Heatwave in Asia: How to cope with extremely hot weather? | DW News Desk

Heatwave in Asia: How to cope with extremely hot weather? | DW News Desk

[Music] every year summer comes but the heat has become too much in the last few [Music] years due to the heat I can barely keep my eyes open in the sun when I feel faint and feel like I’m going to black out I go to the petrol station and I splash water on myself what else can I do children are fainting in the [Music] classrooms I feel dizzy and stifled because of the heat I don’t feel good and this is what large parts of Asia are currently experiencing unseasonal record Heatwave extreme temperature and we are only in the first week of May and this extends in the region all the way from South Asia through to Southeast Asia this is what we want to talk about today on news desk which as most of you all would know is a DW news conversation that responds to questions and comments from you I’m bees manaji and I’m Michelle Stockman and I will be paying special attention to your questions and comments that you put in the live chat we really appreciate those of you who have already uh participated who are already really active in there we’re going to put as many of your questions and comments to our special guests who will be joining the discussion so please keep them coming in we want to make you a part of this talk and large parts of Asia are currently reeling from these extreme temperatures and this has affected everything from farming to schools children power demand Fisheries I mean the list is endless and we will discuss some of that but this is also why we want to hear from you how are you coping with extreme temp temperatures in the area where you are living write to us in the chat section it should be there on your screens now we would love to hear from you how are you coping with the extremely hot weather on this conversation hopefully we’ll be able to provide some solutions for you at an individual level and also at a local governmental level that can be implemented in the areas and the cities that you are in right and we really appreciate those of you who have again already shared your personal experiences with us some of you did that on the community post that we have uh posted a couple hours before the chat uh people like LOM horck 44° C in some parts of Cambodia feel like we’re burning alive uh Mr weeb 8533 my country Bangladesh got poverty 7 to8 hours no electricity on average 37 degrees to 40 degrees hot weather at rush hours it’s a living Nightmare and we’ve also heard uh from exer 87 some parts of the Philippines are hitting 53 degre Celsius heat index it’s brutal so yeah I mean my heart goes out to you guys I spent a couple uh summers in Pakistan so I can understand uh some of this heat you’re going through but these temperatures really are just seem to be going through the roof so um please again we want to hear from you share with us your experiences in the live chat if you haven’t subscribed do that so that you can again uh take part and uh be part of this discussion let me introduce other people here around the table who will be taking part in the discussion too first we’ve got DW climate reporter Louise Osborne she’s one of our experts that we’ll be posing your questions to today and then we’ve got nahel Jory uh she is a journalist and anchor here at DW you’ve seen her on news desk before she’ll bring us up to date on what’s happening right now with the seat wve in Asia and then uh we’ve got Cherry Chan uh she is a steady hand here in the DW Newsroom and she will be in the chat making sure that we are aware of your comments and questions and then let me not forget uh just a few meters away is Wade Adams he is our producer he and the team back there are going to make sure that we stay connected to you uh and that uh again uh we hear from you and hear your questions and we can have a great discussion a small but very efficient technical team that works behind the scenes to bring you this stream that you are seeing on your screens right now I also wanted to sort of tease you uh tease you I just want to sort of let you know that there’ll be two experts uh who will be joining us later on the program Ragu mug good for those of you who might have heard of him he’s an earth scientist and uh Dr radika kosla who’s an urban climatologist who’ll potentially be able to offer us uh some advice on uh what one can do to beat the heat in in terms of solutions that currently exist all right yes and again thanks to all of you who have been commenting in the chat it is very Lively already um but first to get things started I want to turn the time over to Cherry who’s going to introduce the poll question that all of you can participate in today right so we have a poll question um do you have the means to cool down and we actually put this question in our community chat a few hours ago and we have already gotten over 4,000 votes so it’s quite active uh in our 4,000 votes already and there be like less than three hours right less than three hours exactly and then let me check the latest number okay so um half of the people who voted say yes I’m managing fine um 21% said yes but it’s expensive 15% says no I can’t afford it and 9% say nothing works it’s too hot um but for those of you who just join us right now um you can also vote um the poll is in the live chat uh just on top of the chat so yeah vote and we will discuss the result later so 9% who saying nothing works it is too hot hopefully we’ll be able to offer you some solutions uh by the end of this conversation that you can potentially Implement at uh the personal level to I don’t know beat the heat and make it slightly more bearable so so stay tuned heat really makes us hot under the color you know it it really all kinds of color blue and white color people are affected by this it doesn’t discriminate uh all right let’s uh let’s get started and uh get a quick look at where we stand