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HPH Weekly: India climate change perpetuates injustices against vulnerable

Filed Under

Newsletter

Written by

Jo Zhou

Published

July 18, 2024

Read Time

2 min

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India climate change perpetuates injustices against vulnerable

A man with his back to the camera carries a child, head covered with a towel to protect from the heat, in Jammu, India. — Channi Anand / AP Photo

Flaming air conditioners. Melting water purifiers. Eggs boiling in the sand. There are plenty of dramatic signs that climate change has left an indelible mark on India. And yet, as the country’s journalists report hundreds of deaths from heat, the government’s official mortality figures remain suspiciously low—and candidates for office avoided the issue entirely in May’s election. It’s time for this to end, argues Vidya Krishnan.

Is social prescribing just what the doctor ordered?

Book cover for “The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging” by Julia Holt. Secondary text in the top left corner reads “A better way of thinking about medicine and healing.” The book cover is white with navy and blue type. A pill bottle with an illustration of bikers in nature on the front is in the top right. — Simon & Schuster

Around the world, doctors are (literally) prescribing social activities, such as art courses and museum tours, to their patients. In The Connection Cure, journalist Julia Hotz explores the benefits of this practice, which is a phenomenon internationally but has yet to catch on in the U.S. Ultimately, she wonders, do we really need physicians to tell us to make new friends?

Why “climate resilience” isn’t actually a solution

An “Extreme Heat, Stay Cool, Drink Water” digital highway sign above a busy interstate. — Kirby Lee / AP Photo

Climate resilience is the ability to adapt to climate disasters—and it’s basically all the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has planned for climate change. That’s “an incoherent response by the federal entity responsible for protecting Americans’ health in the face of climate disaster,” writes health policy consultant David Introcaso for Undark.