Before I left my home by the wonderful Willamette River, I registered my travel plans with the US Department of State. I am always worried that geopolitical issues and extreme weather phenomena mean that I might have to call Uncle Sam to bail me out of trouble when outside the country.
Within a couple of days of arriving in India, I received an email from the Consulate General in Chennai, warning me about the extreme monsoons in the state of Kerala. Noting that the “heavy southwest monsoon rains continue throughout the state of Kerala, triggering landslides and flash floods,” the email suggested that I avoid traveling in Kerala.
The rains in Kerala this monsoon season have been off the charts, and the human impacts have been severe. Floods across vast regions; roads washed away; flights suspended; and, worst of all, a drinking water shortage because of damages to the water supply infrastructure.
Meanwhile, on the other coast of the peninsular tip, it has been hot and humid in the city of Chennai where I am staying with my parents. Day time temperatures have been as high as 96 with 50 percent humidity--equivalent to 108 degrees--and it “cools” down to 81 overnight.!
The reactions in India to the extreme monsoon rains and humid heat always involves the same two words--global warming. India easily and overwhelmingly identifies the extreme weather events with global warming and climate weirding, even before climate scientists are able to attribute the causation.
The reactions in the US to global warming are a contrast to the pulse of the media reports and daily conversations in India. In the US, a significant percentage of the population--that leans Republican--actively denies global warming, leave alone the human cause behind it.
Of course, it is not only India that is worried that extreme weather events might be a result of climate change. Japan and most European countries have had record-setting heat this summer that literally killed people. In the small fishing village of Quriyat located in Oman, the temperature remained above 108.7 degrees for 51 straight hours, making it the highest low temperature observed on Earth's surface. Re-read that: A minimum temperature that was higher than 108 degrees!
Climate scientists offer plenty of evidence for India to worry about; in July, the New York Times reported: “Worldwide, among the 100 most populous cities where summer highs are expected to reach at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, according to estimates by the Urban Climate Change Research Network, 24 are in India.”
Humidity will amplify the problems as the climate gets weirder and temperatures increase. As another recent study put it, “Climate change–induced increases in humidity could actually exacerbate the effects of heat to the point of making certain places in the world uninhabitable later this century.”
As humidity increases, not only will it have the potential to dramatically alter the age-old precipitation rhythm and intensity, it will also impede the human body’s ability to cool down through sweating. Unless one is able to get to climate-controlled cooler environments, the possibility of heat exhaustion and even heat stroke is alarming.
The Indian Subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa, which will be hit hard by the rising temperatures, are also home to a billion people who do not have access to electricity. This means that they have no access to cooling either--no ceiling fans, leave alone air conditioning and refrigeration. I shudder when I think about being unable to cool off on a 100 degree day!
Rasmus Benestad, a Norwegian climate scientist, writes that “we now are observing the first glimpse of a new normal.” Based on the current information and knowledge, the recent heat wave is “a new type of weather patterns we can expect for the future.”
Global warming and disruptions to the once-predictable weather and climate conditions are not hypotheticals anymore. As Somini Sengupta wrote in her recent report in The New York Times, “for many scientists, this is the year they started living climate change rather than just studying it.” Indeed, these trends are visible and can be felt across the Subcontinent.
When I started teaching more than two decades ago, we used the United Nations’ definition of Sustainable Development, which emphasized the need to think about development “without compromising the ability of future generations.” But, many of us are now worried that climate change threatens even our own generation.
Yet, there is very little that we can do unless and until there is a change in the US, which is the only global economic and political power that refuses to acknowledge climate change and, therefore, act with the rest of the world. Thus, it was only fitting that the email from the US Consulate concluded with the following advice: “Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.”
Only 1 in 10 voters think Americans should use more coal. More than 80 percent of millennials believe in global warming. Science, a huge majority believes, is not a conspiracy. And yet, this huge majority has been ignored. https://t.co/pfFxyGw6Xb— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) August 17, 2018
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