Just look around you and start paying attention.
Make no mistake. Air conditioning, which makes things worse, is not going to solve a warming planet. Only knowledge, wisdom, and cooperation can begin to work on this complex of problems. It's rather late, but there is no other choice, if we want a future.
12
Many people here seem to think that climate change or global warming is directly related to overpopulation. It is a convenient and ignorant way to look at things, and falls under the classic error: correlation is not causation.
Tropical lands are naturally hotter than sub-tropics and temperate regions. Also, the most populous countries of current time - China and India - have always been the most populous regions of the Earth for millennia. There are good reasons for this, such as a tropical weather, fertile plains that promote agriculture and civilization. So, just because they are very populated doesn't mean that is the reason for their temperature woes. Likewise, if the population magically halves itself overnight, that doesn't mean the temperature will drop and all is well in the world. To conflate the two is missing the point.
The main culprit is unchecked capitalism, growth and human greed of the very wealthy. These forces have caused much harm to nature, plundered a lot of resources such as clean water and forest cover. This progress has also led to better life spans, prosperity, that led to explosive growth in population and the cycle continues - more plundering of resources to maintain the prosperity.
We cannot just focus on population metrics, we should aim to be sustainable in every metric. Less unchecked greed and profits, less plundering of resources, less pollution and population. And a better climate.
21
Life is change. Some of it necessary, some of it subtle, some of it deadly. The only constant is the change. As people have advanced, we have created our own change. One of the most impactful changes has been the altering of our entire world, the climate as we know it. Climate change is a result of humans trying to benefit themselves. We are hungry, we always want more: more buildings, roads, and businesses. However, in India, our attempts at benefiting society are causing deadly heat waves that in turn create dangerous situations for citizens living in that area. There are many consequences from excessive heat include vomiting, headaches, and rashes that are debilitating enough to keep impoverished people from working. Although attempts have been made to cool streets, it is increasingly getting hotter. Even the air conditioning that people use to cool themselves contributes to massive heat waves. The article, "In India, Summer Heat Could Soon Be Unbearable" struck me because climate change does not affect me in any drastic way. Sure, it can get warmer, but I have a nice house and many trees in my backyard. This article reminds us that even today this is a serious problem, one that is harming people now. It reminds me that climate change is real and it is deadly.
5
Sat through a lecture on Tuesday by Dennis Dimick on the human causes and costs of climate change. His analysis was compelling and terrifying. Beyond getting away from fossil fuels there are things individuals can do to help. Not one thing will solve the problem but every small thing, multiplied millions and hopefully billions of times, will help.
Individuals need no one else to make a decision to eat further down the food chain. No one is holding a gun to your head to make you eat steak. It’s all on you. So if you can’t lower your beef consumption you are contributing to this problem.
Reduce your use of plastics. Just carry the damn bag to the grocery store. Plastics are made from petroleum. Don’t do it because some government makes you. Do it because you are a member of the human race.
There are of course big ideas that governments can take so study the issues and vote.
But don’t think the small things don’t matter. They do.
22
Just a correction to this article. Nobody "passes out from heatstroke" at least once every summer. Heat stroke is an extremely serious situation where the brain has started to boil. But to get to that you have to go through heat exhaustion - which is the pre-heat stroke condition. Heat exhaustion is also very serious if not treated and, is extremely unpleasant. If you have heat exhaustion you might pass out, you might foam at the mouth and, if you are extremely unlucky, you might go into convulsions. If you are very lucky you will escape heat exhaustion with the worst headache you have ever had, nausea, and extreme fatigue.
As a former Australian infantryman, Ive seen rows of stretchers filled with heat casualties with various degrees of symptoms. All of them heat exhaustion cases, because heat stroke will kill or maim you and that means straight off for emergency care. Heat exhaustion will not kill you unless it is left untreated and progresses to heat stroke.
9
The Grand Cosmological Perspective:
Homo Sapiens ( from the Latin for wise man ):
A fundamentally stupid and therefore misnamed ape-like species of the planet Earth that was consigned to the dustbin of evolutionary history when it destroyed the ecosystem upon which it depended for its existence.
Key Strategic Error Leading to Extinction:
Ignoring scientific facts in respect of climate change.
17
We can either control our breeding or the planet will do it for us. But the later choice will not be pleasant at all for anyone.
Wake up, India, etc. Too many people. Way too many people.
To the wealthy cooler (literally) countries: You think you have immigration problems now?! Ha. You have no idea what's about the come! There will be no wall high enough and no moat deep enough to keep billions of hot, starving people at bay.
Population control is the ONLY answer.
19
India has been a very hot place to live (year round) for ever. No one that has visited India in the last thousand years will tell you anything different. It's one of the most undesirable aspects of being in India. The other is that their population has grown over 1000% in the last 50 years. So, it's hot, real hot. And now it's overpopulated, meaning trees have been cut, forests decimated, and water that could sustain a 1950s population cannot sustain the 21st century population. India is not suffering from global warming, they are suffering from a location that has no ability to sustain their population.
11
From the Washington Post, May 20, 2016
"A small city in northwest India climbed to a searing 51 degrees Celsius - or 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit - on Thursday afternoon, and broke the country's record for all-time hottest temperature. The previous record, 50.6 degrees Celsius - or 123.1 degrees Fahrenheit -, was set in 1886."
It's very hot in May in India and apparently it has been for a really long time. This is the part that global warming alarmist never seem to be very good at answering. Often there is a news statement like this one... "X sets record high temperature... breaking the record set in the 30s, or the 50s, or the 70s or... 1886". If man made carbon emissions are so clearly the cause of this record heat wave... what caused the one in 1886... or 1935... or 1956... or..., and how are you so sure that what caused the records high temps 70-100 years ago aren't playing the same role now?
5
There have always been weather extremes. What climate change does is trap more energy in the atmosphere and thus make the extremes both more extreme and more frequent.
14
When the dragon exhales in one part of the world, the heat of its breath will eventually affect the whole world.
6
The Republican party denies all this and is rushing ahead to hand over our democracy to the dark money that will profit from the destruction of literally everything. The first amendment has been weaponized to use against the functioning of democracy. Just the other day Obama lamented the rise of populist movements that are being funded “by right-wing billionaires intent on reducing governmental constraints on their business interests.”
Those business interests are the same interests that elected Trump and abandoned the Paris Accord.
18
To all those people decrying India’s overpopulation problem, you do happen to know that American, European, Chinese, Korean, Japanese companies, to name a few, are flocking to India to grab their own share of the Indian market thanks to our demographic dividend and the fact that India presents a massive opportunity, do you?
If that photo of the ACs on the building scares you, perhaps you could start by asking what LG, Phillips, Haier, Daikin, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Blue Star, General think about their prospects in India..
My point is, if you, and I, are participating in and benefiting from globalization and capitalism, then you, and I, are part of the problem. Yes, the summer heat in India is getting unbearable and more so with each passing year. The solution is simple – live and build and construct and consume in harmony with the environment, and to not blindly imitate the West because a tropical, hot, crowded country like this needs special, innovative solutions, that is all. How utopian, and SO not profitable!
It took the great stink of 1858 for London to change, didn’t it? Unfortunately history has shown us that this is how we humans operate.
So I remain optimistic that change will come, slowly (we are a massive democracy), but surely.
And if it helps, people in India in general – barring a couple of states – are having fewer children compared to a generation or 2 before and that in the big cities there are people who are choosing to..gasp..remain child-free.
19
@dsi
I, too, am optimistic the planet will fix the damage caused by the human species. It will take about 3 to 4 thousand years of not using fossil fuels for the CO2 levels to drop below 350 ppm. And only about 3 million years for all of the uranium and plutonium isotopes to degrade to background levels of radiation. So, rats are very happy with this probable outcome.
10
The planet will be fine. Millions, if not billions of people will not be fine.
7
Anti-immigrant hysteria and climate change denial are each toxic in their own right. But the combination of the two pushed by the Trump administration and the GOP is exponentially worse and just plain dumb, even from a nationalist perspective. The current pressure on our borders and those of other western nations --- driven by economics, criminal violence, and war --- will pale in comparison to the immigration problem if densely populated subcontinents become uninhabitable mere decades from now.
10
I suggest we partake in an exercise of global warming.
I also suggest we invite (or compel) the world’s fiercest deniers of climate change to spend no less than 30 days in an un-airconditioned environment in Rajasthan or Bangladesh. American Express cards will not be allowed during their stay. ( I have, by the way, in my professional life, been privileged to spend time in India during March and April when temperatures regularly exceeded 90 degrees F, even in the shade. )
At the conclusion of this experiment, the appointed deniers must stand before a global press conference and describe their experiences in complete candor. And oh yes, 5 star hotels and similar accommodations will be strictly off limits to the experimentals (sic).
I wonder . . .
8
@david Really? How much different do you think their experience would be if they did it 100 years ago, in a densely crowded city in one of the warmest parts of the planet? Your experiment would prove nothing except that it's hot there and without AC you'd be miserable.
1
@Ralphie
Here’s a link to all the quotes of trump about climate change including the one about it being cold in NYC, ergo no global warming
I thought that dt and his sycophants with their reliance on immediate, visceral reflexes and inability to think in more complex ways would just as simplisticly come out of their holes and Complain about the Mean Atmosphere. ;-)
2
and the leader of the free world believes that global warming is a hoax
17
The NYT is obsessed with India's many shortcomings and public health failures (lack of sanitation, spread of disease, political graft, religious extremism).
Why the fixation? What is the goal and/or message? India is poor and bursting at the seams. We get it. Any ideas?
5
@Browny In my experience the NYT reports on a wide range of topics from places all over the world. I have been a reader for decades and have not noticed this particular fixation of which you speak. Perhaps the article is meant to bring awareness of how the steady rise of global warming affects the people on this particular part of the planet?
28
@Browny Would you rather not know about what's happening in other places in the world?
15
@Amanda Kennedy Your patience is commendable. Thank you.
3
If we took all the Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi immigrants in America and Europe and forced them to move back to their home countries, would they find solutions to the over population, pollution and poverty of these societies. Over dozens of conversation, I've never heard one of these people show any real interest in dealing with these problems. For some reason, Americans are more concerned than they are. China had a one child policy for 40 years. Thailand has reduced fertility far below replacement level and will see a 25% reduction in population over the next 20 years. If America had not dramatically increased immigration in the 1980's, we would have over 100 million fewer people. Population growth is the #1 obstacle to stopping and reversing global warming and world poverty. It is time the we look at the cause, population growth, and not the symptom, energy use.
21
@Michael Green The fertility rate in India has come down to 2.2 which is 0.1 above replacement level. It has fallen dramatically in India and is continuing to do so. In fact, in many states of India it has already gone below the replacement level. There is reason to be optimistic that India will soon join other nations in reducing world population
7
@Amit Bhatt
> fertility rate in India has come down to 2.2
Maybe - just maybe - in metro cities, I think the rural areas are more or less the same as always. also google "population momentum".
1
The Donald and the GOP say global warming is a myth! Of course, they are all living and working in their air conditioned environments, driving (or being driven) in their air conditioned cars, can afford travel in air conditioned vehicles/planes to cool high mountain resorts and spas.......
8
The project rise in world temperatures of Parag Khanna’s Connectography on how those forces in the 21st century are shaping the future of nations.
His analysis is open ended to the obnoxious possibilities of a planet at minus 4 degrees centigrade where neither of the most populous nations India or China is inhabitable at the end of the 21st century.
Visualized that occurring, and its intermediate stages, and ‘Global Warming’ will be a topic of the long gone past for those left to hear it.
Is this finally a wake-up call? There have been many others before this and there will be many others after....which one of the many will make us change our behavior, customs, business, consumption, production, outlook etc.? We, individually and collectively must change - and fast.
3
I have no doubt that cities like New Delhi are getting hotter. If you cram 26 million people into a very small area that was hot to begin with, put in some asphalt and concrete, etc., and it's going to get hotter. All you have to do is look at Phoenix Az to see what urbanization does. While India doesn't have much in terms of a historical temp record (they had about 45 stations in 1900, 99 now vs the US having 1k in 1900, 9k now per Berkeley earth) -- the US does. While all of AZ has warmed at about .2 degrees F since 1895 per NOAA climate at a glance data, Phoenix as warmed at a rate of 1 degree F a decade since 1934 -- during which time Phoenix & the surrounding metro area experienced population growth from 48k to over 4 million.
Or if you don't like Phoenix -- look at virtually any US metro area. I live in CT about 50 miles from NYC and the temps here are almost always cooler in summer than NYC. And if I go for a walk in the woods, the temps drop appreciably from standing in the sun on asphalt.
The alarmists can try to use India's cities as evidence for CC, but that's rubbish. Build a city in a hot area it's gonna get hotter. Places like Houston and Dallas and Phoenix have flourished because of air conditioning, otherwise they aren't livable for most and urbanization has made them even more miserable -- except the AC masks that reality.
10
@Ralphie, the urban heat island is one part of the problem, as this article mentions. The overall increase in temperatures will exacerbate that effect. The combination of urban heat island AND warming temperatures overall will combine, and be difficult to deal with.
It's very simple and as usual, you try to focus people on just part of the issue. Here's a quick quiz to illustrate the compounding of effects people will experience.
1 - When region A is at 90 degrees, and the city in region A shows 95 degrees, what do you expect the city's temperature to do when region A goes to 95 degrees?
If that's too complex, try this:
A house on a shady road in Connecticut has the front door at 6 feet above sea level. A storm brings a storm surge of 5 feet.
Q1 - will the house flood from a 5 foot storm surge?
Q2 - after sea level rises another 1.5 feet in the Connecticut area, would the same house flood from a 5 foot storm surge?
If people are dying it is already unbearable. Pakistan, Russia, even Quebec, but Russia suffered the most casualties, some say 55,000. My town of 38,000 has a huge carbon footprint, excessive school busing, a high birth rate, affluent families driving SUVs, large homes with central air. My brother and I had no children, my sister adopted two. I don't drive. A few more families like mine might reduce the carbon footprint a bit. My friends help local cats by vaccinating and sterilizing them. If only we could get humans to stop breeding. India's sterilization campaign was completely botched. Voluntary birth control with tax incentives would be better, especially in my town. It wouldn't hurt the rest of the world, either.
17
This tragic and sad story should be a major story under a banner headline on the front page and repeated frequently--just as the lies about climate change ( " a Chinese hoax,"" an attempt to strangle the coal mining industry,") are repeated frequently like all their other big lies openly flaunted by the comfortably wealthy in their air-conditioned edifices. Those who ignore the pain , intense suffering and death of these poor millions--smugly denying what is happening--- are murderers. Isn't it ironic that those who lack the empathy to commiserate are throwing additional heat into the crowded cities by their own air-conditioning units? Steps such as shorter work days, air-conditioned centers for relief, brighter reflective paints wherever possible,relaxation of religious fasting , etc., as temperatures rise is an obligation that the wealthy must provide even if taxes are increased to pay for these humane actions. And stop with the nonsense of denial.
