The Killer Heat in India: All Because of Rich People and Their Pollution Parties

 

So, India's been dealing with these crazy heat waves lately, right? And it's like, super bad news for everyone living there, especially in the big cities like Delhi. Tons of people are getting heat strokes, and a bunch of them are even dying, but no one's really keeping track because, you know, the whole COVID thing messed up their stats.

This one time, from June 11 to June 19, there were 192 people without homes in Delhi who just couldn't handle the heat anymore, according to some place called the "Centre for Holistic Development." And get this, the cops found 50 people dead in just two days, June 19 and 20. A doctor named Dr. Ajay Chauhan from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital said he's never seen anything like it in his 13 years there, and he's had to write a bunch of heat stroke death certificates this year alone. That's pretty intense.

The reason it's so hot in the cities is this thing scientists call the "Urban Heat Island" deal. Basically, all the buildings and roads in places like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru trap heat like it's nobody's business. Plus, all the smog and stuff from cars and factories makes it even hotter. And let's not forget, there's barely any greenery to chill the place out.

Some really smart people at the Indian Institute of Technology did a study and found out that because cities are growing so much, it's making the whole country warmer. Urban areas are like, adding 0.2 degrees Celsius to the heat every 10 years, and that's like a big deal, especially when you think about how hot it gets at night.

But here's the kicker: it's the poor folks who are getting hit the hardest. These heat waves are ruining their lives because they can't work in the heat, and their jobs are mostly outside stuff like building stuff and farming. And because they don't have much money, they can't just sit in air-conditioned offices or homes like the rich people.

A study by some fancy doctors in a magazine called The Lancet said that in 2021, India lost a bazillion work hours because it was just too hot to function. That's a lot of money and hard work down the drain. And the people who are supposed to help, like the government, aren't doing much. They're more worried about their wallets than about keeping everyone safe.

In 2023, there were even more heat waves, and they were like, the longest ever. Some places were hotter than a ghost pepper—like 50 degrees Celsius (which is like 122 degrees Fahrenheit, for real)!). And the thing is, these heat waves are happening more often and getting worse because of the big corporations and their love for polluting.

It's like, schools had to close early because it was too hot, and a poor kid in Chennai even died from heat stroke while he was at a funeral. And there's this whole thing with water too. It's dirty, and not everyone can get it, which makes the heat so much worse.

India's government needs to get it together and start doing something about it. They can't just ignore this problem because it's not going away. We're talking about people's lives here, and it's all because some rich guys want to make more money without thinking about the planet. We need to wake up and start fixing this before it's too late.