Indian Heat Wave Claims Hundreds Of Lives

[ScienceRocks]

Indian Heat Wave Claims Hundreds Of Lives

Indian Heat Wave Claims Hundreds Of Lives | ThinkProgress

The recent record-breaking heat wave that scorched much of India last week has claimed at least 169 lives in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the southeast of the country. In the state of Odisha to the north, officials announced Monday that the start of the school year would be delayed by at least 5 days in hopes that the current heatwave would break before students were crowded back into sweltering classrooms. The heatwave has, so far, claimed at least 26 lives in the state.

In Delhi, where temperatures topped 110°F for seven days straight, the death toll is uncertain, but as many as 79 of Delhi’s homeless may have succumbed to the extreme weather., according to the Centre of Holistic Development, a group working to end homelessness in the city.

The health impacts of the heat wave have been intensified by widespread and prolonged power outages limiting access to fans, AC and even water.

While extreme cold, like the Polar Vortex in the U.S. last winter, is often thought of as deadlier than extreme heat events, there is mounting evidence that as the climate changes, it is the heat, rather than the cold, that will claim the most lives. Scientists in the U.K., recently predicted that heat-related deaths in the country will rise by 257 percent by mid-century. For every 1°C rise in temperature, the researchers forecast a 2.1 percent increase in deaths. While a 1°C drop in temperature saw a similar 2 percent increase in mortality, the scientists noted that climate change is pushing the mercury up, not down. Cold weather-related deaths in the U.K. could thus be expected to decrease by 12 percent by the 2080s.

 

[HenryBHough]

Could we not, as a humanitarian guesture, send them our American Messiah to command the clouds to give forth life-giving rain?

 

[Moonglow]

Could we not, as a humanitarian guesture, send them our American Messiah to command the clouds to give forth life-giving rain?

What!? And loose our drought busting rains???

 

[HenryBHough]

Could we not, as a humanitarian guesture, send them our American Messiah to command the clouds to give forth life-giving rain?

What!? And loose our drought busting rains???

Of course! Where's your faith in the great religion of redistribution?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Obama was supposed to take care of this....wtf

 

[HenryBHough]

Obama was supposed to take care of this....wtf

What, someone expected Him to break His unbroken streak with a success?

 

[Indeependent]

This is terrible; what will Microsoft or Citibank do without these potential computer geniuses?

 

[skookerasbil]

Bad heat waves been killing lots of people for eons. Always have. Always will.