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India’s Heat Wave is a Sign of Things to Come

1 Billion People Under Duress as the World Burns

Jakub Ferencik
4 min readMay 11, 2022

Man-made climate change is a concern for future generations, not for today, critics say. However, both research and current events are suggesting that climate change is creating tangible harm to others as of now.

In 2017, climate change cost the United States $306 billion, writes David Wallace-Wells in his frightening but important book, The Uninhabitable Earth. If the world continues under “business-as-usual” conditions, he explains, we will continue to experience a loss of $551 trillion in damages at 3.7 degrees warming by 2100.

And according to the United Nations, we are headed in that direction inevitably. In fact, experts warn that we are expected to hit 4.5 degrees warming by 2100.

Therefore, the recent heatwave hitting approximately 1 billion of India’s citizens is only a sign of things to come. It will be much, much worse.

Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

Last month, India recorded its third record-breaking temperature documented in April in the past 122 years. March was the hottest to have ever been recorded.

Almost the entirety of India, some 1 billion people, are experiencing 35.30 degrees Celsius (95.5 degrees Fahrenheit) weather. Analysts warn that this is only the beginning. The…

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Jakub Ferencik
Jakub Ferencik

Written by Jakub Ferencik

Journalist living in Prague | Author of “Up in the Air” and “Beyond Reason” on AMAZON | MA McGill Uni | 750+ articles with 1+ mil. views

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