Najam Interviewed on Radio EcoShock

Adil Najam, Pardee School, Boston University

Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston Univeristy, was interviewed on the record heat in South Asia and on climate change in general on the radio show Radio EcoShock, on June 2, 2016.

Najam stressed that the extreme weather being recorded in Pakistan and India and in many other parts of the world now constitute a pattern that are increasingly likely to have been exacerbated by global climate change. He pointed out that those who are being hit t he hardest also happen to have been least responsible for causing climate change and therefore this is an issue of global climate justice.

Click above to hear the radio interview.

Host Alex Smith wrote about the show and the discussion in his blog:

Dr. Najam doesn’t shy away from climate change. Adil knows it’s huge, and the impacts on Pakistan alone could be a shower of extreme events, each harder to recover from as the years pass. There could be a cycle of drought in some parts of the country, and, as this year, concurrent floods in another region. That could be punctuated by unbearable heat waves, extreme rainfall events, and violent storms. It’s the future of the majority of the world’s people.

Much of this was preventable, says Adil Najam. In fact, as he points out, all of it was preventable, if people in Western nations had curtailed carbon dioxide pollution a couple of decades ago, when we were first warned of the danger. Beyond that, the government did not warn the citizens of how serious this heat wave would be. Forecast can be improved, although it’s getting better.

Third, the government could institute cooling stations, as other countries have done. The very poor, and the many homeless, could have flocked to public spray stations, with plenty of drinking water available as well. Hydration helps. Plus Karachi needs more trees, to provide shade. Shade can save lives.

We learn that the majority of people in Pakistan cannot afford a fan, or find the electricity to run it during the heat waves. The Middle class and the wealthy buy air-conditioners, and probably generators to run them. So heat death is also a class problem.

Please listen to this very intelligent and enlightening 26 minute interview with Adil Najam, in Adil Najam CD Quality or Adil Najam Lo-Fi