220 crore people in India, Pakistan likely to face deadly heat due to climate change: Report

Around 2.2 billion or 220 crore people living in India’s Indus River valley and eastern Pakistan will face heat beyond human tolerance levels if global temperatures go up by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  

In such a scenario, northern India, eastern Pakistan, eastern China and sub-Saharan Africa would encounter predominantly high-humidity heatwaves, according to a research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.  

Heatwaves accompanied by higher humidity levels can be more dangerous since the air is unable to efficiently absorb the excess moisture in such a scenario. The inability to efficiently absorb air restricts the human body’s capacity to evaporate sweat and affects moisture content of equipment like evaporative coolers.  

Given that these areas comprise low and middle-income countries, many individuals living in these countries may lack access to air conditioning or effective ways to mitigate adverse effects of extreme heat on human health, the research said.  This could also trigger a rise in heart attacks and heat strokes in these countries as humans can endure only certain combinations of heat and humidity before experiencing heat-related health problems. 

The study shows that if global temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, around 2.2 billion residents of Pakistan and India’s Indus River valley, 1 billion people in eastern China and around 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will experience hours of heat that is beyond human tolerance levels.  

Among the cities that will be impacted by this heat are Delhi, Kolkata, Multan, Shanghai, Wuhan and Nanjing. The research further states that if global warming continues to reach 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, areas such as the Eastern Seaboard and cities such as Florida, New York, Houston and Chicago in the US will also experience deadly heat levels.  

South America and Australia would also face extreme heat conditions at this level of global warming. In order to tackle the rising global warming levels, researchers suggest a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.  

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