Scorching global temperature and the ongoing severe heatwave across the northern region of India are one of the visible impacts of climate change that are affecting the daily lifestyle of humankind. Amidst the intense heatwave, IMD reported that this summer Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 49.2 degrees celsius and other states such as UP, MP, and Bihar are also facing the wrath of global warming as the average temperature constantly touching the 45-degree mark.
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The impacts of climate change and global warming are affecting every sector and every section of the society but the marginalised communities and the people having low income are the worst affected. A new study published in the Journal One Earth highlighted that warmer temperatures at night are turning out to be the reason behind the sleepless nights. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen found that people are getting restless, having mood disorders, and their learning ability is also getting affected. The research examined the sleep data of the participants under the local outdoor temperature and reported that people slept more in the colder temperature under 25°C and struggled to sleep when the temperature was above 35°C. This cost them about 15-30 minutes of their sleep cycle which may sound minute but it’s “actually quite a big deal,” says Sara Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California. She highlighted that humans only get one hour of ‘slow-wave sleep’ and cutting out 15 minutes from the sleep cycle pushes the restorative time.
Vulnerable section of the society
India is the 7th most vulnerable country to the effects of climate change according to relevant studies. If we consider the population bulge that India has, it scales up and gets worse. Research indicates that there are four states in India that are particularly extremely vulnerable districts or hotspots.
The research published by the Journal One Earth found that residents of lower- and middle-income countries face sleepless nights three times higher than those in developed rich countries because of the availability of the resources such as Air conditioners.
The loss of sleep is also affecting the productivity of the citizens due to the impacted focus and attention span. A study conducted by Harvard University examined a group of students who slept in AC dorms and the ones who slept in the non-AC dorms. The study showed that the students who slept in AC rooms performed better in the exams than those who slept in the older Non-AC buildings.
The marginalised communities and the low-earning people are facing the wrath of the heatwave as they are the ones who don’t have enough luxuries to combat the rising temperature.
Eroding mental health due to climate change
Apart from the severe visible impacts of climate change, one of the serious concern that is worsening mental health due to the consequences of the climate crisis is not getting much-needed attention.
A new policy briefing by the World Health Organization highlighted that the climate change impacts are posing a serious threat to mental health globally. The WHO urged policymakers to include mental health support in their climate action targets.
The policy brief launched at the Stockholm+50 conference cited the findings reported under the IPCC report published in the month of February. The report highlighted that climate change is deteriorating humans' mental health and psychosocial well-being and increasing the cases of anxiety, depression, grief, and suicidal behaviour.
While highlighting the rising risk and the minimal availability of the support, the Director of the Environment Climate Change and Health Department at WHO, Dr Maria Neira said, “The impacts of climate change are increasingly part of our daily lives, and there is very little dedicated mental health support available for people and communities dealing with climate-related hazards and long-term risk”.
Another official doctor from the department Dr Dévora Kestel mentioned that “the impact of climate change is compounding the already extremely challenging situation for mental health and mental health services globally”. As per the reports about 1 million people are struggling with mental health issues and only 1 out of 4 gets the access to needed services.
The WHO doctors urged the governments to push the mental health and psychological well-being support within the disaster risk reduction and climate action policies. The new policy brief suggests 5 crucial steps for policymakers to address and tackle the mental health impacts of climate change:
Manvender is a passionate content creator with a journalism degree who has a knack for developing human-interest content. In the past, he was involved with a National News Channel and a video production company and has experience in writing, designing and video production.
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