In Kim Stanley Robinson's 2020 novel “The Ministry for the Future,” a cataclysmic weather event — he imagined a severe heat wave that kills 21 million people in Uttar Pradesh, India — propels the globe into a climate awakening. The implicit message is that it will take human devastation on an epic scale to move the world to act.
For readers of that novel, a chilling question lingers: When will such an event happen to us? The answer, perhaps, is that it already has.
The summer of 2022 marked a turning point for Pakistan — and the world’s understanding of climate change’s impact on health. Catastrophic floods engulfed a third of the country, displacing 33 million people. This wasn’t just a natural disaster; it was a climate-induced health crisis.
About the author
Martin Edlund@martinmedlund
Martin Edlund is the chief executive officer of Malaria No More, a globally recognized nonprofit with the visionary mission to end humanity’s oldest, deadliest disease in our lifetimes. Edlund also serves as executive director of the Health Finance Coalition.
