Climate change triggers heat wave in India and Pakistan, scientists find

The analysis also looked at the effects of the prolonged heat. Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai and author of the study, said it was difficult to collect data on the effects on wheat, a crop prone to extreme heat, despite anecdotal reports of damage.

“But what is quite surprising is that India has banned its wheat exports to the rest of the world,” she said. “That in itself is enough evidence that our agricultural productivity has been affected.”

The ban, coupled with the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on wheat exports from there, has international agencies concerned about the potential of a global food shortage.

Another author, Roop Singh, a climate risk adviser at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, said this one, like other heatwaves, shows that the effects fall on the poor disproportionately.

She said there have been reports of widespread power cuts, partly because the need for more cooling is straining the system, and partly because of a coal shortage in India. “This particularly affects the poorest people who may have access to a fan or a cooler but may not be able to use it because they can’t afford a generator,” she said.

The study’s findings are consistent with many other analyzes of similar events over the past two decades, including an extraordinary heat wave last summer in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. This area of ​​research, called attribution analysis, has contributed to a growing understanding among scientists and the public that the damaging effects of global warming are not a distant problem, but are already occurring.

As emissions have increased the base temperature of the world, the link between heat waves and climate change is particularly clear. dr. Otto said that in studies of other extreme events such as floods or droughts, climate change is usually just one of many factors.