This story was originally Appeared in Grist is part of climate desk collaboration.
A year ago, an extreme heatwave in India killed dozens, cut crop yields by a third in some areas, set landfills ablaze in Delhi and sent toxic fumes into surrounding areas. I stopped. Temperatures soared by as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and across the country he started more than 300 wildfires. The country experienced a nationwide power shortage, even as power plants burned more coal to provide the power needed to keep people cool.
Scenes like these have seen extreme heat caused by climate change become the norm, killing crops, sparking fires and endangering the health of people around the world. and governments may have underestimated the threat.
About 1.4 billion people live in India, according to a study released on April 19 by Cambridge researchers, and last year’s extreme heat left 90% of the country suffering from heat stroke, food shortages and even exposed to public health risks, including death. Researchers have found it slowing the country’s economy and hampering its development goals.
Heatwaves are causing “unprecedented strains on public health, agriculture and other socioeconomic and cultural systems,” they write. “India is currently facing a collision of multiple cumulative climate disasters.”
But a study found that government officials underestimated the danger. Officials rely on climate vulnerability assessments designed by India’s Ministry of Science and Technology, which show a smaller proportion of countries at higher risk from climate change than new findings suggest. increase. Such miscalculations could hamper India’s efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, such as reducing hunger and poverty and achieving gender equality.
The study was published in PLOS Climate days after at least 13 people died from heatstroke and dozens were hospitalized after an outdoor event in western Maharashtra. Schools were forced to close last week after a heatwave hit the rest of the country, pushing daytime temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit for several days in a row.
In India, at least 24,000 people have died from heat stroke in the last 30 years. Climate change will make Pakistan and neighboring Pakistan up to 100 times more likely to experience heatwaves, and temperatures are expected to break records every three years. This would only occur once every 312 years, unless the climate changed so rapidly.
“Long-term projections indicate that heatwaves in India could exceed the survival limits of healthy humans resting in the shade by 2050,” the authors of the Cambridge study wrote.
With over 1.4 billion people, India is on pace to overtake China to become the world’s most populous country this year. As the country’s heat death toll rises, researchers predict its economy will slow: By 2030, extreme heat will reduce her ability to work outdoors by 15%. According to one estimate, ‘work exposed to heat’ employs 75% of the workforce in the country. A heat wave could cost her 8.7% of India’s GDP by the end of this century, writes Cambridge researchers.
But the government’s climate vulnerability assessment does not explain the more intense and longer-lasting heatwaves, according to the study. However, the government says only two of the city’s 11 districts face high climate risk. Overcrowding, lack of access to electricity, water, sanitation and healthcare, and poor housing conditions may make Delhi residents, especially low-income earners, even more vulnerable to heat, the study said. The author writes “Structural Intervention”.
“The government doesn’t understand the importance of heat and how it can lead to death,” Dileep Mavalankar, director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, based in Gujarat, told the BBC.
Meanwhile, India’s power ministry has asked coal-fired power plants to ramp up production to meet power demand. Electricity demand hit a record high earlier this month as temperatures topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