13
Our exceptionalism among industrialized nations lies in our appalling ignorance.
Our astounding refusal to accept the evidence of science, first with regard to human evolution, and secondly in our refusal to acknowledge climate change is at least as disreputable as our electoral choices.
15
Humans are overbreeding at an alarming rate. Hundreds of millions of desperate people will be on the move.
This spells chaos and disaster. And we did it to ourselves.
14
I'm preparing for this to happen right here in NYC. I live in Manhattan and so far this summer I have NOT used AC. It's doable if it's under 90-95 F and you can take a cold shower once or twice a day. I know, water is a luxury too.
13
I'd equally blame Indian people along with politicians as responsible for this situation, especially the educated. In many places temperatures are high all year round. People just don't talk enough about these issues and make inconvenient changes to tackle them. Many people prefer diesel cars because diesel is cheaper. Coal is still a major source for power generation. Ground water levels are dropping because of overuse and poor choice of plants for farming. Media highlights these problems once an year on earth day or something and ignores rest of the time.
Sorry to be bleak but I don't think anything changes until a serious catastrophe hits us.
11
Opening the parks in the afternoon?
Why were the parks closed in the first place?
17
Scott Pruit, the current head of "EPA", or anyone who does not believe in environmental protection - or global warming - should be sentenced to spend a summer in India.
On a side note, is America the greatest democracy, when heads of institutions they ostensibly serve, are uniquely unqualified and even actively actively pursue acts of subversion??
7
Heat and humidity are one thing, but combine this with the uncontrolled growth in car numbers and you turn your city into a real people-killer.
The combination of heat, humidity, unburnt hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide etc. will kill far greater numbers, and building road systems for more traffic is like turning up the gas on a cake that's already burning.
In all of these cities, the very real short- and medium-term measures that can mitigate the urban heat island effect (roof shading, green roofs, white painting. self-shading buildings, etc.) are neglected by local authorities and commercial interests which are only interested in short-term consumerism represented by air-conditioning and cars, which make the long-term prognosis far, far worse..
9
Another issue to be noted is concrete emits all the heat back out at night. It can be 115 degrees here during the day and not cool down much at night. As such, Phoenix also has longer summers due to urban sprawl. Some people predict it will be too hot by 2050 to live here. 105 is easy. 125 is not.
8
@Scott
We are all on this still-beautiful planet together, holding on for dear life as we hurtle through space and time at speeds unimaginable on the surface of the globe.
1
Everyone of us is contributing to this problem. Each car emits around two tons of CO2 a year. Everything we use, our food, our clothes , our travel, are all dependent on oil. All therefore increase CO2 emissions which causes the atmosphere to heat up. The choice is to live in comfort and create death or scale back and maintain life. Are you prepared to have less comfort, less petrol, less of everything, so others can live??
17
@Robin
Change is hard. Changes in individual lifestyles are nearly impossible. Changes in communal lifestyles? Just forget about them.
Do nothing, then?
No, do everything and then some. Don't just expect any of the desired results.
3
Change is hard, but not impossible. I remember the bad old 60’s and70’s when the Cuyahoga River and the air in Elizabeth caught on fire. We drove enormous gas guzzling cars. But a combination of government actions ( Clean Air and Waters Act, EPA, fuel standards) and consumer education and choices changed the situation. There is a lot the Indian government can do and should do, because this is disaster now and a catastrophe for the future.
3
Predicting doomsday has become the thing when it comes to climate change. All common sense is out the window. If it's too hot during the day to be outside, then shift as many activities as possible to night time hours. Try this for two days and then call me in the morning.
@michjas
Did you -- I did not -- know the rate at which concrete and asphalt at night give up the heat absorbed during the sunlit hours?
Don't you worry, though, it takes 10,000 years for the water level to rise enough to submerge, for example, all of Boston's currently standing skyscrapers.
Common sense: No problem, just add more floors to the buildings.
1
@R N Gopa1 They are still building luxury skyscrapers in Miami. The power of human denial (or is it stubbornness?) is quite something.
1
@R N Gopa1: climate change is plenty bad. But exaggerating it serves no intelligent purpose. I live in Phoenix. My dog can't walk on concrete during summer days. She has o problem at night. On a day when it reaches 110 degrees, the typical 4 am temperature is about 80. People flood the running trials before sun up. And nobody suffers from heat exhaustion. It is a dangerous world at 2 pm. It is comfortable at 4 am. Pretending the nights are as hot as the days is sheer lunacy,
Why is over-population never mentioned in articles about the causes of our overheating planet? The more people, the more uses of mostly high carbon energy, especially cars, ships and planes; the more people, the more trees are cut down; the more people, the more shortages of clean water, safe food, climate refugees, over-fishing. A campaign for women's reproductive rights and Zero Population Growth would go long way in addressing many of our environmental problems and limit the enormous burdens of planetary suffering.
67
India's population reached one billion people in 1997 and by 2016 had reached 1.3 billion...an additional 300 million people in 20 years.
I'm sure India's pollution problems have gotten worse in direct proportion to it's population rise. Cheap cars and motor bikes spew exhaust, inefficient air conditioning units draw electricity, cities grow more dense as people move from rural areas to urban centers looking for work, and mountains of garbage become a toxic soup.
[[GHAZIPUR, India — The garbage in Ghazipur piled higher and higher over the years. It wafted a sickening cocktail of airborne particles that infected her neighbors with tuberculosis and dengue fever, singed trees and turned the ground water a filmy yellow.]] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/10/world/asia/india-delhi-garbage.html
Next up, watch what happens when antibiotic resistant diseases spiral out of control. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42063013
8
@Malachy and Fenix Grange
Briefly, the reason too many people is never mentioned in the nytimes as the main driver of global warming is because it is politically incorrect to do so.
If you want politically incorrect facts and perspectives you will have to look elsewhere.
2
I have lived in India off and on over 30 years. The hottest summer was in Benaras, where temps regularly hit 50 Celsius (~125 F). Daily power cuts from 2-5 am and 2-5 pm meant that there was no fan, let alone AC. Energy needs are pressing to say the very least.
But let’s look to see who is contributing to climate change the most by checking out our carbon footprints: (South) Asians use FAR less energy and water and other resources per person than the U.S. No comparison. Yet climate change does not necessarily punish the worst offenders. Right now a giant Sahara dust cloud sits over most of Texas. In Bangladesh, just east of India, business/office hours are 6 am to noon, Mon-Sat. Then people go home for lunch and can be inside for the hotter parts of the day. Maybe a similar schedule might work in India, I don’t know.
We are all in this together, whether we want or choose to be. Renewables must be pursued globally. Taxing solar panel imports from China is a looming disaster. I’m grateful that I chose to invest in solar panels while it made economic sense, let alone environmental.
I hope this fall’s Poland’s climate summit brings more goals and discussion. Individuals and entities can choose to follow recommendations, even if rejected by the current occupant of the White House.
41
The warning that climate change is real,it is man made and it is alarming has been neglected year after year globally.And India is no exception.Ever since India embraced neo-liberal economic order the cry for climate change has exacaberated.
It has now reached a tipping point as elegantly described in this responsible article.
Unfortunately,it shall not be headed by politicians who are governing India today. Because ,like Trump, they are denial of science and they do not accept 97 percent science evidence that burning fossil fuel and carbon -di-oxide emission must be checked on a massive proportion.
