So we should spend the money to directly help these people?
Most people are worried about "the end of the world" when they should be worried about way more practical things which are much more likely.
Minor typo: but uninhabitable. Relevant simpsons clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mD2hsxrhQ
This is yet again a direct consequence of technology advances and government meddling that has created a down-the-line humanitarian crisis by propping up unsustainable behavior.
We will sadly have either a billion dead bodies, or the rest of the world incurring the cost to house an extra billion.
Was the British Empire was too lenient to their subjects?
India's population being what it is, is not surprising.
Until the zillions of mosquitos ignite in one big dust explosion(by lightning, or whatever), and thereby produce a new Tunguska event.
Or 'Life finds a way.' (c.f. Jurassic Park) and some old pestilence thaws up and multiplies.
We should take care of the planet. We all live on it and catastrophic heat waves and extreme weather are not polite and do not respect the thick black lines we've drawn on maps.
For avoidance of doubt, I am absolutely saying that if those of us who are citizens or residents of the United States, European Union (with or without the United Kingdom), Australia, Canada, Japan, and anywhere else anyone might think of needs to take a hit to our net incomes and economic circumstances in order to keep the planet habitable, I am all for it.
The article states "Even as power plants burned more coal to provide the power needed to keep people cool, the country experienced a nationwide electricity shortage.", so AC units aren't going to solve the problem.
Maybe even providing heat proof shelters (like bus stops etc) every x km may help immediately. Maybe.
How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment?
It would sooner make sense to create underground cities, but that's no small endeavour.
> How about the materials required? The scale of manufacturing? The impact of the manufacturing on the environment? The impact of shipping and installing them on the environment?
So we don't have the competence or resources to directly help people with heat waves but we have the competence & resources for a bigger than Manhattan Project scale effort for climactic scale projects such as carbon capture & moving humanity underground?
Perhaps there's some already invented devices which can cool a dwelling?
China will spend 400 billion to build at least 150 new nuclear plants https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli...
China currently has 24 nuclear power plants under active construction, with a combined power output of 26 gigawatts https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/27/WS6449c703a310b605...
In addition, one in five solar panels installed worldwide last year were mounted on a Chinese roof, providing locally distributed power that supplements the grid https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-27/why-china...
China now dominates the world in solar power production https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-domi...
This year, China has further widened the gap in renewable usage https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-ren...
This is what can be achieved when a country directs its resources towards infrastructure projects instead of imperialism.
Again: if India were to tick all the boxes, what are the projected figures on mitigating the existing problem versus projected worsening of the problem in the future if they don't?
Are a significant number of them going to be able to afford the power generated? Are a significant number of them going to be able to afford the air conditioning units?
How much does this help the problem of failed crops in terms of reversing climate change?
India has 1.8m homeless people. Socioeconomics are going to play a part in this too, and the poor always cop for these problems the worst.
Whichever way you cut it, this seems to be a huge humanitarian crisis brewing.
Emissions are largely driven by people living in western countries who use stupendous amounts of energy and for whom the goods countries like India manufacture. The west moved much of its industry to the Global South, but the emissions from that industry are driven by demand that comes from western consumers. Seems to me that we need to look at this problem holistically, and all countries should be putting in at least as much effort as China to transition off fossil fuel usage.
Given that this isn't actually happening, I agree that we're likely to see a massive humanitarian crisis in India. As these events become more frequent and affect increasing number of countries we'll see refugee crises, wars, and likely collapse of the global civilization. That's the most likely scenario given the track we're currently on.