currently when you’re talking about heat waves in the region we need an update on that and this is where nahel Jory comes in yeah well you know just two years back I was reporting on the heat wve from India and it was April 2022 and it was the hottest April in a decade it was really difficult getting our work done we were going around Delhi trying to speak to the people who are most affected and you get headaches you feel dizzy there’s a real danger of getting heat stroke and it’s hard to believe that now it’s only gotten hotter so South and Southeast Asia are experiencing what many climate scientists are now calling a historic Heat Wave these are temperatures far above the average that you know these regions would be seeing at this time of the year and of course there are seasonal variations in any country over the year but that’s not what we’re talking about so let’s take a look at a world map and just see what sort of temperatures we’re really speaking of mhm um if we can just share my screen there we go um so these are temperatures from today by the University of Maine um do you have a good view of that okay yeah so the Red Band you see in the middle that’s expected okay that’s that’s a Hot Zone around the equator you would expect temperatures to be higher there but if you look at the details that’s what it gets really strange so for instance parts of Bangladesh and China have touched 43° C India has had code red for the northeastern City of Kolkata at 46 um now remember this these temperatures can occur in these regions but it happens at the peak of summer in June what’s problematic is that these temperatures are being reached at the start of summer and then it persists for weeks on end um in Manila for instance 107 year old record was broken when temperatures reached 38.8 towards end of April already um close to 4,000 schools have been closed that affects millions of students across the country and teach have spoken about how they feel dizzy how they’ve got headaches and students are getting nose bleeds um I’m feeling dizzy just listening to these details from you yeah I’m sorry I just can’t imagine concentrating on anything I mean I’ve been in that kind of a situation before I mean these are visuals from Manila that we are saying sorry to interrupt you Nal but then when I was in school many many decades back that was a nice time but it wasn’t so nice when the schools uh were bleeding hot and you had to sit in those classrooms without a conditioning yeah and it’s not just classrooms right so now if you look at Indonesia rice has become really expensive because rice crops were damaged during prolonged Heat last year so we’re still seeing the after effects of that and it also means that farmers have ended up in more and more debt um in if you move over to Thailand some parts have of like Northern parts of the country have reached close to 44 degrees C and energy providers have been complaining that it’s putting a lot of load on their power grids as a lot of people use air conditioning to keep themselves cool of course people who can afford it um you move up if you look um sort of off Thailand’s Coast there’s also the real danger of coral reefs getting bleached um that’s something that scientists are warning us of and as these Waters warm which is what is affecting the coral reefs similarly in Vietnam thousands of fish have been dying and washing up on the coast we have some pictures for that actually it’s really dramatic um just the vast number fish that you see washed up there these are all fishes yeah I can’t that’s a wow these are fishes oh my God they died and they they’ve just floated up I don’t know Louise how do you how do you how do you react looking at this I mean apparently I’ve been told this is a fish farm but then still they’re dead what do you think L looking at that I mean it’s incredible isn’t it um and you know this is not the only part of the world where you’re seeing this happening this is happening uh in many parts in in Mexico this was seen um last year as well so this is something that we are are seeing more and more as a result of of climate change actually and again this is because the water’s too hot for of climate change actually and again this is because the water’s too hot for the fish yeah wow okay and this directly affects food supply right imagine if this is a fish farm this goes into the food chain and now these fishes are not entering the human food chain anymore I mean sounds pretty basic but then it’s pretty impactful exactly and I think that’s the point all these examples make that it’s really our entire ecosystem or have actually multiple different ecosystems that are all suffering under this immense heat um and it just impacts everything that we know right and let’s not forget that this heat also kills people right um I’ve not been able to find any reliable numbers for heat wave related deaths in Asia but for instance thiland authorities already say that 30 people have died just this year uh from heat waves right and why are these people dying because our world’s become too hot to Bear right I mean wow such a great big picture you’ve given us there you know so many aspects of Life both human and animal life uh the whole ecosystem that’s affected I mean we’ve got again comments from people here um talking about how it’s affecting them worries from Martin fiser where is this going to go 50 degrees Celsius and more in the coming decade and then you know again if we talk about the little moments the way this affects life uh from koala saying that he’s struggling um and it’s changing his life he had plans to take his dog for a walk tonight but as soon as he stepped outside of the house he felt overwhelmed by the warmth and discomfort so I mean these these little ways that it’s changing our lives um you know really can kind of I think be depressing but also it’s much bigger than not being able to walk our dog it really can affect our our