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Science Weekly

‘It’s a hellfire!’: how are India and Pakistan coping with extreme heat?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.21K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

India and Pakistan have experienced their hottest April in 122 years. Temperatures are nearing 50C. Such extreme heat dries up water reservoirs, melts glaciers and damages crops. It’s also deadly. Ian Sample hears from Pakistan reporter Shah Meer Baloch about the situation on the ground, and speaks to Indian heat health expert Abhiyant Tiwari about what such temperatures do to the body and how south Asia is adapting to ever more frequent – and ever more extreme – heatwaves.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian. Well, if you're not this wall through you could over plan the living area.

0:13.3

So I'm thinking burnt oka paired with some terracotta times, vary in season right now.

0:17.6

When it comes to making big decisions for how we improve our homes, we rely on the advice of experts. So shouldn't it be the same for the way we heat and

0:24.7

power them at EDF waste specialists in low-carbon technology for homes? We've installed thousands

0:29.6

of air source heat pumps solar panels and batteries across the country and we also have useful

0:33.9

content to help you make the right decision for your home search edf energy

0:37.6

dot com slash energy specialist to find out more over the past few weeks India and Pakistan have been experiencing a brutal

0:56.0

deadly heat wave. The heat wave in India continues with no sign of relief in the

1:01.9

form of rainfall and the months ahead look unbearable.

1:07.0

Northwestern Central India have had the hottest April in 122 years and

1:15.3

Turbat in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan region has been suffering

1:20.0

temperatures of nearly 50 degrees Celsius, that's 122 Fahrenheit for weeks.

1:25.6

In all the heat wave is hitting a region home to more than a billion people, many of

1:30.3

those affected by the heat, local workers, without a lot of options.

1:37.0

Heat at this level can easily be deadly.

1:43.0

It's also drying up reservoirs, damaging food crops,

1:46.0

and melting Pakistan's northern glaciers

1:49.0

at an unprecedented rate.

1:52.0

So what's it like to live through such an extreme heat wave?

1:56.0

And faced with a crisis that's set to worsen in coming years, what can India and Pakistan do? I'm in sample, the Guardian Science Editor, and this as in India. In your hometown of Turbot

2:35.2

there's been record-breaking temperatures. What does this heat actually feel like?

2:40.1

As people say, well there is like a a hill fire like it's burning your like face your body and from 12 onward to 5 PM people try not to go out and a decade ago you might not need an air condition that was told to be a luxury but these days it's called a necessity.

...

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