Living through the climate crisis, news reports of exhausted birds falling from the sky amid India’s extreme heat wave provoke the kind of apocalyptic and dystopian imagery many of us have come to expect. As water sources dry out, birds become dehydrated and have begun dropping daily.

This comes a few weeks into the latest reminder that climate change is not some distant threat. It is already here and causing death and suffering not just for animals but the human populations in large areas of the planet. Around 1.5 billion people live in the region including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka where temperatures are reaching record highs.

This April was India’s hottest in 122 years and Pakistan’s in 61 years. Jacobabad hit nearly 50 degrees Celsius with nighttime temperatures often staying above 30 degrees Celsius. The result has been dozens dead, with surely more to come and official figures certainly an underestimation.