In the country of 1.4 billion people – where the labor force works at least half of the work and only 10% comes home for air conditioning – the heat is higher than the discount. It is a threat to economy, livelihood and health.
Professor Purnamita Dasgupta, president of Environmental Economics at Delhi University, said, “Summer waves are wandering in India, spreading to new geography and have been before expectation.” In such heat waves, the temperature may exceed 50 ° C (122 fahrenheit).
With an increase in temperature, productivity falls. In 2023 alone, India lost 182 billion potential labor hours in excessive heat, Medical Journal, The Lancet. By 2030, it can lose equal 34 million full -time jobs.
Agriculture and construction will be the most difficult hit, but the risk is beyond external work. In the densely populated area mesh heat, it becomes difficult for anyone to overcome the high temperature of the day.
Governments have started responding. Some local officials are issuing rules for employers to provide shade, brakes and water. Some employers are independently functioning to restore lost productivity.
“But the reality is that in most cases, productivity case,” said Dasgupta. At 35 ° C, a worker “is working in the intensity of modern work, losing about 50% of his working capacity.”
When extended beyond the economy, this decline becomes a large -scale economic stretch.
Global toll of heat on development
According to the climate transparency of the advocacy group, in 2021, heat caused a loss of $ 159 billion income in areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, services and construction, which is 5.4% – construction, construction, 5.4% sector – 5.4% sector – 5.4%. Similar damage is estimated for countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Pakistan by 2030.
Development nations with ambitious development goals – such as India’s target to fully develop by 2047 – is particularly threatened.
And the problem is global. Economic losses related to heat are already about $ 100 billion per year in the US. This figure is expected to reach $ 500 billion annually within 25 years We think tank Atlantic Council. In Europe, C has already shaved 0.3 to 0.5% from GDP. This may not take much, but if efforts to adapt to heat, the loss may be five times bang by 2060.
Summer and Health: A Silent Emergency
Heat does not only harm economies – it endanger life. One day of excessive heat across India estimates an estimated 3.400 additional deaths. A five -day heatwave pushes that number to about 30,000, According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Europe, the fastest heating continent in the world, is already experiencing deadly sects. In summer alone, in 2022, high temperatures occurred in 61,000 additional deaths – among the elders.
“We all think of heat exhausation and heat stroke – see that the person collapses at the end of long running on a warm day – and they are clear,” Dr. Sandy Robertson said, emergency physician in UK. “But in fact, the largest part of the disease we get is a few days later.”
In India, Dasgupta said that low -income workers had interviewed Heat -related disease Because they do not realize that they need help. During the summer waves, in the UK, Robertson sees a spike in stroke victims, respiratory issues, heart attacks – even in attack injuries, as the violence rises with temperature. Hence the risk of prolonged heat is associated with kidney disease, poor mental health and impaired cognitive work.
Health workers are not immune for heat, either. Many UK hospitals lack air conditioning. When the temperature inside the wards extracts 26C, it leads to the patient’s safety, stress employees and bare equipment failures to overheat the incidents that collect the life -saving medicine.
“We have noticed that hospitals have completely crashed their system as they are hot,” Robertson said. “If you are facing a busy department and heat, and it is already a stressful day, the system on which you trust to take care of your patient makes it even more difference and more chaotic baby. It turns into a power.”
Robertson recommends simple protective stages when heated – as if the drugs affect the body’s heat tolerance, look at the elderly neighbors, and cool homes by ventilating at night and closing blinds during the day.
Design cities to reduce the health effects of heat waves
Stifting, hazardous temperatures that cause emergency departments to fill, cities have possibilities. Asphalt, concrete and other urban infrastructure absorbs and releases much more heat than natural places such as Woodland. In especially dense cities with some green spaces, it increases day temperature by f (3.9C) compared to urban heat island effects, AAS.
A way to combat the deadly effects of the heat is air conditioning, which may be necessary, especially for the weaker population like the elderly. But if the AC moves on electricity from fossil fuel, it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet and spoil the heat waves in the first place. AC then worsens the heat island effect, raising the outer temperature of the night to about 1 C.
Instead, smart designs for summer which include a lot of green space and other simple hacks, are important at the city level, Nick Rajkovic said, for architects and associate professors at Buffalo University.
In Sevile, Spain, narrow roads make shade and keep the temperature down. Los Angeles has given white color to its streets to reflect the heat. Ziamen, in China, green roofs have reduced the city temperature by about 1 C.
Rajkovich said, “We planted trees along the roads because it kept the horses cool because they used to pull the wagons.”
Another thing that can help is rethinking the design of the building. With the design of the city, looking at the past.
“Especially before the arrival of air conditioning, we did a lot on natural ventilation for buildings,” said Rajkovic.
Dry South -Western America, Publo Indians pledged a style of architecture with thick walls made from Adobe. A mixture of mud or soil, sand and straw absorbs heat according to the day and leaves it at night. The flat roofs of buildings collect rain water. In Burkina Faso, double roofs separated by an air cavity help to avoid heat and provide shade to entire buildings.
“These are all strategies that we can use to be very smart about how we calm buildings.”
Edited by: Jennifer Colins
Charlie Shield contributed reporting to this article.
For more information on this subject and more on the costs of climate change, check our living planet podcast series. This is part of the story ’89 percent project, ‘At the initiative of global journalism cooperation covering climate.
