Can Kolkata’s street life survive India’s record-breaking heatwaves?(economist.com)
economist.com
Can Kolkata’s street life survive India’s record-breaking heatwaves?
https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/05/11/can-kolkatas-street-life-survive-indias-record-breaking-heatwaves
13 comments
1. Don't foster (activly abolish) a society where competition is the primary driver. This includes the illusion that you win if the other loses. So in a way our whole system and the incentives we have within it are threatening our future existence here.
Attention isn’t the problem imho. Will and tolerance of future gains opportunity cost are what’s needed. Those in power are not yet impacted enough by future costs of all sorts (economical, societal, reputational) to make alternative, more aggressive decisions around climate mitigation actions. Until those with power have exposure that causes course correction, progress occurs on the current trajectory.
That first chapter of that book "The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson was just horrific - people were being basically boiled alive in a lake.
What is the expected wet bulb temperature ???.
What is the expected wet bulb temperature ???.
The forecast says 44 degrees next week. I am terrified.
> The forecast says 44 degrees next week.
Where? In the forecasts that I could find, the maximum doesn't even touch 40 in the next two weeks.
Where? In the forecasts that I could find, the maximum doesn't even touch 40 in the next two weeks.
40 at the airport, 39 elsewhere according to the Met Office.
West Bengal lists that as an accurate for forecast on Tuesday.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oygfO6_xj_w85mbYoaI4edKZ3j7...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oygfO6_xj_w85mbYoaI4edKZ3j7...
I'm not going to bother with a source that reports West Bengal as a single place.
but look, historically other countries have contributed a lot more to green house gas emotions. And ?
And so countries like the UK, US, Germany, France, etc. that subsidized their own national industrialization projects at the cost of global externalities should help "developing" countries industrialize without the interim step of burning fossil fuels.
It's interesting how all the greatest historical contributions belong to imperial nations, many of which still have colonies (looking at France and the US in particular). Even more interesting how the "developing" nations used to be colonies, like India.
Even if the current situation could be described entirely as India's fault, how culpable do you find the average citizen? Do you think they deserve to die in wet bulb temperatures, children and elderly included, because India (the nation) is industrializing the same way every other nation did? I don't understand the point of your comment. It's completely tone deaf.
It's interesting how all the greatest historical contributions belong to imperial nations, many of which still have colonies (looking at France and the US in particular). Even more interesting how the "developing" nations used to be colonies, like India.
Even if the current situation could be described entirely as India's fault, how culpable do you find the average citizen? Do you think they deserve to die in wet bulb temperatures, children and elderly included, because India (the nation) is industrializing the same way every other nation did? I don't understand the point of your comment. It's completely tone deaf.
Millions of people stand to face wet bulb temperatures which are not survivable for humans outside of air conditioned boxes as early as the coming months, and electricity will fail under the strain the grid will face in these conditions. Instead we focus on the flavor/ragebait of the month, all the while blindly strolling into venusian Earth.
How can we get more attention on these issues? How do we make folks realize that their culture war is a mere distraction in the face of what will force millions of people to abandon their ancestral homes and migrate to more hospitable climes in mortal desperation and fear of a planet which slowly becomes more and more lethal to life as we know it?