Heat Wave in India & Pakistan Hits 1 Billion: Coal to Generate Electricity for AC’s in Short Supply
More than 1 Billion people are facing a relentless heatwave in India and Pakistan this week. Temperatures are forecast to reach 50 C (122 F) near the border of the two countries over the next few days, under what has been described as a record breaking heat dome for April.
This is happening in what is supposed to be a cooler year due to the ongoing La Niña state.
Coal supplies in India for generating electricity in electrical power plants is in short supply; demand has gone way up to power Air Conditioners to allow people to cope with the heat.
Interesting, this is mimicking the opening scenes in Kim Stanley Robinson’s recent climate fiction book called “The Ministry for the Future” in which lack of AC results in millions of heat deaths. Hopefully this does not happen, but the risks are ever increasing.
Grain crops are withering in the fields, and this is exacerbating the risks of food disruptions, on top of the global risks to grain from lack of supply by Ukraine and Russia.
Also, people are not as resilient to extreme heat as we thought. Theoretically, we thought that a wet bulb temperature of 35C (with 100% humidity) was the limit of endurance, but a recent study published by Penn State shows that even young, healthy test subjects undergoing light metabolic activity could only withstand a wet bulb temperature of about 31C, much lower than the theoretical 35C.
Please donate to http://PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos as I teach you the latest climate and weather disruption science in easily understood lay-person terms.
Sincerely,
Paul
Newton
Shackleton