health and our livelihood as as Jack O sort of put it succinctly India is on fire and it’s not just India that is on fire keep those comments coming and we would really like to know how you are coping with the heat and what it is meaning for you and your family in the area that you live in we were talking about India let’s bring in a guest from India I’d like to bring in Ragu M good Hi Ragu good to see you uh Ragu is an earth system scientist and an emiritus professor at the University of Maryland and he’s also a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and he’s joining us uh from Bangalore Ragu thanks so much for making the time I know you’re on a deadline so I’ll try and get right to it simp question with perhaps a complex answer what is causing this unseasonal Heatwave yeah so I I mean the Heatwave is not unseasonal really so we need the broader context even to some of the comments the previous speakers were making uh we need to remember that we had a big ELO that’s still winding down and we have global warming going onone so elino itself is a mini global warming releases heat from the ocean superposed on that what is surprising is 2023 was much warmer than just superposing global warming and elino and we have blamed cleaner air and the uh volcano that went off and threw up a lot of water vapor so keeping that in mind now we are in the season of heat waves this is the summer before the monsoon for most of the countries and that’s what is causing the so we are amplifying the natural cycle because of the last stage of the alino global warming is adding steroids to it so when you see fish kill like that it’s not just warm temperatures it is actually deoxygenation so when the water’s warm the oxygen begin to disappear and when it drops below about 5 milliters per liter or 2 milliliters per liter you begin to have hypoxia and anoxia so it is much more than temperature it’s the oxygen that begins to have massive kills of fish so it’s not just warming just stay with us on the line Ragu you’re talking about El Nino and global warming I’d like to drill down into El Nino a bit and before I do that I just like to sort of play what uh the UN climate crisis coordinator was saying when it came to elino let’s just listen to that sound bite Wade will play that for us because we have that prepared and then we’ll continue talking this Alo event just to say this is one of the uh strongest we’ve had since 1950 when we started recording it so about 40 to 50 million people affected in 16 countries at the moment there are projections that this is going to get worse and affect communities well into next year if we act now and act fast the world will have not another major crisis on its hands we can prevent this we know what needs to be done and we can do it now with timely action I’d like to know what that timely action is but then Ragu just for the first as a very basic thing to me because I’m just a journalist what is El Nino can you explain that to me so if you imagine the tropical Pacific around Galapagos when you have normal sorry R are you still on okay Ragu sorry you broke up there can you just yeah you broke up there so could you just start from the beginning again because you just barely started your sentence and you cut off sir so uh let’s start in the Eastern Pacific let’s say around Galapagos you have winds and you have rotational effects of the Earth which begin to push the water away from the equator so four waters are much colder the rainfall is much further to the West so you have increased rainfall over Australia Indonesia and so on during elino you have dry conditions over there wildfires dust storms and you have Global effects with fish kills and so on happening as well right thanks for that R let me just bring Louise in Louise you heard that sound bite that was from Reena galani she’s the UN climate crisis coordinator at the end of firstan but she said something to the effect that we know what needs to be done and we can do it now with timely action is she talking about the El Nino effect or is she talking about the global climate crisis no she’s talking about the the global climate crisis and and I think what she’s referring to is you know we have been um spewing out carbon dioxide with the industry that we have with the cars that we’re using um and all of these things and it’s these greenhouse gases that are warming the Earth they act as like a blanket around the earth keeping any heat in um and we basically need to stop uh emitting these greenhouse gases to prevent that becoming a bigger issue to prevent more greenhouse gases coming into the atmosphere and um you know we we are on a pathway um to well Global governments want to transition away from fossil fuels or so they’ve said um but that’s just not happening at the moment and I I think she’s referring to the fact that we need to rapidly do that if we are to stop the impacts that we are seeing or at least not let them get any worse right before you actually Ragu just one moment just one moment Ragu I just need to sort of speak to the community for one moment um we do not know what exactly happened but there was some sort of a a cartoon that suddenly started playing on this live stream it looked like Tintin it it looked like Tintin we’d like to we’d like to apologize for that we still trying to get to the bottom of why exactly that happened uh people are mentioning this in the Stream and rightly so we are perplexed at the moment as well we’re going to try and get to the bottom of it but it was Tintin with some rain outside the windows so we don’t we don’t know what happened we apologize we we’re going to get to the bottom of it may have like gotten hot tempers over it but hopefully those rain um images and ton cooled everybody down so let’s move on sorry to interrupt you Ragu you were saying my apologies carry on please yeah so maybe maybe Tintin is part of global warming but the preparation is not just about