Journalists & Climate Researchers - El Niño Human Toll Reporting

I’ve been thinking about this Guardian piece on the projected human toll of the current El Niño. The numbers are concerning, though not unexpected, with 451, 000 additional deaths globally between September 2026 and Feb 27, out of which 15, 670 deaths are projected for India and 19, 251 for Indonesia. I have covered climate stress and disasters across the globe, from Japan trying to grow corals through transplantation against sea-level rise, to the long shadows of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, and reproductive access after 100-year floods in India. I can estimate this will be the hardest implication to report on, considering its insidious nature. We need to build media capacity to cover this with urgency and comprehensively, including its impact on vulnerable communities such as newborns, pregnant women, the elderly in old-age homes, essential workers and people in prisons. Urban heat infrastructure is also discussed in a myopic way, focusing on the West and without reference to countries that have already implemented measures for scorching heat. Many case studies come from the Global South and the Middle East. We must also consider how heat affects reporters' bodies. Having worked in high temperatures and experienced days at 47 degrees Celsius, I can tell you that it becomes difficult to regulate, especially for women. Beyond the direct impact, we also see related effects: wildfires, flooding, landslides, etc. I am interested in what can be done to build a media task force within institutions and independently, and I'd love to speak with journalists, editors, climate researchers, funders, and organisations asking similar questions. https://lnkd.in/gS8f4UFQ