00:00As record-breaking heat grips the world, a voice from India reaches one of the world's most influential climate platforms.
00:06Invited to London Climate Action Week, Indian philosopher Acharya Prashant joined former French diplomat Gautier Houle,
00:13arguing that the climate crisis is not just environmental, but deeply human.
00:17I just read that over the last few days there was this very tragic news from France,
00:24a country you have been associated with, where some 40 odd people in separate instances at separate places drowned because
00:34the temperatures touched 44 or 45.
00:38So 44 or 45 is very normal in India in beginning April, then May, then June.
00:48And it actually gets worse in July and August because the wet bulb temperatures rise then,
00:56which means that heat wave casualties don't happen so much in peak summers.
01:03They actually happen in rains, in monsoons.
01:07And if you want to ask what climate change feels like to the average Indian,
01:17it's like hell unleashed on you without the buffer or the armor of any kind of affluence.
01:29Even the minimum protection that is needed to guard oneself against the elements is often not available.
01:41I'm not impressed with the number of heat wave casualties India has already had this season.
01:47But you can safely assume it's in the high hundreds, if not in thousands.
01:53It might be in multiple thousands as well because a lot of those deaths will go either unreported or misattributed.
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