The clean air to breathe and clean water to drink be declared as a basic human right.It ought to be a part guaranteed under the constitution.And any one violating this carnal principl shall liable punishment of a most serious nature.
It is possible to enact such a draconian law since the preamble of the constitution states India as a socialist republic.I think if climate change menace to be challenged ,it is as a socialist society.That means a society where no body has priorities because by accident of life he happens to amassed wealth.This will call upon to less pollution due to vehicles and over-cooling in handful houses ( a large number ) when a vast majority are struggling to breath in 48 degree C outside, even deprived of clean drinking water.
The ' Founding Fathers' have enshrined article 51 in the Constitution where inculcating scientific temper is set as its goal.
12
The Koch Brothers, the GOP members of Congress, misspoken Trump, and Hannity are all cool.
What’s the big deal in Delhi?
No climate change in Michigan or Wisconsin—-
“Bring out your dead.”
We’re shootin’ and polluting’ here in the U.S.of A..
19
I agree-overpopulation IS the root of most problems. Agree with Mr. Franco!
35
The only upside, of sorts, that I see to this is that the planet killers will turn up their petroleum ovens so much that the broiled climate will awaken more Kilaueas.
That means more volcanic ash in the air, perhaps enough to not just reverse this but block the sun and freeze us to death. Then those ashes will settle on our own, and the more considerate creatures who survived will pick up where we left off. Maybe they'll even figure out all of those weird "book" and "computer" things we made, and learn from our mistakes.
Or they'll find such things to be yummy food. Oh well.
2
Republicans will only grudgingly admit there's such a thing as climate change once the street pavement on Dupont Cirle melts and becomes an oozing river.
16
The problem is the dew point. That is the temperature at which water condenses out of the air. At the dew point there can be no evaporation since the saturated air can absorb nothing else. Unfortunately a human has to sweat and have it evaporate in order to cool itself or it overheats and dies.
The magic temperature is the body temperature (98.6F or so).
When the dew point reaches body temp it is an emergency and people must be cooled off by other means.
By 2050 it is estimated that parts of the earth with lots of population (think of the Middle East and India) will reach that threshold on a regular basis. What will those people do?
13
@Vince
Agree and will add that the general public has a knowledge deficit in regards to the major role that humidity plays in warm environments
Humidity is assessed by multiple indexes. Absolute Humidity, Relative Humidity, Wet Bulb Temperature, Dew point and Heat Index
The most accurate predictor of heat related illness/death is wet bulb temperature. A wet bulb temperature above 95F can kill.
During my training in Arizona (aka the Zone) the denizens would routinely work in temperatures above body temperature. As long as the humidity is low, evaporation will dissipate a large amount of heat. The local refrain was: Hey it is a dry heat.
I still periodically look at Phoenix temperatures and it is my impressing that the humidity measurements are increasing.
9
Article was published over 4 hours ago and only 81 comments so far. Climate change is the most pressing problem of our age but ironically the powerful in northern climates with ample access to cooling technologies will be the least affected. Even the UN predicted famines and global chaos will do little except having countries like the U.S. close their borders, deny aid, and adhering to an international form of lifeboat ethics. For the richest nations this building nightmare will be solved by turning the cable channel, not clicking that uncomfortable news article. Which for this one apparently many readers didn't.
29
If you place frogs in a kettle of warm water and light a fire beneath the kettle, the slow increase of heat will cause the frogs to not be directly alarmed....until it's too late of course.
Today we're speaking in parables, I guess. It's a first for me. Try it, try speaking in parables all day. It's tricky stuff, imitating great figures in history.
Usually, I'm just one of the frogs.
7
India's overpopulation and deep poverty only serve to further exacerbate their entrenched problems of horrific air and water pollution which keeps the climate change feedback loop forever in an upward and constant cycle of creating higher and higher heat density.
But I worry more about our own American version of refusing to see our own failures in addressing our overuse of precious natural resources and of the waste and lack of regard we have for conserving, all in the name of keeping up with the Jones's.
Because in all seriousness, we're not doing all that much better than the Indians. All one needs do is remember - Hurricane Maria - and the thousands who not only suffered immensely from the heat due to the loss of power, but of the hundreds who actually did die - in *American* Puerto Rico.
And our government barely lifted a finger to help.
Denial is not a river in Egypt. It is a full blown political disease running rampant in our own country and I see no one on the horizon who seems to give much of a damn to reverse the damage before it becomes irreversible.
39
Overpopulation is the root of all our problems.
75
@Generallissimo Francisco Franco Dear General: Chevy Chase is still waiting for you to answer the phone when he calls from the SNL News desk.
2
Indeed, and thankfully as this article explains, climate change is poised to do something to correct the overpopulation problem.
9
@Generallissimo Francisco Franco Absolutely. And no one will talk about it. If I dare to raise the issue with friends or acquaintances, I am met with blank expressions and absolute silence. It is a taboo topic. Apparently one you don't bring up in polite conversation.
14
The US federal government has been concerned about the security implications of climate change since at least 2008, when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming conducted a National Intelligence Assessment (NIA) on the national security implications of global climate change to 2030. The document, in which Dr. Thomas Fingar (Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and Chairman of the National Intelligence Council), is available as a free download for anyone interested in his analysis.
https://fas.org/irp/congress/2008_hr/062508fingar.pdf
8
"If global greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, they say, heat and humidity levels could become unbearable, especially for the poor."
The fossil-fuel industrialists and their puppets in the GOP have denied this science since the problem first appeared on the horizon.
Now they have forced us into a suicide pact. First, the poor.
19
@Sherry Jones
You got "first the poor" right. They're always first. That's why people in power never change anything.
1
Deforestation plus a population that just grows and grows is the immediate problem in India, in spite of each person using less than 1/50 the energy of his/her American counterpart.
23
@Ray Westney
Agreed the one thing, (cheap, socially acceptable, with immediate results), that could really help India is population control. FWIW, India's southern states are all on ZPG for years and most kids born in all states today are one of two. The sheer numbers are still overwhelming for any govt. Other countries have simply eliminated their unwanted, colonized others, gone to wars.... Part of the reason the US entered WW2.
All cities are unsustainable.
12
Cities are far more efficient than rural areas, and the denser the city, the more efficient it is. Suburbs, with their purely decorative land, are the worst.
4
@Craig Millett
Pretty much. But we all have to live in them anyway, because technology eliminated all of the jobs in the country.
Perhaps Elon Musk would like to use his money and creativity to build underground cities in India with solar powered air conditioning.
11
@Carmine
Amazon's Jeff Bezos
4
@Carmine
No! Birth control, reforesting, reducing power/oil usage stopping buying polluting rubbish are the cheap, effective and easy answers.
The future is going to be not only very hot but also very crowded.
Sounds like a living nightmare. Some are already living it. That photo of the ACs on the building looks ominous and foreboding.
15
This is critical global crisis. Because it does not directly affect some of us - for now - is no reason to be indifferent.
We can - and should - work together. Or the sci-fi film, Elysium, will become our reality, with no Damon to save the day.
8
The science of warming and its cures is corrupted by vested interests. A poor country like India can grow more trees. Such a solution is unacceptable to all those who have the podium. They recommend carbon capture, wind, solar, nuclear, anything except trees. There is no money in trees.
