A touch of sun, the impact of heat events on children (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Context:
- There is sufficient evidence to show global warming is causing temperatures across the globe to rise significantly enough to cause disruptions.
- Heat waves are occurring with greater frequency and are lasting longer than ever before, with the World Meteorological Organisation declaring that 2023 was the hottest year on record.
Concerns:
- While humans have adapted and acclimatised themselves to several variations in climate, there is believed to be a limit beyond which our bodies cannot process this change.
- The extreme heat can affect young children’s biological systems and disrupt development, as well as the many ways it can amplify the effects of systemic inequities.
- The extreme temperatures can have during pregnancy and early childhood, including impacts on learning, sleep quality, and mental and behavioural health.
- The heat amplifies systemic inequities, including air quality, access to nutritious foods, and structural disadvantages.
How does heat impact humans?
- The human body responds to excessive heat primarily by redistributing blood flow toward the skin so heat can transfer out of the body and into the environment through sweat which evaporates on the skin, bringing body temperature down. The blood flow cooling method is especially important for young children.
- As long as the air temperature is cooler than the body’s temperature, heat dissipates through the skin to the outside environment. When temperatures rise, the brain regulates these physiological responses, with additional input from temperature-sensitive nerve cells in the skin and throughout the body.
- Cells also produce heat shock proteins, which act as “chaperones” that stabilise the structure of other proteins that high temperatures could damage. Every cell in the body contains heat shock proteins, protecting a variety of other proteins that are critical to life, including hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to our cells.
- Over short periods of time, heat shock proteins are effective and helpful in regulating body temperature, but when temperatures stay too high for too long, they lose their ability to function, and the proteins they protect start to break down.
- This could mean a higher susceptibility to infections and a decreased response to vaccines, only a couple of the cascade of reactions that can occur as a result of the breaking down of proteins.
How does this affect various organs, then?
Brain:
- The hypothalamus acts as a thermostat for the entire body, sensing temperatures and reacting to keep core temperatures within a healthy range. Continuous, high temperatures prevent the hypothalamus from shutting off these cooling responses.
- Also, when the heat shock proteins break down, the body identifies them as invaders and sends out immune cells to fight them, thus keeping them from their main task of fighting infections.
Skin and Gut:
- In response to heat, pores in the skin open to allow more sweat to pass through and evaporate, increasing the body’s ability to cool itself. The lining of the gut can become leaky allowing bacteria to pass through to other parts of the body.
- Over a period of time, this can increase the likelihood that harmful bacteria and toxins will reach the body’s vital organs via the circulatory system.
Heart and Other Muscles:
- In response to excess heat, the heart rate increases to send more blood to the skin, releasing the body’s core heat into the environment.
- Consequently, less blood is sent to the muscles, which can constrain muscle growth, cause muscle fibres to break down, and contribute to kidney dysfunction.
Dehydration:
- Not having enough water in the system thickens the blood, which can lead to increased blood clotting and heart failure from blockages in the arteries.
Heat stress:
- When sustained over time, all these responses can lead to what is known as “heat stress.” When this happens, the body begins to break down and critical functions shut down, increasing the likelihood of damage to the heart, lungs, and kidneys as well as the risk of heat-related death.
Pregnant women and children:
- In pregnant women, high temperatures may result in reduced blood flow in the placenta, dehydration, and inflammation, which can trigger preterm birth.
- There is evidence that during times of high temperatures, there are increased rates of stillbirth, as well as more premature and lower birth weight babies, again, linked to a greater risk of a range of poor outcomes later in life, including impaired cognition, reduced growth, and chronic health issues such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes in adulthood.
- Given children’s fledgling ability to achieve homeostasis, apart from the immediate physical effects on a child, the heat can disrupt development through three distinct pathways:
Learning loss:
- Heat is linked to slower cognitive function and reduced concentration ability. Learning loss may occur because heat’s effects on the brain can produce slower reaction times and an inability to focus and can have lasting effects on learning outcomes. Hotter school days two, three, and even four years prior to a test correlate to lower scores.
Sleep quality:
- Getting enough good-quality sleep is essential for healthy growth and development. A growing body of evidence shows associations between less sleep in infancy and childhood obesity, and sleep habits in childhood may impact weight well into adulthood.
Mental and behavioural health:
- It is crucial because children’s brains and bodies are developing rapidly and are highly sensitive to their experiences, early childhood is a period where threats to well-being can have long-lasting effects on mental health.
- Because of this, treatment and prevention efforts in the early years can have much larger effects on children’s long-term psychological health and well-being than efforts that begin later, the paper advises. The brain detects extreme heat as a threat to well-being, which activates the stress response system.
Way Forward:
- Because the effects of climate change are so interrelated, all efforts to address the root causes will boost the impact of efforts to mitigate the effects of extreme heat on children.
- There is need for policies that target emissions, immediate action to reduce harm from heat events, and adapting infrastructure to be better placed to handle the increase in heat.
- This would include improving structural cooling options in buildings, including greening campaigns, installing air conditioning and other cooling mechanisms; providing accessible links to the power grid; and developing proper heat plans. The experts have advised highlighting some models that work in all these segments.
Union Budget 2024-25, New initiative to boost Blue Economy 2.0
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The interim budget speech delivered by Union Finance Minister provided a boost to Blue Economy 2.0 with the announcement of a new scheme “for restoration and adaptation measures, coastal aquaculture, and mariculture with an integrated and multi-sectoral approach”.
Maladaptation:
- While this development is positive for the 14 million people engaged in fisheries and allied activities along India’s expansive 7,500 km coastline (encompassing both mainland and islands) in terms of livelihoods and adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change, concerns persist regarding potential maladaptation resulting from misguided adaptation measures.
- Maladaptation, defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “changes in natural or human systems that inadvertently increase vulnerability to climate stimuli,” denotes an inadvertent increase in the impacts of climate change on communities.
- The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) released in March 2023 highlighted an increased incidence of maladaptation in various sectors and regions.
Adaptation measures along India’s coasts:
- Many such adaptation measures have been taken along India’s coasts. These include the relocation of villages affected by coastal erosion, coast protection through structures like geosynthetic tubes, and mangrove restoration.
- However, many of these measures, particularly along the Odisha coast, have proven ineffective in reducing the vulnerability of coastal populations and biodiversity to the impacts of sea-level rise, extreme sea-level events and cyclones.
- For example, the installation of geosynthetic tubes in Odisha’s Pentha village led to coastal erosion from beaches in both the south and north of the village, putting people staying close to them at risk during storm surges of cyclones and extreme sea-level events.
What needs to be done?
- Instead, effective adaptation measures such as the cultivation of indigenous seaweeds, deployment of artificial reefs, and stabilisation of beach sand dunes should be prioritised for both adaptation needs and mitigation measures. These approaches can contribute to protecting coasts against erosion and providing livelihoods to local communities.
- Aquaculture in India is predominantly focused on fish, prawn, and other aquatic animals.
- To address environmental concerns, there is need to emphasize the cultivation of selected indigenous seaweed species using scientific methods in suitable parts of the Indian Coast to remove carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus from the marine ecosystem.
- Seaweeds, besides their environmental benefits, can serve as a valuable source of proteins, with extracted proteins finding applications in cosmetics production.
