Skip to main content

Too Hot to Live


"Rising heat in the 21st century is likely to push millions of people and entire regions out of their comfort zones," warned The National Geographic magazine a few months back. The earth is witnessing phenomenal rises in atmospheric temperatures. 

The summer of 2003 scorched the planet. France experienced a temperature of 40 degree Celsius for eight consecutive days. 15,000 people died in that country because of the heat wave. It was Europe's hottest summer in 500 years and it took a toll of 70,000 lives in that continent. 

The last six years have been the warmest ever recorded globally. It is not just about temperature. There are other disastrous consequences like hurricanes, drought, rising sea levels and sporadic wildfires. 

The heat affects the people's psyche too. Exhaustion due to heat can make people highly temperamental. It has been found that hotter weather leads to more violence and crime. It lowers children's creativity. Overall productivity shrinks tremendously. 

The International Labour Organisation estimates that high heat levels will cut working hours by 2.2% which translates as loss of 80 million full-time jobs. 

By 2050, American Southeast may become unfit for agriculture because of heat. India's prospects are no better. In fact, India will fare worse than many countries with its humongous population which is being driven into more and more poverty by the present government's policies. Millions of Indians will have no way of beating the beat. Only 8% of Indian households have air-conditioners. A greater percentage have no houses at all, let alone air-conditioners. 

ACs in Delhi: Pic from The National Geographic
All those who can afford it may fit air-conditioners to their houses. A visit to India's metropolitan cities will reveal a ghastly picture of air-conditioners jostling with one another on the walls of apartments. The International Energy Agency projects that the number of AC rooms will soar to 5.6 billion by mid-century from the present 1.6 billion. A few million of them will be in India too. 

The AC technology exacts a heavy price on the planet because it releases gases that raise the atmospheric temperature. In short, the ACs are part of a vicious cycle: we use them to cool ourselves and they in turn heat up our atmosphere more and more. 

Make necessary modifications to lifestyle or perish. That seems to be the only message we can learn from the situation. We should learn to accommodate a certain degree of discomfort for the sake of the planet and the future generations. For example, the car may not be needed every time you have to go somewhere. Some walking is good for health - yours as well as the planet's. A ceiling fan may be enough instead of an AC. [Air-conditioners are turning out to be one of the largest causes of global warming.] Fossil-fuels may have to be given up eventually. [Indian government is going out of its way to discourage the use of fossil-fuels by raising their prices every day invariably.]

There was a time when ascetics embraced discomfort and pain willingly as ways of soul-purification or self-discipline. It may become necessary for all of us to learn to accept certain discomforts for the sake of the planet. Or else, the planet won't be there as a suitable habitat for us. 

PS. This post is part of Blogchatter's CauseAChatter


Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanOctober 30, 2021 at 9:47 AM

    Hari OM
    Absolutely! I have been a life-long advocate for acclimatising; mainly because I moved to tropical countries from temperate ones and back again and had no cause to think that there was any need to artificially change my living climate. The ashram admin were suprised when this white woman refused the offer of an a/c room and chose instead a simple fan and open windows. Adaptation is the key to survival... building aircon is not adapting, it is over-riding and, as you rightly point out, adding to the very problem it is meant to solve. COP26 takes place in Glasgow from next week; let us see what the 'big guns' can agree upon and whether they will lead by example. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 30, 2021 at 11:59 AM

      Without awareness of the problem as well as acceptance of certain hardships, nothing will work. It's good to see more and more people becoming aware and also taking necessary steps in this regard.

      Delete
  2. Anupama JoshyOctober 30, 2021 at 10:15 AM

    👏

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joseph GeorgeOctober 30, 2021 at 2:06 PM

    Very true

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Moon's BOYFRIEND October 30, 2021 at 3:04 PM

    The point of saving the planet is far behind us now, cause even if someone stands up, the majority tends to take him down.

    I think the Earth lets us do this... slowly leading to the end of human race.