27
@PK Jharkhand The trees can reduce local temperatures by about 7 degrees and provide shade. It is a stop-gap measure to help ameliorate the local temperatures and find some relief, not an solution to the issue of climate change. That will basically require high resource consumers around the world to cut back dramatically on their consumption through either efficiency or absolute cutbacks, or a combination of the two. My guess the economic system will enforce absolute cutbacks by empoverishing vast swathes of the population in the wealthy countries.
3
@PK Jharkhand
Up and down India, people ARE planting trees and restarting organic farming. Birth control is an absolute necessity and leaving natural forests and deserts alone to recover.
1
It is time for Homebrella: erect solar panels over the houses, provide green electric, and reduce temperatures of the homes below the panels. We call it Homebrella.
19
We all need to plant more trees....a LOT more trees.
35
Thank you for highlighting this. We need better leadership here in the US and globally about the impact of increasing heat, Forests must be conserved and expanded, including the great temperate rain forests in Pennsylvania and the US - - they’re being destroyed. That plus our over-the-top carbon emissions must be reversed, and quickly. Our leaders need to act now.
14
You don't have to go to India. Here in New Jersey summers have been gotten progressively unbearable over the years. I remember the time when I used to wear windbreakers in the cool summer evenings. Many houses also didn't need any air conditioning. It's a different story now.
The India story here is being replicated all over the world in some fashion or other.
56
In much of the hotter US, one has the benefit of clean water, reliable electricity, and central air conditioning or whole house evaporative cooling systems - not so in India. And for trees in Indian cities, they too need water to flourish.
13
@Informed Citizen Not everyone has the ability to pay a higher electric bill, can afford central air con (even a window unit) or other pleasures most would think we should have in the US.
Many of the poor and elderly in the US are suffering from the heat like many in India.
4
There are still plenty of options for those in the US. Clean drinking water with ice cubes fresh from the freezer, a roof to provide shelter from the beating sun, and outlets like public libraries with free air conditioning. It is ignorant to put these two things at the same level, and this undermines the unique struggles the poor in India are facing.
1
I visited Delhi a few years ago. It was around 113 every day. As the article points out, there is very little respite from it as you might find in Phoenix or Tucson. Much more work in poor countries is done by manual labor. I saw men digging basements for large buildings - with shovels. Millions upon millions work in the streets, in shade if possible (where it's still 113), in the sun if not. That kind of heat saps your energy even if you're standing still. I lived in Phoenix and can attest to it.
A few more things to consider:
Air pollution is terrible. (They burn dung to cook over.) Heat makes it hard to breathe in the best of circumstances. Pollution makes it that much harder, and affects lung function.
There are no emission controls on cars and cars are *everywhere*, sitting in traffic, idling. Noxious gases.
If the government has to distribute free water, you know you've got a problem.
Electricity is not always available to run air conditioners if you're lucky enough to afford one.
If rising heat leads to lower quality of life, where quality of life is already about as low as it can get, you have a *real* problem.
The Greatest Country in the World *could* help, but they don't care.
Medical care is not Western standard, either in quality or capacity.
Until you've experienced it, you have no idea.
91
@Stevenz
There's so much complacency in this country that we don't care about Trump enough to do something to ensure Democtats can be in place in sufficient numbers to put a check on him. Don't hold your breath waiting for Americans to take any steps to help less developed countries fight climate change and the effects of extreme weather.
4
Do you know what is better than any state of the art air conditioner? A TREE. We are so money hungry as a species that we're cutting down all the Earth's vegetation and slathering the planet's surface in heat-absorbing concrete! Its a recipe for suicide. We must stop destroying Earth's tree's, especially the Amazon and Africa's forests! Its not enough to paint roofs in white paint, that is a bandaid over a gaping wound- we need to stop burning fossil fuels and guarantee every human a Universal Basic Income so people as poor as Rehmati does not have to throw her life away hustling for a dollar to live another day.
73
@Keely
Full sympathy for Rehmati and similar anywhere (Puerto Rico?) However why breed when you can't care for yourself, never mind babies? India provides free/cheap birth control and abortion since decades.
One immediate action to combat heat related dehydration would be for Muslim imams to free observant Muslims from the necessity of refusing water during the day during Ramadan when the temperature or heat index is above a certain level or when anyone feels sick from the heat.
44
I lived in India in my youth and experienced extremely hot summers in a place called Bathinda in the state of Punjab where the temperature sometimes used to hit 120 Fahrenheit in the summer, and this was in the 80s, and as a kid it didn't bother me at all as I remember biking in the late afternoon with my friends. I remember going out when "Loo" (It is a Hindi word for a hot fire like wind blowing from the Thar desert in Rajasthan) would be blowing. This was normal. All my mother reminded me was to drink a lot of before venturing out. People get used to what they have and don't miss things they are not familiar with or have no knowledge of. The intensity of the sun is also diluted in India because of pollution. The ultra violet rays and intense light are scattered, reflected, and absorbed more frequently by particles in the atmosphere such as dust and pollution. So I feel hotter here when it is only 90 degrees because the atmosphere is clear and less polluted.
13
@anonymous - It could be that you feel hotter here because you are older now. Heat gets harder to take as one gets a bit older.
6
@DW, I was still young when i came here and for some reason I felt the heat more intensely here in the summer.
India has always been land of heat and dust, but Indians are used to it. The biggest climate change Delhi has witnessed is that Delhi always had dry semi-arid climate so the summer heat didn't feel so oppressive, but now a days old time residents say summers are increasingly becoming more humid.
@anonymous
The intensity of the sun is exacerbated by the smog. Smog cover keeps the heat tied to the surface instead of dissipating higher into the atmosphere.
5
Of course this is global warming! And it is the world's #1 crisis - if people think the refugee crises are bad now, what will it look like when entire portions of the earth are uninhabitable?
126
@Sallie
Entire portions of the Earth already are virtually uninhabitable - due to cold. The problem is the necessity of migration from the hottest regions to colder regions. Just looking at the map it's clear there is plenty of livable space in south Asia. Lahore, for example, is well outside the hot spot. The problem is figuring out how to transport the inhabitants of a giant massively impoverished city like Delhi.
1
@Sallie
Wait until there are wars for potable water.
3
In cities in India and across to the Red Sea there will be bad effects from this. Inability to cool down at night is part of what makes heat lethal. And just to note "A Minimum Temperature of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) in Oman on June 26, 2018: a New World Record". Denver just set their record high of 105°F, and it didn't even cool down to that in Oman on June 26.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Minimum-Temperature-426-C-1087-F-Oman-...
The photo at the bottom showed another issue - the diesel generator will make air quality worse, with particulate pollution and ozone precursors, and it's going to be used to run too-many air conditioners in what's very likely a badly-sealed, little-insulated building. Efficiency, improved building codes, better grid are health issues in such a populous place. And they all cost money.
Areas you wouldn't expect could also become dangerous from time to time - the article at this link describes a wet-bulb temperature of 88°F in Minnesota.
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/record-dew-point-temp...
14
@b fagan
Inability to cool down at night is also hitting American cities.
3
Time to mosey out and exercise our free will to drive a huge V8 pickup or SUV. Turn on the air and enjoy. After all, you've earned it.
27
I left India in the 80's - swearing never to go back in the summer. Life is good in the far north. I can take the cold any day over heat like that.
20
Well, does this mean Indians will finally wear shorts? Seriously, take a look at the photos accompanying this story. During my visit to Uttar Pradesh last year, daytime highs were generally in the 105-110 degrees F range and I literally did not spot a single man wearing shorts. In fact, I was chastised for wearing shorts at the Fatehpur Sikri, so I had to "rent" a large gauzy piece of fabric to wear as a skirt to cover my legs. Between the extreme heat and the extreme floods from monsoon season, one would think the Indians would be a bit more forgiving regarding practical sartorial choices.
