Directions: Read the given passage carefully to answer the following questions. Each question will have five alternatives as its answer. Choose the correct option as your answer.

There is sufficient evidence to show global warming is causing temperatures across the globe to rise significantly enough to cause disruptions. Heat waves are occurring with greater frequency and are lasting longer than ever before, with the World Meteorological Organisation declaring that 2023 was the hottest year on record. While humans have adapted and acclimatised themselves to several variations in climate, there is believed to be a limit beyond which our bodies cannot process this change. The correlation between health outcomes and environmental conditions is something that has been broadly hinted at, but not studied in detail. It is about time to do that. The first of a series, this working paper from the Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment, Harvard University, (Extreme Heat Affects Early Childhood Development and Health: Working Paper No. 1., 2023) explores how extreme heat can affect young children’s biological systems and disrupt development, as well as the many ways it can amplify the effects of systemic inequities. The authors also indicate the powerful effects that extreme temperatures can have during pregnancy and early childhood, including impacts on learning, sleep quality, and mental and behavioural health. It also explains how heat amplifies systemic inequities, including air quality, access to nutritious foods, and structural disadvantages. In addition, it provides some practical solutions to mitigate climate change, slow the heating of our environment, and provide new ways of cooling our communities. This includes tips on how to mitigate the impact of extreme temperatures, finding new ways of cooling the communities where children live, and grow, along with some community initiatives that have reportedly started to bear fruit. While the dangers of excessive heat for older people and those with heart and lung conditions are well known, the effects of heat during pregnancy, infancy, and childhood get less attention, and this is what the paper tries to set right. Effects on these groups can be significant, including low birth weight and prematurity, learning loss during the school years, and heat-related illness and death. Excessive heat can impact young children’s development and health both in the moment and across the lifespan, the paper underlines. It stands to reason that extreme heat affects infants and young children more than most adults because their smaller bodies heat up more quickly, and their capacity for body temperature modulation is still under development and therefore, far less efficient. Infants and young children also can’t seek out cooler environments or get water to drink without relying on adults. The paper adds that children and adolescents with chronic health conditions, such as asthma, obesity, or diabetes, are even more susceptible to heat-related illnesses.