Are you feeling hot?

Are you feeling hot?

“Standards of living above basic minimums are sustainable only if consumption standards everywhere take into account long-term sustainability.” — Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, 1987.

India breaks 122-year high temperature record in MarchMy family there reported that the hot air was burning their noses and their shoes were sticking to the tar from the road because they would melt in the heat as they walked. Living in many parts of India has become unbearable. Of course, the financially deprived will bear the brunt of this dangerous heat.

My hometown is Bhopal, India. This is a quaint old town with many lakes in the past. It is called the City of Lakes. Excessive urbanization has reduced the city’s lakes to just two, which are frequented by residents, especially during the summer months when temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). People who can afford air conditioners have them installed, but use them wisely to beat the heat. For many people, air conditioners are expensive and generate high electricity bills.

When I went to school in Bhopal, we had air coolers in our house. These devices are more energy efficient than AC. Air coolers use water-soaked straws to cool the air in the fan. Depending on the size of the house, one or two air coolers are enough to ward off the summer heat. My mom told me when she was young in the 1940s/50s Bhopal didn’t even need a cooler – a fan was enough. Summer temperatures appear to be reaching new highs for years.

My sister Pooja Iyengar runs a non-profit organization, Mahashakti Seva Kendra, Close to Bhopal train station.Non-profit organizations teach a woman Make reusable, sustainable tote bags and more. The ladies sat in a large rectangular room with a tin roof. They have a cooler at the front of the room and all the sewing machines are lined up behind it. Everyone took turns getting close to the cooler to get some cool air. But the hot air from the windows and doors and the heat absorbed from the tin roof blew the respite away in seconds. I want to grab a wooden stool and plop in front of the cooler. But this will block all the air. So, I wiped the sweat from my face and continued to work.

I’m just a passerby. I can go back to the convenience of my air conditioner, but for the 40 women who work there and come home with fans, there is no way to escape the heat. The following is an example of how climate change can exacerbate social inequality and vice versa.

Mahashakti Seva Kendra suture device in Bhopal.Photo: Radhika Iyengar

In Bhopal, the air conditioner runs as long as we have electricity. Power outages are also frequent, with the government cutting power in rotating parts of the geographic area to save electricity. In some parts of the city, there is more AC power than others, and the government tries to balance power to everyone by shedding loads. Therefore, no one is immune. Affordable residents have purchased gas powered generators in case of power outages or load shedding for at least 2-4 hours a day.

We try to use technology to circumvent the effects of climate change on us. Those who can afford it manage to get some relief. However, we must recognize that this relief is short-lived.

Power outages can cause people to stop working and lose money during these hours. This is most painful for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. They are daily wage earners, so if their jobs depend on electricity, they lose wages.

Meanwhile, I was talking to Ms. Mahashakti Seva Kendra using my laptop’s spare battery. “The topic of discussion today is extreme heat,” I said in Hindi. Everyone nodded unequivocally, and the popularity increased every year. We discussed that summer is more intense in the city due to its concrete structure. In addition, the deforestation of trees in many areas has contributed to the worsening of the heat in these areas. Another problem could be the air conditioner blowing hot air back into the street.We also discussed some of the C40 maps that made us realize that the feeling of getting hotter in summer is not the observation of one or two people, but the scientific facts. Urban populations are at great risk of extreme heat, and these extreme heat will only intensify in the coming years.

Above: Extreme heat events from 1980-2005. These cities experienced three-month periods with average highs above 95°F. Bottom: Projected extreme heat for 2050. source: C40

We also note that winter conditions are shortening as climate change is warming the planet as a whole. That means it takes less time for the weather to warm up and the transition to spring comes earlier, while fall lasts longer because it takes longer to cool down into winter. This explains why the seasons change. A decrease in monsoon rainfall has been observed since the 1950s. The frequency of heavy rainfall events has also increased. A 2°C rise in world average temperature would make India’s summer monsoon highly unpredictable. At 4°C warming, extremely wet monsoons that are now likely to occur once in 100 years are projected to occur every 10 years by the end of the century. At the same time, there is evidence that parts of South Asia have become drier as the number of droughts has increased since the 1970s. Droughts affected more than half of India’s crop area in 1987 and 2002-2003, resulting in sharp declines in crop yields. Droughts are expected to be more frequent in some areas, notably northwestern India, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Crop yields are expected to drop significantly due to extreme heat through the 2040s.

Given this dire background information, we have all decided to take proactive steps to protect ourselves. Leaving most of the work to the government was also discussed. However, the consensus is that this is everyone’s responsibility. We agreed to plant more trees around us. We agree to make Mahashakti Seva Kendra plastic free. Some are also taking steps to replace plastic in the kitchen with reusable appliances. We decided to intervene when and where possible.

One thing was missing from our discussion: the wealthy and their collective responsibility to ensure that the marginalized groups most affected by climate get the help they need.

Collective action is needed to make this planet habitable. We all need to take our own shared responsibility for each other. In responding to a pandemic, we acknowledge that the air we breathe is also the air your neighbors will breathe, and that one person needs to be responsible for controlling the spread of the virus. The same applies to climate change. We share nature’s “global commons”; the beautiful valleys, the air we breathe, the pure water we drink, the soil under our feet, the food we grow. They are all our collective responsibilities. Let’s practice climate justice by thinking about the unconscious injustices we’ve been involved in and thinking about the changes we can bring about. Each of us is a climate justice warrior who starts by being aware of our actions.