23
@Ed
I doubt wearing shorts is the solution.
10
People there are not stupid. They wear full clothes to protect themselves from bugs, dust and harmful sun rays. They always eat steaming hot food to ensure harmful bacteria is not active in the food.
17
Fatehpur Sikri is a city with many mosques and tombs. Are you sure you were asked to cover-up while visiting a mosque or just walking about in the city?
2
Trump dismisses global warming, which primarily affects the developing world and people of color. His fans cheer.
45
There is nothing new. What is hot for Americans is norm for Indians. They can handle it. The surprising thing is that Indians who grew up in such hot weather, once they come to US, finds even 90 degrees very hot. Human body improvises and no worries about 111 degrees as long as they have water to drink. The water scarcity is what Indians need to worry and not minor issues of hot weather.
4
@Kodali if Indians “can handle it” why is the heat related mortality rate going up so much?
35
Did you read the article? The problem is the heat. The heat causes water shortages. Heat kills hundreds each year. If the weather was cooler, life would be much more bearable for everyone.
8
They can't handle it, they are dying!
2
"It’s always been hot in Hyderabad. It’s getting hotter slowly, almost indiscernibly." Like frogs put into a pot of cold water only to have it come to a slow boil... these folks are getting cooked.
24
There's a Russia connection here. One of the consequences not covered by the article is that unremitting heat oppression is going to cause massive Indian migration northward, perhaps starting as soon as a decade from now. Think of Latinos currently heading to the US and Africans to Europe for a variation on the theme -- to escape from political oppression. As is obvious, Indians will not be able to head south,east or west. They'll be motivated to find ways to head north to Russia, the largest, least populated, relatively coolest land mass on earth. By mid-century India could well become Russia's greatest challenge.
14
@Duncan MacDonald
You haven't looked at a map -- or studied climate and geography. To walk from India to Russia you have to go through Pakistan (Not!) Afghanistan, Takijistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazahkstan -- all of them desertifying by the way (look at the Aral Sea in 1979 vs now) to get to Russia. And all very mountainous, politically unstable and dangerous.
Indians aren't going to Russia.
The Russians would likely kill any that ran that gauntlet, anyway. Afghanis now don't go to Russia -- they go to Turkey and then Europe if they can. Russia is not a destination for refugees if they have any choice. Syrians there would like to do anything they could to leave.
6
It is really unfortunate, climate change is going to keep being ignored by people, people are going to keep having too many children (more than one is too many). So millions of people are going to have to die earlier than they otherwise would have.
There's just no way around it now, the poorest people in the world are going to suffer the most. There's no way to stop the heat from rising to fatal levels, no way to get people to stop having so many kids, no way to relocate hundreds of millions out of danger zones.
Brace yourselves, another major reduction in humanity's numbers is coming. On the bright side, it might save our species and our planet, and we've certainly survived massive die-offs before.
22
I just have a basic, simple question - looking at all the pictures of people out in the heat, why are they all wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants (mostly jeans!)? One sure way to cool down is to wear less clothing. Doing so won't solve the problem but it might make the situation they're in a little less deadly. It's just so sad that the most vulnerable and poorest people are paying the highest price for our folly.
6
@Tim Cahill. It's Asian cultural modesty. It seems silly, I know. If you're a tourist there, as I was, wearing shorts on a 113 degree day, they stare at you. I don't know if they think you're inappropriate or if you just look funny. But it's a sure way to spot a tourist.
8
@Tim Cahill
I sincerely hope that wearing/not wearing shorts is not the only thing you got out of this article.
7
@Tim Cahill
Good point - however- Indians do have their own summer dresses (or ‘undresses’) -but yes shorts have not caught on yet - even as an Indian (male) I will get looks if I am in shorts - but in cities it is less so as more and more people are wearing shorts...
1
More bodies produce more heat. More bodies means more buildings are needed to house these bodies. That means more land (trees) need to be cleared. More buildings means more A/Cs for each of those buildings. Etc.
We need to provide better access to birth control, and better education, better-paying jobs, etc. This in turn will lead to fewer babies, especially in countries where many of their citizens are already struggling.
114
Birth control is not the problem. The culture against birth control is the real culprit. The latter, alas, is an unsolvable problem.
61
@PaulN
Do you know that population growth in most of India has reached replacement levels? The population levels seen in India now are the results of historically high concentration levels. It is tapering, but will take time for the results to be seen.
1
@Lisa If only. Nobody wants to look at the issue of overpopulation, yet it's so clearly the root cause of what we're seeing now as our planet implodes.
8
The city needs to emit less CO2 and plant some trees like yesterday. Cities become heat islands with all that concrete and asphalt.
15
The photo at the end of this article showed a large number of window air conditioners blowing hot air into an already excessively hot local environment.
The article could also emphasize that most of the electricity powering these air conditioners is generated by fossil fuels, primarily coal, which thereby further exacerbate global warming.
It's a vicious cycle!
22
@Pete. All true. But would you deny them their air conditioners? Would you deny people in Arizona their air conditioners? For that matter, would you deny people in Oslo their heaters? Air conditioning should not be considered a luxury in places this hot. That's what makes the climate change problem so vexing. (I realise you know this; I'm not disagreeing with you.) More efficient heating and cooling, and renewable energy are not luxuries anymore, either, but too many people haven't woken up to that. (Note that lots of those air conditioners don't work, and that electric service is intermittent.)
7
Heat kills. The more concrete, asphalt, brick, and building-up that we do, the less plant life and greenery there is to effectively cool off our surroundings. Choices of building styles and architecture can ameliorate heat gain, as can materials choices and finish colors. Our change from an asphalt and gravel roof to a light-colored applied surface dramatically reduced the heat gain we experience in the summer months.
Still, everyone knows and agrees that shade cools. Leaving trees may be the best overall strategy for coping with both heat and carbon levels. Here in the Southwest USA there are communities with significant incentives to developers to leave mature trees (and/or penalties for their removal), because it takes so long for trees to mature and so much water to establish a tree. Green spaces are immensely valuable not just for aesthetic reasons: they are literally lifesaving oases of cool in the blistering hot, urban jungles our cities and towns have become.
24
It takes merely five praragraphs for Ms. Sengupta to resort to "global warming" as the source of the excessive urban heating problem. If only we could blame global warming for habitual oversimplication. Global warming is just one part of the overall urban heat island effect. Consider that Delhi's population increased from 1.4 million in 1951 to 17 million today. A human body itself generates 100 W of heat. Now consider all the heat generated by human accessoroies and activities -- and the energy generation density goes nuch higher. There are physical limitations of natural convetion heat transfer at the rate at which this heat can be carried away from urban area in the absence of forced convective cooling by a cooler wind. Indians will have to adopt a host of standard mitigation techniques such as growing trees (most Indian cities are denuded of trees), cool roofs, and green roofs. So unfortunate that majority of the people have to suffer while the policy makers sit in air-conditionied offices and homes.
120
@Ajit - you massively oversimplify the article in order, it seems, to take a swipe at one of the drivers of the problem.
The article talks about impacts from current heat levels then in the 5th paragraph they correctly point out that the continuation in warming will continue to make things worse.
And then the article goes on to describe other components of the problem (shortage of necessary services, etc) and then further continues to talk about some of the mitigation efforts under way.
