The country witnessed a marked increase in temperature this summer. In many districts of the Tarai plains, the mercury has soared above the 40°C mark, affecting everyday life. In this context, ApEx caught up with Sanot Adhikari, an environmental expert, to know more about the effects of sudden rise in temperature. Weather in Nepal now is different from what it used to be. How worse can it get? This year, the temperature all over Nepal rose drastically. The same thing had happened in the year 2005. So the possibility for the temperature rise was always there. But with the increasing climate change, predicting weather has become challenging. When we analyze the weather changes seen in the past few years, none of them have followed a certain trend. It’s random. For instance, even this year, it snowed during February and March, rather than December and January. There is a possibility that the weather in the coming years might get worse, but we can’t say that with certainty since the weather changes now have become unpredictable. Is there anything that can be done to improve the climate or is it already too late?  Sadly, it’s too late to go back to stabilize the weather. Climate change has had a severe effect on global weather, and the impact isn’t reversible. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can do to not let this get worse. First would be to reduce the emission of harmful gasses like carbon monoxide. But the problem is, emission of harmful gasses is a global problem, while the effect is being seen locally. It’s true that Nepal, in some percentage, has contributed to climate change, but it’s mostly the developed countries that have made the climate change worse. So, it all comes down to how the emission of such gasses can be reduced globally, rather than what can be done only in Nepal. How has this weather change affected our ecosystem? Recently, I came across a news article that said there was a landslide in Sankhuwasabha. It’s a district located in himalayan region. There, a layer of snow is usually hidden inside a layer of mud, since the region is quite cold. Since the temperature rose, the snow melted, resulting in a severe landslide. This is just one example of how the ecosystem of Nepal is slowly being affected with this rise in temperature. Similarly, the amount of water has been decreasing in 70 percent of water sources all across Nepal. And since Nepal’s ecosystem is quite diverse, the effects vary from one region to another. But the bottom line is that climate change has put many living organisms as well as civilization at risk of unprecedented disasters and ecological changes. How has climate change affected people’s general lifestyle? Climate and weather contribute a lot to public health issues. Firstly, looking at the current heat and the ultraviolet (UV) rays that everyone is subjected to, most people are at risk of getting skin-related diseases. Secondly, since most of our water resources are drying up, there is also a problem of proper sanitation and hygiene in rural areas. Also, it’s during the summer when people often suffer from health issues like diarrhea, cholera and dysentery. With the increasing temperature, these health issues become more contagious. Are we on the verge of losing some rare floras and faunas because of this drastic weather change? Definitely. Climate change is one of the major reasons behind biodiversity loss. Every flora and fauna has a specific kind of habitat, and cannot sustain when the characteristics of that habitat changes. I can’t exactly name the organisms that have gone extinct, but there are many who haven’t been able to survive because of weather changes we have been witnessing within the past few years. If this continues, we will lose several rare floras and faunas due to unprecedented changes in their habitat.