    Just think about it...
    The Earth seem to have no benefits from human life nor for the rest of the beings living in it, all we do is for our own good. We made ourselves on the top of the food chain for Christ's sake, so nothing's gonna affect the environment if all humans die all of a sudden. We have now become a threat to our own home and you have explained it really well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 30, 2021 at 5:03 PM

      That point about the human species vanishing is something that I toyed with time and again. Is the earth actually trying to get rid of us, I wonder.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pranita a perverted genius

Bulldozer begins its work at Sawan Pranita was a perverted genius. She had Machiavelli’s brain, Octavian’s relentlessness, and Levin’s intellectual calibre. She could have worked wonders if she wanted. She could have created a beautiful world around her. She had the potential. Yet she chose to be a ruthless exterminator. She came to Sawan Public School just to kill it. A religious cult called Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] had taken over the school from its owner who had never visited the school for over 20 years. This owner, a prominent entrepreneur with a gargantuan ego, had come to the conclusion that the morality of the school’s staff was deviating from the wavelengths determined by him. Moreover, his one foot was inching towards the grave. I was also told that there were some domestic noises which were grating against his patriarchal sensibilities. One holy solution for all these was to hand over the school and its enormous campus (nearly 20 acres of land on the outskirts
13 comments
Read more

Randeep the melody

Many people in this pic have made their presence in this A2Z series A phone call came from an unknown number the other day. “Is it okay to talk to you now, Sir?” The caller asked. The typical start of a conversation by an influencer. “What’s it about?” My usual response looking forward to something like: “I am so-and-so from such-and-such business firm…” And I would cut the call. But there was a surprise this time. “I am Randeep…” I recognised him instantly. His voice rang like a gentle music in my heart. Randeep was a student from the last class 12 batch of Sawan. One of my favourites. He is unforgettable. Both Maggie and I taught him at Sawan where he was a student from class 4 to 12. Nine years in a residential school create deep bonds between people, even between staff and students. Randeep was an ideal student. Good at everything yet very humble and spontaneous. He was a top sportsman and a prefect with eminent leadership. He had certain peculiar problems with academics. Ans
25 comments
Read more

Queen of Religion

She looked like Queen Victoria in the latter’s youth but with a snow-white head. She was slim, fair and graceful. She always smiled but the smile had no life. Someone on the campus described it as a “plastic smile.” She was charming by physical appearance. Soon all of us on the Sawan school campus would realise how deceptive appearances were. Queen took over the administration of Sawan school on behalf of her religious cult RSSB [Radha Soami Satsang Beas]. A lot was said about RSSB in the previous post. Its godman Gurinder Singh Dhillon is now 70 years old. I don’t know whether age has mellowed his lust for land and wealth. Even at the age of 64, he was embroiled in a financial scam that led to the fall of two colossal business enterprises, Fortis Healthcare and Religare finance. That was just a couple of years after he had succeeded in making Sawan school vanish without a trace from Delhi which he did for the sake of adding the school’s twenty-odd acres of land to his existing hun
19 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

Sanjay and other loyalists

AI-generated illustration Some people, especially those in politics, behave as if they are too great to have any contact with the ordinary folk. And they can get on with whoever comes to power on top irrespective of their ideologies and principles. Sanjay was one such person. He occupied some high places in Sawan school [see previous posts, especially P and Q ] merely because he knew how to play his cards more dexterously than ordinary politicians. Whoever came as principal, Sanjay would be there in the elite circle. He seemed to hold most people in contempt. His respect was reserved for the gentry. I belonged to the margins of Sawan society, in Sanjay’s assessment. So we hardly talked to each other. Looking back, I find it quite ludicrous to realise that Sanjay and I lived on the same campus 24x7 for a decade and a half without ever talking to each other except for official purposes.      Towards the end of our coexistence, Sawan had become a veritable hell. Power supply to the
12 comments
Read more