Considering the current issues described are after the planet and the region has already done a good bit of warming, it isn't "habitual oversimplification". It's an article about problems in the developing world, the equatorial world, as humanity also makes it a hotter, more humid world.
SO, don't you think doing something about emissions is part of the mitigation that these nations (and ours) should be taking on? By the way, India has at lesat begin cancelling planned coal plants in favor of solar generation. That's a step and (to avoid oversimplifying) it's good because beside avoiding future warming, it's going to improve their air quality and energy security.
28
@Ajit- Of course this is global warming!!! 97% of scientists agree that it is happening!
10
@Ajit I recently read an demographic article that projected that by 2100, 80 years from now, that the three largest cities in the world would be in Africa. Lagos being number one at 80 million people. It certainly dwarfs anywhere at present. Can anyone survive that? Incidentally, the same report noted the population of the Tokyo region would decrease. In fact the population of Japan decreased last year for the first time. So aside from any debate about "global warming" the issue over increased population is the most "dire" warning we should heed , as others of noted.
8
One approach that might mitigate some of the effects of human influenced climate change is to reduce dependence on cars and build mass transit on a global scale. There's overwhelming evidence that mass transit can be more efficient, less polluting and a better long term solution than individuals driving SUV's. It's bewildering to see how we humans have not had enough of being stuck in massive traffic jams even for short commutes. But we see it day after day. Yes - it is the auto and gas industry that owns politicians and allows for the status quo to continue. But surely, if enough citizens want change, whether in India or in the US, it can happen. Building highways and roads in and between cities rips out large swathes of green - our one buffer against pollution. And mass transit can be safer as well. See how flying has become safer than driving? The same could be true for light rail, tramways and bus systems. Let's work to phase out petroleum and cars - it can only be good for everyone - other than the industry that benefits from those two products.
34
On order to to build this vast infrastructure it requires a govt who can direct the resources of a nation to finance it. If the govt is untrustworthy, corporate entities refuse to see the long-term benefits or the nation's citizenry are unwilling to contribute to the effort it will not happen.
Unless the current dynamic changes we will all die squabbling about whose fault it is. It will also require removing ego driven, narcissistic, power driven testosterone from decision making positions.
12
A few years ago, there was a survey amongst engineers and scientists on ranking most important innovations that have benefited America.
The air conditioning came out ahead by a wide margin - because a/c made more than half of the country liveable year around. I know you could not live in Houston without it.
So, this argument that a/C's add to heat is just hot air.
India needs a/C's and better public policies like working early in the morning and late in the evening - at least for laborers. I lived in the Middle East and at least in my oil industry - we forbid any one to work outdoors when heat index reached a certain level.
The problem in India is these policy makers live in comfortable houses and could care less about anybody.
I found it amusing to read that some elected officials "occasionally" give guidance. Yes, probably when they are running from an air-conditioned car to there cooled office.
It is also not atypical that these high ranking administrators from India land up in America and pontificate on what needs to be done back in India. They of course failed to do anything while in power.
I wish in India - there needs to be a genuine care for these poor folks. Punish these companies who do not provide any relief above a certain heat index.
Knowing what goes in that country - they would find it easier to blame air conditioners than apply the law.
7
@Neil - I don't know what part of basic physics you disagree with. Air conditioners cool by transferring heat from one place to another. They also need to dispose of the heat *newly-created* by the work required to transfer the heat. That compressor requires electricity to operate, and some of that electricity is going to turn into heat, which also needs to get dumped outside.
As far as pontificating, obviously both you and I are doing the same, but I'm confused at how what you pontificate is going to work. Even putting the heat transfer issue aside, who's going to supply the free air conditioners that you propose? How many power plants need to be built to run them? How many barrels of oil need to be imported to fuel the plants? Punish companies? - most of the Indians we're talking about don't work for companies.
India is neither a petro-state (where, I hear, they practically burn raw petroleum in their power plants, and their economy is like another planet) nor Houston.
86
@Neil you mean they *couldn't* care less about anyone.
6
@Neil, et al. IF the conditions described in the article are defined as a "problem", and many powerful people in the West would not, the problem is simply too big for India to address it on their own. Water sourcing, purification and distribution; conversion to low/no carbon renewable energy; reliable electric service; clean-burning stoves; effective alternatives to cars; and massive building retrofit are needed on a scale that is unimaginable. The country can't generate enough revenue from such an impoverished people, and informal economy, to pay for it all. Even if you were to solve related problems like corruption, class and ethnic rivalry, paternalism, etc., it's too heavy a load to bear. And it seems global politics don't allow a real solution.
10
Humans won't learn. The formerly pretty college town nearby has torn whole swaths of cute single-family housing down, including nice craftsman era houses, to build ugly, cookie-cutter high rise apartment buildings. It's estimated that more than 3,000 mature trees were cut down to build these apartments. Here's the thing. The apartments have been overbuilt. They can't fill them. There are For Rent signs all over town because there aren't enough people to rent them. So we've lost over 3,000 trees and interesting architecture so we can have empty apartments.
157
@Linda. Oh, but isn't "the marketplace" the answer? (Ha.) Keep in mind, the original developer is not the one losing money. He was the salesman and cheerleader.
9
We're doing this to ourselves, all over the world.
And the only reason we can't do anything about it is that our governments are in thrall to the wealthy and corporations, who have every interest in the status quo, and will not meaningfully suffer as the temperatures go up. They won't be dying in heatwaves; only the poor will. And who cares about them?
187
@George Peng
We will all care, one way or another. Yes, the wealthy and corporations don't care if poor people suffer, but these people won't stay where they are when things become unbearable. They will join the growing millions of climate change refugees and this will exacerbate all the social tensions we are already seeing. Things are bad now. What will happen when there are millions and millions of more refugees globally?
88
@George Peng
"They won't be dying in heatwaves; only the poor will."
I'm thinking that a lot of poor people dying in heatwaves will lead to a fair number of rich people dying too. At the hands of poor people who did not die, and who are not willing to die for the convenience of the rich.
10
@George Peng
Don't forget religion: be fruitful and multiply. Not just western religions.
3
Spending the day in an oven like we did on July 6 when it hit 120 in Pasadena and all the trees turned wilted brown, requires no further explaining. It’s hopeless.
123
A natural response to this article would be to suggest the author overlay a graph of global warming onto a graph of human population, but that would be superfluous. They are the same.
100
@Marc
How about the author overlay a graph of the world's largest contributors of green house gases as well?
8
The last picture in the article, with the caption A New Delhi street. Air conditioners can .... shows the plight of common people so clearly.
People on the street have to take in the heat from the AC units along with that from the sun and traffic during summer.
And, whenever there is load shedding - which is more likely to happen when the heat index is near its peak and power company has to turn off the power for a few or more hours in different areas to reduce the demand - the street people also need to bear the noise, the fumes and even more heat from the huge generators that are turned on whenever power supply to the AC units is interrupted.
46
@DM Um, solar panels?
That could actually be a Reply to many of the other Comments.
@dwalker during monsoon, which they are experiencing now, this solution would not work without battery storage. I have been in Mumbai on business for 2 weeks and I have seen the sun once.
No need to watch catastrophic films of a dystopian future. It's here, now, currently streaming live. Should be thrilling. Think I'll grab a methane emitting burger and watch - and grab some popcorn grown in unsustainable conditions, filling our oceans and rivers with sediment by-product. Poor Indians, chomp chomp chomp. Wonder why it's so hot over there?
125
@Bill Prange....Well said......very Well said.
