dear readers,

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"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

India today stands scorched under an unforgiving sun. An intense heat wave has tightened its grip, with mercury crossing 44°C in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and Maharashtra. Daily life has slowed to a crawl. Dry, hot winds and delayed pre-monsoon showers have deepened the crisis. Hospitals report a surge in heatstroke and dehydration cases, while power grids strain under demand. Authorities have, sounded alerts, pleading with citizens to stay indoors and stay hydrated.

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At the heart of this crisis lies global warming. Human activities have thickened the atmosphere's blanket with greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases trap heat that should escape into space. The Earth warms, and weather turns extreme. Layered over this long-term trend is a natural amplifier: the El Nino-Southem Oscillation. It brings unusually warm waters to the central and eastern Pacific, weakening trade winds and disrupting global weather. Most critically, El Nino releases vast stores of oceanic heat into the atmosphere. While global warming sets the stage, El Nino often breaks global temperature records. This year, both forces have converged over India.

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The impacts of a warming world are not abstract. They are lived daily and often deadly. Rising temperatures directly increase mortality. Heat-related deaths among senior citizens have risen by more than 85% in recent decades. Beyond heatstroke, a warmer climate expands the range of mosquitoes and ticks, spreading dengue, malaria, and chikungunya into new regions. Extreme weather also brings trauma, injuries, and a silent epidemic of anxiety and depression. The WHO calls climate change a "fundamental threat to human health," undermining decades of medical progress. Our food systems are fragile to climate shocks. Droughts parch fields, floods wash away topsoil and shifting monsoon patterns confuse sowing cycles. Crop yields fall, pushing millions toward malnutrition. Water, already scarce, becomes a contested resource. Changing precipitation patterns and rising sea levels degrade the very soil and water that sustain life. Floods, storms and sea-level rise are erasing homelands. Each year, millions are displaced losing homes, livelihoods and dignity. They become climate migrants, often moving from rural distress to urban slums, where heat and disease await them. Disasters destroy roads, schools, and hospitals in hours. Recovery takes years. Climate change acts as a "threat multiplier," worsening conflict over water, land and food in vulnerable regions. It strains our health workforce and infrastructure, reducing the capacity to provide universal health coverage when it is needed most. WHO estimates approx. 13 million annual deaths are linked to environmental factors, a number set to rise.

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This crisis demands both mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation means cutting greenhouse gases: transitioning to renewable, halting deforestation, and reforming agriculture. Adaptation means heat-action plans for cities,

climate-resilient crops, stronger health systems, and early warning for vulnerable populations. The heat wave outside our windows is not just weather. It is a symptom. It is the Earth's fever, and we have caused it. Yet fever is also a signala call to act before the condition becomes irreversible. "Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realize we cannot eat money." The choice remains ours. We can continue as we are, or we can honour the Earth we borrowed. For our children, for our health, and for the

 

Dr. SUGATHAN NV

we breathe, the time to act is now.