the long-term greenhouse gas increases but remember even if we miraculously dropped all emissions to zero we’ll be warming for a while because carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere a long time so it’s called committed warming because the accumulated carbon dioxide from the Industrial Revolution we have already committed to warming but what is really preparation is that we have to get away a little bit from this Tunnel Vision on global warming because had dozen reporters calling everybody is asking about climate change nobody’s asking about predictions we need early warnings and we have many early warnings Al was predicted very well we know the elino impacts and we know where those impacts are so this is from few days to few weeks to few seasons so early warnings it’s called The Ready Set Go framework so you SE take the season seasonal Outlook you ready the system of dealing with heat waves extreme rainfall droughts uh sea level inundation whatever else and you have the set and go steps where you move the resources to the right place so there is the adaptation which is the longer term strategy but there is management of what is happening already so you need really uh you know we are not anywhere close to uh stopping the emission so that’s a longer term plan of mitigation but adaptation is now it’s tomorrow it’s day after tomorrow it’s 2 years it’s 10 years so that’s the real preparation that’s seriously lagging so Louise you’re I saw you nodding over there so it’s it’s a global problem but with local ramifications and as Ragu is saying it needs local preparedness so yeah I mean communities I mean like he was saying need the time to be able to prepare and need actually the funding to adapt to the changes that we are already seeing and that we will continue to see as the temperature rises um and that is one of the big biggest issues at the moment I mean the International Community for example has put together or pledged hundred uh billion dollars every uh every year from 2020 to to pay for mitigation which is uh reducing carbon dioxide emissions but also for adaptation to help communities cope with the warming that we’re seeing um the issue is that the adaptation funding is is a very small proportion of all of that money most of it goes towards reducing carbon dioxide rather than helping with the impacts and that is one of the things that um you know scientists and uh you know advocates for these communities are saying needs to be increased this funding to help communities with the situation that they’re dealing with now I think I just want to bring in how people in our community here are saying that they’re feeling impacted a couple more people have commented we’ve got blackmail demon saying I don’t know where you’re from blackmail demon but please let us know in the comments some rice farmers in our area who planted their rice late in the season are now struggling because the government had to close off the dams that is irrigating these fields to save water and then also Carolina velina please let us know where you’re living kolina um addressing bres my parents are now in their senior age and I always looked after them in order to make sure that they’re okay but heat is unbearable especially on my mom and that brings us to I think I think it’s worth discussing uh the the the groups of people that this affects most I mean we obviously know about poor people uh it is difficult for them to be able to find the means to be able to afford to cool their homes and their houses and they also have to go out to work but could you talk a bit more Ragu about the groups of people who are most vulnerable when we are talking about the local impacts of climate change and um eleno yeah so heat waves and expence in general are very deadly because they are not gender neutral they cross countries and even in a city like Mumbai poor neighborhoods get hammered much worse than rich neighborhoods because rich neighborhoods can close their windows and run the AC go in AC cars but poor people don’t have ACS they cannot stay inside because they have to go out and sell their vegetables or work outside and so on and of course old people and young people so the early Wars again come in there because vulnerabilities depend on in the kind of house you are living in the access you have to hospitals and the infrastructure that helps you hydration centers shelters and so on so we need to really track neighborhood scale vulnerabilities and many of these are really no regret decisions once we have early warnings then we can really help old people by saying don’t go outside tell the kids don’t play in the Sun and so on so it’s not very honorous if we get the early warnings in place your your B in India what is the what is the uh situation in India currently when it comes to early warnings I know some cities have an have a heat plan in place but if you could just talk a bit about that yes so just to give you a context 2023 is claimed to be so warm and yet large parts of India are actually cooler than normal so what happens is even though background temperatures are cooler than normal you get massive heat waves and India has spent more than100 million do now getting close to $400 million in supercomputers hiring personnel and improving weather and climate forecast our early warnings have gotten much better and The Last Mile problems of getting the warnings to people have gotten much better the national disaster management agency working very well with the climate and weather forecast systems to get people aware be aware of especially we have elections going on now so people have to be out voting there are 12 more than 12 million uh is that right 1.2 million sorry uh voting boooks so people are standing in line for hours and there are old people there as well so it has done very well and it is sharing these early warnings with neighboring countries at least the friendly countries and so on is training them to use these early warnings as well so I would be you know giving them a high marks on how well they are doing right now so there are uncontrol controllable factors because these heat waves are being generated by by you know elino which is far away you cannot do much but we have to do whatever we can in terms of building the infrastructure to help not reduce the forestation urbanization green covers in urban areas and so on so India is doing you know very well but it has a long way to go in terms of actually covering everybody you know reducing vulnerability of everybody reducing the risks of everybody and so on Ragu I know that you have to go but before you go one final thing from Michelle right one final thing um from our user we you’ve talked about the big picture for us but also can you tell us how this is affecting people in terms of what is the heat index and why is it usually hotter than the temperature what’s behind that yeah so India generally begins to load up on moisture during March April May before the monsoons arrive and what is different this year is that because of the large scale circulation that is set up by the elino the wiing phases of n even the interior of India which is generally drier is getting a lot of moisture from the Bay of Bengal and from the Arabian Sea when you combine heat and temperatures and humidity this uh heat index or the Comfort heat Comfort goes you know becomes really deadly that is a deadly combination so the heat indices themselves right now are based on exceedences of temperature alone this has to change we have to add humidity to tell people that it’s really there is the screen so these are very useful to add humidity and create a heat comfort zone where it’s not just temperature it’s the humidity and the natural variability is being Modified by elino and global warming to increase humidity remember the warmer atmosphere is a very thirsty atmosphere so it begins to suck all the moisture out of the soil even out of the plants we are having wildfires in the north this is related to the winter pration being low but temperatures being so warm because vegetation is drying up as well Ragu just stay on the line because uh we talked about heat index Louise and this is where I come to you for guidance uh we also hear about wet bulb temperatures is wet pulp and heat index the same thing or I have to say that’s something that uh I am not going to be able to help you with maybe we go to Ragu for that then Ragu what is wet bulb and heat index I mean you said heat index what is wet bulb so when you have a thermometer you have just a temperature being measured red bulb temperature is where you actually put a wet cloth around the uh therometer the Mercury bulb so then the evaporation of the humidity also is accounted for so wet bul temperature is in in fact what we are talking about when you add temperature and humidity so you just imagine just heat doesn’t make you so sick if it is very humid your body cannot even sweat and the sweat cannot be evaporated so it becomes really oppressive that’s why we call it the dupoint temperature or the wet 12 temperature that really makes heat indexs much worse okay so basically when it comes to uh understanding how heat and how temperature affects you one should be looking at the wet bulb temperatures is that correct there is a threshold we have to watch out for at some temperature level if humidity reaches certain levels then human body will fail to sweat it out and remember one degree warming will give us 7% increase in humidity so it’s a very exponential increase in humidity so when we start Crossing thres shorts of 40 degrees Pakistan will probably hit 50 degrees again this season before it gets rain in July and Afghanistan Iran and so on so they are generally drier but with the circulation change with the Indian Ocean warming they’re getting much more humid because the warmed atmosphere is really thirsty it is begging for moisture and taking it from wherever it can get so we have to really watch out for humidity increases let’s talk about because we we did allude to this earlier but let’s just try and expand on this about how one can sort of uh tackle the impacts of this we were talking about heat plans uh Louise if I can sort of come to you I mean you have been looking at this what is I don’t know if it’s easy to generalize this or not but I’ll ask it anyway and if not you just tell me it’s not easy to generalize it but how prepared are governments generally to tackle these uh these increasing wet wet bulb temperatures and are do they have heat plans in place for example I have to say it’s really good to know what a wet bulb temperature is likewise for us as well um I think it’s fair to say that b governments are not as well prepared as they should be um you know the temperatures are rising a lot quicker than than maybe um was to be expected um especially given El Nino um over the past year as well and uh you know they are trying to work to put you know Green corridors and places and cities for example to to cool them down um but you know even in Europe there was a report released last week for example that said that Health officials and governments are just not prepared enough to deal with you know the health impacts of what is happening to people because of these high temperatures and you know people get that people you know when it comes to extreme weather you think about flooding you know it’s pretty obvious how that can affect your health but heat is you know this silent killer and it has a real impact on your body as temperatures go up and people go out and you know they don’t think about that they just think it’s hot they think they know how to deal with the heat um and you know so so putting climate Refuge refuges sorry in place for example is something that they’re considering in parts of Spain because the temperature has risen so much and you know there are issues of drought as well um and can sorry can I just interrupt you really quickly we have Krishna K you were talking about how heat affects the human body he’s asking how does prolonged exposure to excessive feet affect the human body can you just tell us how we’re our bodies are reacting to this I mean as Ru was saying earlier you know um the When you sweat or the human body cools itself down by sweating um if there’s too much moisture in the air then you can’t effectively sweat that is one problem another issue is that you know your heart Point pumps um your blood to your extremities so that it can cool down which can take blood away from your internal organs which is obviously a big problem and you know these temperatures do not have to be so much higher than normal for these things to happen I mean we already know that you know our bodies need to be about 96 de Celsius uh roughly and you know once it gets much higher once it’s at 100 then already in trouble 102 and you know you need to be in an emergency um unit so um yeah these things happen relatively quickly actually and there are a lot of deaths that have been Associated to it unfortunately um as you were saying earlier the data is not available so much in Asia but you know in Europe for example in 2022 there were 61,000 deaths Associated to heat and the who has said that that will probably double by 2050 if action isn’t taken Ragu I keep saying that you have to go and I know you have to go so this is absolutely the last question let me add a quick Point let me add something to directly related to that I mentioned early warnings uh before and you mentioned plans governments have made great plans here is a problem that even if early warnings come in and all the plans exist mainstreaming these into budgets fiscal policies is just not happening everybody is managing crisis so if two crises hit together uh and it has happened many times we call them compound events or even if they hit sequentially like you have dry winter wildfires heat waves you just don’t have funding budgeted in the process because you just don’t mainstream all these actions into your budget processing this is a very very serious problem right now and and thanks for raising that uh I think uh we’ll uh we we’ll leave it there for the moment Ragu um all that’s left to do is to thank you for joining us you have a very busy schedule I know thanks so much for making the time Ragu m is speaking to us uh from Bangalore and emiritus professor at the University of Maryland and professor at IIT Bombay Ragu thanks so much take care thank you all right um let’s just take this moment to just um have a check of uh well how the chat has been going we haven’t been able to monitor it as much as Cherry Chan has been monitoring it maybe she can bring us up to speed with what the general discourse is right yeah um people here in the live chat you’re really keeping me busy but I’m glad um and I’m happy that many of you actually ask direct questions to Our Guest um something that we haven’t touched on yet but many people have said it’s about um all these measures for example um air conditioning and other things that we can use to comare heat um what about people who are poor who cannot afford these things um they want to to know if there it’s any way that this thing can people to PO can get access to these things and also have to say that um the tinting cartoon doesn’t seem um disturbing to many people and many people funny funny but it’s disturbing to think where it came from I’m really curious and I’m trying not to think about this but yeah we’ll get to the bottom of that maybe we post it later in the comments or something yeah we we will investigate uh as journalists do uh right thanks for that uh cherry uh let’s just let’s just carry on further and uh try and look at some solutions at an individual level and also at the at the local government level as uh Ragu was saying that a mainstreaming needs to be done of all these plans into budget so that they can actually be implemented people talk a lot about it but then let’s try and bring you some of those uh solutions that one can potentially Implement to help us do that we are joined now uh by Dr radika kosla Who is an Urban climatologist she’s joining us from Oxford radika good to see you thank you for making the time uh radika is also an associate professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and environment at the University of Oxford and she researches how cities for example can be cooled while still preserving the environment uh radika your CV is just is just is just excellent when it comes to climate change and and it’s very technical as well but for us minions if you can just uh start with trying to offer individual solutions to people because a lot of people are tuning into the chat and they are asking questions if I can just throw the initial one at you which is basically what about uh people who are poor who are experiencing extreme heat and extreme heat distress what is the solution they have to be able to cool uh temperatures yeah yeah it’s a good question and it’s often the hardest question right because extreme heat heat hits everybody but it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most now to the extent that it’s possible we would advise very much to be able to stay outside of peak heat hours and you know sort of stay within shaded areas within enclosed areas where you’re not getting direct impacts of the heat now that can be quite challenging because for a lot of people you know sort of staying within their homes can also mean unventilated spaces that have you know say hot tin roofs or you have works that doesn’t actually allow you to be indoors you know you’re an outdoor worker and you have to be outside so it’s really important to be able to make use of shaded spaces it’s important to be able to stay hydrated hydration is actually key it’s really important also to be able to have access to spaces that allow for Greenery and water bodies so you know a lot of what the most vulnerable can do unfortunately depends on the public infrastructure that is available to them and that’s why there’s this challenge between you know and this interplay between what happens at the individual level and at the urban level just just on that on the point of water um I don’t know if this is the stupid question if it is please say so uh but is there I don’t know is there a measure of how much water you should be drinking uh when temperatures go above a certain Mark or is it just intuitive when you feel thirsty drink until the time that you’re not thirsty anymore and should you be drinking cold water warm water or room temperature water I realize it probably sounds like a stupid question question please again do say if it’s a stupid question well I think it’s important to stay hydrated so as you know however much water you need make sure you can give your body that right so we have the sort of traditional 2 lers of water a day I think it’s important to be able to get that in but what happens when it’s very hot is that your body is perspiring and you’re losing that now that of course depends sort of individual to individual how much you know sort of water your body is losing and it’s also a function of the level of humid in the temperature right so in in in the weather so so in some sense how hot it is and how the body experiences that is a function of the temperature but also of the humidity and sometimes when it’s very humid what happens is that the body is not able to perspire and that actually has even more devastating impacts on the human body so ventilation and that moment is really important um so being able to have access to fans um you know s if I mean air conditioning is not available able to everybody and air conditioning is very damaging to the planet but sometimes it’s the only solution we have but ventilation is really necessary in these times right I mean you talked about how necessary it is to cool down ventilation fans AC not everybody has access uh people are commenting here in the chat um saying uh requim and vials says yeah it’s a problem for low class Society who can’t afford AC um we need to find another solution to this um and um also we have Vic Guzman talking about uh the need for technical technological solutions on a residential level um talking about things like heat reflective paint that uh might be available um fast growing trees seems viable and also things like local governments deciding to build heat shelters that was also mentioned by reu mes I know I threw a lot of things at you but um what are things that um people can can advocate for in their communities that can help them get this ventilation um or cool down that they need yeah it’s a it’s a great question and there are a number of things so first is it’s really important to have green spaces and spaces with water bodies because green spaces bring down the urban heat island effect so instead of being in an urban space which is already very warm and getting warmer because of the concrete around it green spaces help to amarate that temperature rise so advocating for green spaces is key advocating for water is key a lot of uh really hot places don’t actually have the ability to access water that is really problematic and a key thing that is really important across societies and across levels of vulnerability is having a Better Built environment now our built environment is often one that is actually just made for um you know for instance in the UK it just traps the Heat and keeps the heat in and during really hot days there’s a risk of overheating and a lot of people die because it actually gets too hot in the buildings so having a build environment that allows for thermal Comfort is fundamental and better buildings and a better building stock that is resilient to how our temperatures are going to change is a fundamental thing that societies and individuals can advocate for to really protect themselves from these temperature rises that we’re going to continue to see it’s great you’re talking about this radika about green spaces water bodies and Better Built environment because as it so happens we have some visuals that we can potentially show uh uh to everybody who’s tuning in uh to the chat uh let’s start with here in Berlin where we are the live stream is coming out of Berlin and in Berlin for example there is a map that was created that showed uh and this is something that Wade is throwing up there and I think maybe you can see this as well radika so what this shows is the city in an infrared sort of a heat map and U all the areas which have Greenery which have vegetation are cooler than the rest of the city as one can see over there and this again to do with vegetation and GRE Greenery and speaking of uh green spaces there are also uh uh things that have been tried in uh Colombia for example and there have also been tried in seil in South Korea where if I’m not wrong and W can maybe throw up those uh uh images because we have them as well of uh there you go of uh trees and Greenery right down the center of the street this is in Colombia and then you also have an example I think in SE where they converted certain expressways at least the parts of them in the middle uh to uh uh what should one call it channels of water there you go that’s the before and after images on the on people’s screens there and let’s just lastly speaking of a Better Built environment green spaces and water bodies Singapore generally stands out as an example I think the government of Singapore has is investing in a plan this is uh a promotional video from the government of Singapore showing uh what that Vision might look like Singapore the plan to plant 1 million more trees to tackle soaring temperatures and improving the the builtin environment um Lou just looking at those images I mean uh you see those plans taking shape but are these