I am ‘hct!’

It was my friend Barry, who made me get used to this expression. “I am hct!” He would often say when the sun came out. Initially not accustomed to the American drawl, I would ask what he meant by that. He would repeat, “I am hct!”.

Meaning, he was feeling hot. With time, I got into the flow, and these days, when the sun bears down with intensity at 8:30 am, I find myself saying subconsciously, “I am hct!”.

The heat these days is killing. As early as 8:30 am, the sun’s rays hit with such furiousness that it virtually drains one of all energy, and makes one easily tired. For me, a lay person, one main thing that I associate with climate change whenever the issues is raised or discussed is the intense heat I have been experiencing for the past couple of years.

In the past, I often used to don a pullover over my clothes even in fair weather. These days, I have no need for the garb, except for times in the evenings when a programme takes place in chilly auditoriums.

Experience

Technically, the leading international body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines the phenomenon as “change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.”

From this expert definition and other ones I have read, I would define climate change as I experience it.

It is the suffocation I experience these days from the sun’s heat early in the morning.

It is the dizziness I feel when I have to drive through the heat between 8:30 a.m. and 12 noon.

It is the sapping of my energy at these periods of time.

It is the frying of my eyeballs in its socket with the heat of the sun! I have tended to think through what to do to overcome this challenge.

So, I have striven lately to rise early, get some things done before the sun starts its heating journey.

I have endeavoured to be in-doors at periods when the sun is most intense, and to avoid traffic and stewing in vehicles at those periods of the day.

Public health concern?

I have also wondered why my government seems silent on this particular aspect.

A cursory observance of people in the streets shows they have lost steam.

Even vehicles go sluggishly during these periods.

Is the heat not a matter of public health concern? Or are our policy makers so ensconced in their airconditioned V8s and offices that they are oblivious to the heat?

Why then, am I not being bombarded with information on the heat, how to overcome it, how to conserve my energy to be productive in it, and how generally to mitigate the effects to adapt effectively and overcome it?

Policies

The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST) in 2012 unveiled the National Climate Change Policy.

I believe it covers all the high and lofty ideals on climate change championed by policy makers, who in their air-conditioned homes, offices and cars are oblivious to my plight.

My cursory reading of the policy shows that its sixth focus area addresses the impact of climate change on health.

The direct impacts on health, I note in the policy, include increases in vector borne and water related diseases, floods, hunger and malnutrition, but not the effects of the direct heat on me!

Interestingly, the effect of the heat on the vectors carrying diseases is mentioned, but not the effect of the heat on me!

“These diseases are likely to exhibit changes in distribution and or incidence based on changing temperature and humidity which make conditions more or less favourable for the proliferation of the vectors,” the policy states.

During a stay in Burkina Faso in the late 1990s, I was intrigued by their afternoon repos.

All offices were closed from noon until 2pm for workers to break from the heat. Their buildings also had flat roofs to enable sleeping there during hot evenings. That was a country responsive to the needs of its people.

What is my country doing? I feel really, really “hct” these days!

Writer’s email:

caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh