Deadly heat waves will become more common in South Asia, including India: Scientists

Potentially deadly heat waves will likely become more commonplace in South Asian countries including India in the coming decades even if global warming is limited to 15 degrees Celsius according to a new studyScientists including those from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US said such an increase in extreme heat events can create unsafe labour conditions in major crop producing parts of India such as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal as well as coastal regions and urban centres like Kolkata Mumbai and HyderabadAccording to the research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters with two degrees of warming the populations exposure to lethal temperatures rises by close to three times as compared to recent yearsThe future looks bad for South Asia but the worst can be avoided by containing warming to as low as possible The need for adaptation over South Asia is today not in the future Its not a choice anymore said Moetasim Ashfaq study coauthor from Oak Ridge National LaboratoryEven at 15 degrees South Asia will have serious consequences in terms of heat stress Thats why there is a need to radically alter the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions Ashfaq addedIn the study the researchers used climate simulations and projections of future population growth to estimate the number of people who will experience dangerous levels of heat stress in South Asia at global warming levels of 15 and 2 degrees CelsiusThey estimated the wet bulb temperature residents could experience which is similar to the heat index as it takes into account both humidity and temperatureThe study noted that a wet bulb temperature of 32 degrees Celsius is considered to be the point when labour becomes unsafe and 35 degrees Celsius is the limit to human survivability when the body can no longer cool itselfBased on the analysis the scientists said 2 degrees of warming may increase peoples exposure to unsafe labour temperatures by more than twofold and exposure to lethal temperatures by 27 times as compared to recent yearsWhile the planet has warmed by 1 degree Celsius since the start of the Industrial Revolution it may reach 15 degrees Celsius of warming by 2040 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeOnly half a degree increase from today is going to cause a widespread increase in these events Ashfaq saidAccording to the scientists densely populated South Asian cities already lack regular access to air conditioning and about 60 per cent of their populations perform agricultural work and cannot escape the heat by staying indoorsThis deadline leaves little time for South Asian countries to adapt since the people here are especially vulnerable to deadly heat waves with the area already experiencing very hot humid summers the researchers addedA policy framework is very much needed to fight against heat stress and heat waverelated problems said TV Lakshmi Kumar an atmospheric scientist at SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai who was not involved in the studyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever