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Comment by hammyhavoc | Hacker News Reader

What solutions are available?

Replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy and nuclear power. If US spent even a fraction of the resources on that instead of maintaining its global military empire, the world would be in a far better place today.

How quickly can nuclear be rolled out relative to the impact on the well-being of a billion people? And what does the mitigation of the existing problem look like assuming projected figures of x?

Here's the timeline for China to become carbon neutral https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in...

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.

But China is China and India is India. Climate-wise, they are not the same.

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.

I don't think it makes sense to look at this as China or India problem. This is a problem the entire human race faces. It's also important to note that people in India who are already affected by this crisis are the ones with least agency and who are the least responsible for it.

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.

What would directly help people in a heat wave on a timescale that matters to them?

I don't know, I also don't know if 1bn people could be helped on a timescale that matters to them, hence asking. It's well outside of my area of expertise, but I'm curious.

How about some tech to provide cooler living spaces for these people?

Such as what?

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.

Ive always wondered if houses and buildings could be architected to absorb heat and use it for energy

Maybe even providing heat proof shelters (like bus stops etc) every x km may help immediately. Maybe.

Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem. If you assume the hypothetical impact on well-being to a billion human beings, and potential deaths of 100-300 million human beings, what kind of physical scale are we looking at to shelter a billion human beings assuming one shelter every x km? It's about on a par with only equipping a large commercial airliner with a single oxygen mask.

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.

> Heatproof shelters aren't solving the problem

> 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?

Infrastructural changes always sound scary and impossible, and I am in no way saying one solution is the best or indeed going to work. But good questions maybe, which is why I am saying innovation is required. Changing our way of life is possible though, say when people switched to cars from carriages or when we switched to electricity and laid out the various grid systems. Asking people to move north is not going to cut it or be enough. When a technology is useful or practical or helpful, making the switch is easier.

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