We had better wake up to how deadly heat waves can be..

The world will face severe climate impacts even with 1.5 C degrees of warming, and the effects get significantly worse with 2 degrees. In a 2 C warmer world, nearly 40 % of the world's population will be exposed to severe heat atleast once every five years (in a 1.5 C warmer world, this percentage will be 14 %).

How quickly heat waves can kill, was brought home when 80,000 people died in Europe's 2003 heat wave. A majority of the deaths occured in August that year. During one shocking week that month, nearly a 100 % more people died in France than would have as per the regular death rate. 40 % extra people died in Portugal, Italy and Spain. Excess mortality exceeded 20% in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium and 10% in four other European countries.

That summer in some weeks, temperatures soared to 20–30 percent above average. Even nightly temperatures were higher than the average summer midday highs. The heat was particularly severe in France, where the temperature remained around 37 °C for more than a week in August in some areas.

The heat wave also affected the environment. Alpine glaciers shrank by 10 percent over the summer. Forest fires raged across western Europe. The heat affected harvests as well: fodder and grain production declined. In addition, high water temperatures and low water levels shut down French nuclear power facilities just when demand for electricity peaked.

Energy from Renewables..

The following are some of the highlights of what i have been reading lately on global warming :

• In November 2016, the Arctic was already experiencing extraordinary anomalies. Temperatures were 20C above normal.

• “The consequences of failing to keep the temperature below 1.5 C will be to wilfully condemn hundreds of millions of the poorest citizens of Earth to certain deaths from the severe impacts of climate change.”

I started looking for some of the ways forward for countries to bring down Co2 emissions.. there are dozens of ways, and among them are :

• Retrofitting existing buildings can save 70-90% of the energy used to heat and cool them. Such a move also tackles fuel poverty, creates local jobs and reduces deaths from cold. 

• Switching transport from fossil fuels to electricity powered by renewables, cuts emissions but also removes the air pollution that is responsible for an epidemic of lethal respiratory disease. In Europe alone, about half a million people suffer premature deaths each year due to air pollution.

• In 2015, Denmark generated 140 percent of its electricity requirements on one particularly windy day from wind turbines alone, the excess of which was exported to Germany, Norway and Sweden. In 2016, Germany came remarkably close to being completely run by clean energy for a day due to a surge in wind and solar power. 

• That same month, Portugal was powered solely by renewable sources for 107 hours, which is roughly four-and-a-half days, setting the bar higher. 

• But the Central American nation of Costa Rica beat all the European countries with its landmark achievement in green energy in 2016. For more than 250 days the country used zero fossil fuels and drew its electricity from hydropower plants, wind turbines and geothermal installations. Thanks to such efforts, the notion that renewables can run a whole country is no longer unfathomable. In fact, it is now an ideal to aspire to.

• In November 2016, many, mostly low-income countries, from Bangladesh to Tanzania and Guatemala, committed to switching entirely to renewable energy by 2030-50 at the latest. China is installing more new wind energy capacity in a single year than the UK has in total.

Commentary on a noble song..

This song was sent over whatsapp :

Hamne Suna tha Ek hai Bharat - DIDI 1959

It’s a noble song that puts most india’s ills to having been under foreign domination. i dont agree though.. this is the misinformation I have heard from elders all my life. I don’t think all the distortions in india can be traced to british rule or muslim rule. Muslim rule lasted over parts of india for 600 years (till the middle of the 18^th century) and company / british rule for 200 years. But caste inequalities are millenia old.

Muslim rule over Spain and Portugal also persisted for over 700 years until the end of the 15^th century – but they have taken their own future in their hands since, have they not ? I think our country suffers as we have made (and continue to) too little effort to include all Indians in our effort to develop. We have continued to encourage income inequality which remains the HIGHEST in the world save the middle east. The top 10 % of the Indian population earned 55 % of the income in 2016. In Europe the share of the top 10 % was 37 %. After world war 2, the Governments in Europe built big welfare states, with generous jobless benefits, child subsidies and income support. Such benefits became the most important instruments for reducing inequality there.

The song also says it will take time for india to develop.. The WW2 ended just 2 years before india got her freedom. Europe suffered far more war, deaths, destruction of cities and countryside alike, and continuing occupation by a foreign power (USSR) of a large part of europe.. yet what have they built and achieved since then, and what have we ?

The achievements of europe are not just material – though ofcourse those are there to see. Germany had killed, ravaged, pillaged, large swathes of Europe. In return she and her allies had suffered extensive destruction. But after the war, Governments worked to encourage emotional healing between countries and communities, as did the Church and NGOs. They succeeded and the result of that was the European Union. In our country though we are following the opposite path – we are increasing divides between religions and communities.