Greenpeace India’s dramatic Ice Sculpture activity symbolises heatwave disasters unfolding across India

New Delhi – On May 19, Greenpeace India unveiled a shocking ice sculpture on the Select City Mall, Saket, that melted underneath the recent Delhi solar, sending out a robust message on the affect of heatwaves across the nation. The 8ft tall ice sculpture, depicting a lady with a toddler and a canine, was consultant of a few of the most marginalised communities susceptible to heatwaves and different excessive climate phenomena. Onlookers witnessed the melting of the ice sculpture that got here with a message – Act Before We Melt Away. Through this activity, Greenpeace India is demanding that the National Disaster Management Authority declare heatwaves as a notified nationwide catastrophe, permitting it ample funding and insurance policies that may assist construct resilience of the communities within the face of the disaster.

‘This sculpture has been designed preserving in thoughts the affect that heatwaves have on particularly susceptible teams like girls and youngsters. Some of us may be extra shielded from the warmth as a result of we now have entry to cooling options. However with the state of affairs solely worsening, even these comparatively extra privileged and guarded are going to really feel the impacts of heatwaves. The ice figures are manually sculpted and designed to soften in a fashion that represents the diploma of vulnerability. The smaller figures of kid and the pet canine melted sooner, whereas the determine of the lady melted final. We hope that by way of this ice sculpture we’re capable of make a case for heatwaves to be recognised as a nationwide catastrophe’ stated Siddhesh Gaikwad, Greenpeace India

Data reveals that within the interval between 1992 and 2015, 24,223 residents in India misplaced their lives resulting from heatwaves. And a number of research, together with a 2023 report by the IPCC has projected that these local weather traits will solely escalate, exacerbating the frequency and period of heatwaves. Climate change-induced warmth waves not solely pose vital well being dangers but in addition disrupt societal constructions, jeopardise security, hamper productiveness, and impede financial development.

‘The ice sculpture of this household melting into water in Delhi’s scorching warmth is a warning bell of the escalating local weather disaster, pushed by the fossil gas trade. Heatwaves within the nation have greater than doubled up to now three many years, with 2022 alone recording over 20 occasions. While we’re demanding efficient mitigation and adaptation measures, we additionally want an overhaul of our power methods which can be exacerbating local weather change and excessive climate occasions. Fossil gas corporations, notably worldwide oil companies, are main contributors to this, with the highest 20 corporations answerable for 35% of worldwide carbon emissions since 1965’ stated Amruta S.N., Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace India

49% of India’s workforce includes out of doors staff, and these staff face drastically heightened dangers throughout heatwaves, as highlighted by the National Disaster Management Authority’s report. There can also be an rising physique of proof that challenges the frequent assumption that males bear the brunt of warmth waves resulting from their out of doors labour. Women not solely interact in out of doors work similar to road merchandising, waste selecting, or brick-kiln labour however are additionally virtually completely inclined as home-based staff. The HomeNet report reveals that the warmth results in a rise of over two hours per day in caregiving and family chores for ladies, additional encroaching on their work time.

The Ice Sculpture activity is a part of Greenpeace India’s Climate Justice marketing campaign, People for Climate. Over the following few weeks, the organisation with its companions will likely be internet hosting a Museum of Memories, with actual objects that inform tales of devastation, resilience and hope within the face of the heatwave disaster. Through these actions Greenpeace India hopes to make clear the urgency of the heatwave disaster, and the necessity to declare it as a nationwide catastrophe, making means for stringer insurance policies and higher funding for local weather mitigation and adaptation measures.