4
There are many cities in the US itself that are now only livable thanks to reliable electric power and AC. Imagine Phoenix on a hot day with a widespread power failure. Or Washington. Many people would find themselves trapped inside tall buildings able to escape only by the stairs. The disabled would die like dogs in hot cars. Under normal summer conditions, heat at street level is noticeably worsened by the waste heat pouring out of air conditioners hard at work keeping tiny indoor spaces cool. Do we want to live on earth the same way we would live on Mars; in tiny shelters from the deadly climate?
213
@DKB
Or Texas. Or Southern California. Or Florida. Or the entire Gulf Coast. Or Mexico. Or Central America.
Etc...
30
@DKB
As one who lives in the desert southwest without an air conditioner,TV, etc., I must say this: we could all live on Earth quite comfortably if we all chose to live on Earth in an equitable, unselfish manner. If we in the USA did not demand and consume such a ghastly share of the world's resources, life could be a lot more comfortable for many. It all has to do with distribution of resources. As things are, my guess is that the climate issues will continue to worsen; economic disparity will become more acute; and full scale revolution will be required before anything really changes. How long will this take? It's anyone's guess.
20
You know, people did live in these places at points in history, and did it without A/C. I think a positive step forward would be constructing housing and buildings that follow traditional methods for the area - in the desert, that would be thick adobe walls, very few and very small windows, high ceilings, etc. In our current Tx house (not in a desert), we have tiled floors, high floors, doors to shut off the kitchen (keeping cooking heat contained), native shade trees (like Pecan and Live Oak) growing all around us, and smallish windows covered by sheers or a paper shade during the hottest parts of the day. We are pretty fortunate that the house was this way when we moved in. We keep the AC set to 78-80 in the summers and don’t cook inside as far as we are able. We keep the lights off as much as possible to minimize added heat from bulbs. Surely these small tactics could be more widely used, and construction be done better to maximize a house’s liveability while minimizing energy use to run an A/C. I know in the half dozen rentals I’ve lived in around TX the past few decades all had some ridiculous feature - big windows built facing east or west directly, inferior weather-stripping at doors that lets heat pour in, carpeting everywhere, open floor plans that let kitchen heat warm up the entire house.... I will admit that it is 104 today and our A/C keeps kicking in over and over - it is 80 inside, and I’d be willing to let it get higher - probably should!
23
Our current rate of population growth is completely unsustainable, and the world either is or will be overpopulated very soon. Widescale death from climate change is inevitable (and perhaps even necessary for the survival of humanity as a whole); the only question is how many people and where?
227
@Clark The other important question is How? I doubt billions will die from heat but what about starvation? Will they sit there and go quietly or will they migrate first? Will we put soldiers on Trump’s wall and shoot to kill? Or will will beat heat and starvation to the punch with war? All the scenarios seem grim to me.
17
@Clark: Certainly not me. I am 48, single, and have never had kids. I did not create this mess and should not have to die. People who have more than the replacement of children should have to sacrifice their lives if necessary. I am innocent.
9
@Clark If everyone lived as densely as they do in Manhattan, the entire worlds population would fit in Arizona. That would leave plenty of room for wild plants, animals, as well as agriculture and extraction undustries. We are not over populated we just do not allocate resources very well mostly due to tribalism and greed.
11
The crisis of world climate change came with the introduction of fuels and products producing unintended consequences.
Fossil fuels, factories, coal fired power plants, individual automobiles, highways and cities of concrete and asphalt, gas heated dwellings, expensive air conditioning -- productivity, transportation, and comfort now exact a price in human existence.
Imagination and invention produced this crisis.
Imagination and invention must be applied to relieve the suffering.
And the people of cities and nations cannot hope for elected leaders to lead change -- the careers of leaders are financed by the oil corporations and construction companies destroying the natural world.
Individuals can change the climate. Andy Lipkus launched the Tree People in Los Angeles. Wangari Maathai headed the Green Belt Movement in Nairobi.
I respect those individuals and others like them. I personally follow the example of Albert Schweitzer in the early 20th Century. He worked in medicine, I am attempting to design products and methods that will change the environment of cities at very low cost.
Do not wait for leaders. Remake the world with imagination and endeavor.
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As a Critical Care physician who trained in the Southwest, I will add some medical context.
Each human's metabolism generates about the same heat as a 100 watt incandescent light bulb. For a individuals body temperature to remain constant, the amount of metabolic heat generated has equal the amount lost to the environment. Heat moves down gradients; from hot to cold. There are multiple gradients; radiant gradients, convective gradients and conductive gradients. In the environmental conditions described in this article, during daylight hours all gradients result in heat flow into the individual.
The only other mechanism that human's have to cool under these extreme conditions is sweating. Each liter of sweat that evaporates removes 533 Kilo calorie of heat per liter. For reference, a single Kilo calorie will raise the temperature of a liter of water one degree F. Humans are roughly 70% water.
When the humidity is high, this mechanism fails and body temperature will increase. Within several hours, symptoms manifest with core body temperatures around 104 degrees Fahrenheit Several more hours, with the body's' temperature reaching 106F, irreversible, often fatal brain damage occurs.
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@JSH
Correction: One kilo calorie will raise the temperature of one liter of water 1 degree C or 1.8 degrees F.
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@JSH - Just a minor correction: one kilocalorie of heat will increase the temperature of a liter of water by 1°Celsius, which is 1.8°F.
I am in my eighth decade of my life, and only thing my mother had ever admired me was for installing a Carrier window air conditioner in her room during one of my trips to India. She told me that she had lived extra ten years because of that small human comfort.
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The USA is historically the largest polluter on the planet and the second largest polluter today.
By pulling out of the Paris Climate accord we are told that this will save and create jobs. Just what are these jobs that will jeopardize the entire plant, possibly irreversibly, for hundreds of years to come. Unfortunately we are focused on the short term rather than seeing the big picture, third world countries like India will feel it first but eventually it will impact everyone.
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@Bryce Between 2016 and 2030, China will add more CO2 to the atmosphere than mankind has added since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
What do you propose the US do?
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As Jimmy Kimmel said - " Exxon Mobil lobbied for us to stay in it. Shell ... Walmart ... . Because apparently these big companies ran the numbers, and it turns out if climate change destroys human life on Earth, it could be bad for business.”
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I've been to Mexico, South America, Africa and other parts of the world where deserts, lack of water and extreme temperatures cause misery, illness and death. The lucky ones can migrate, but most can't. The result is catastrophic.
Human activity and overpopulation is the largest factor in global warming. But, here's the cold brutal end result If millions can't survive and the lands can't sustain life, then the overpopulation across the globe will either die off from climate change or warfare in trying to find a place to survive. Water is becoming scarer, heat and oceans are rising, deserts are expanding and crops are dying. Energy too, even if we can produce what will be needed will also raise global temperatures.
We know that as climate changes, species migrate, adapt or die. Humans are not exempt. If India can't control its population, feed them, sustain them in artificial comfortable environments during brutal summers, then people, large numbers of them will leave or perish.
India and other nations need to seriously look at how to meet the challenges of climate change and overpopulation. Not every nation will be successful. We're facing world wide catastrophic events and we're not prepared. We can't even admit to ourselves what the problems are.
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India should start unilaterally experimenting with atmospheric geo-engineering to stop global warming.
It’s very interesting for someone sitting in America, the largest per capital co2 polluter and until recently the largest overall polluter for several decades, to lecture Indian villagers with 1% of the carbon footprint.
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