Rarities or is this getting more common around the world I mean I think it depends on on where you’re talking about um I think that it is still quite a rarity the fact that you know there are examples that are always brought up um I mean I also have on my piece of paper Saul and Colombia as examples of you know places where this is happening um I think in Europe it’s becoming much more common and we are seeing it in parts of India as well in some of the Cities there but it’s obviously not common enough like um it needs to be put in place because it really does make a difference I mean uh South Korea for example sold the example that you um that you talked about the temperature is up to 3 Dees lower as a result of the changes that they’ve made in Colombia in medeline it’s up to four degrees lower um I mean these the kinds of changes that are really going to make difference to people’s lives Dr kosa you listening to uh Louise talking there and and I know know that you work at the level of policy uh quite a bit as well what is the stumbling block you find when it comes to implementing the kinds of things that you were talking about namely green spaces water bodies Better Built environment what are the stumbling blocks one generally encounters well I I think the one of the hardest things in terms of policy implementation for building resilience to extreme heat is that it requires coordination across different types of Ministries and departments so it’s not an issue that you can just allocate to say one part of policym and you know and one Ministry and then it’s sorted out we’re talking about so many different things here right we’re talking about water we’re talking about buildings we’re talking about Urban Greenery we’re often talking about health then we’re talking about the Met Office and sending you know sort of extreme heat uh and weather warnings out so it is such a different and sort of you know uh multifaceted issue that requires coordination across different Ministries energy is a really important one right often when it’s very hot the demand for electricity Peaks and at that point you’re then talking about managing the Energy System differently so having a coordinated approach is really difficult um we talk about it and you know we often recommend it but we also recognize that this is not straightforward to do because it requires some kind of body that sits and coordinates across these different functions but but how how expensive uh are these Solutions I mean do government even have the the money to be able to invest in uh things like these I I I I don’t think these are very expensive Solutions I think the go-to solution which is air conditioning is actually a very expensive solution it’s an expensive solution because Energy prices are rising and it’s expensive solution for the planet because it’s it’s really bombing you know sort of the the climate um so many of what things that we what you know what we can do and need to do are they might have have upfront cost these are going to be paid for by themselves but it’s actually getting the implementation done that is the tricky part so the the cost is much more in in in sort of the deployment than in the the cost of a technology I mean um just again going to the comments um we’ve got uh pav Pooh many of the things that you mentioned are on his wish list for Cambodia he says better City Planning urban planning with more trees and park could help a lot South Asia southeast Asia should really consider all that at least commuting to work would be more bearable so definitely a lot of demand for what you’re talking about yeah um I did have another question for you though um this is someone who’s a little more contrarian Martin fiser um he’s saying um talking about you know making more green spaces and specifically planting trees he says um it’s already too late before they could suck all the CO2 out of the air the trees need minimum 30 years to to do that to suck out all the CO2 um so is all that you’re talking about creating these green spaces is it too late yeah I mean when we say green spaces you know sort of what we mean is spaces that are not concrete and you know sort of those that suck heat out and and actually trap it and Make spaces warmer even grass is green space and it’s not very difficult and timec consuming or expensive to be able to lay you know sort of urban green grass spaces around and that does not take years of course it opens the question of you know whether that kind of land space is available uh and that’s why what we’re seeing in space places like Singapore is these Urban walls Urban green walls or green roofs where whatever kind of surface material is available is actually being used to be able to reflect heat back and not trap heat right so reflective paines like we were talking about is another approach I mean if we think about just surface areas it’s often 70% of a city is a Surface whether it’s a roof or a pavement or a road the question is can that surface be used to actually reduce the amount of heat in the city as opposed to trapping it which is what they’re doing right now for the most part I I just have one final question for you Dr kosa I mean what you saying what you just just described there saying it is not difficult to uh uh to it’s not too expensive to carry out and it is solutions that one can start implementing straight away so why aren’t they being implemented do you find that there is a commitment problem from governments or governments are not taking it seriously enough or is it something else I think you know we’re only very slowly recognizing that extreme heat is a real challenge a it’s coming to us much faster than we thought it would in its intensity its duration and its frequency it’s also killing more people than you know we we thought it would in many ways and it’s not just about mortality it’s also about morbidity and the cost to infrastructure every year we’re seeing more and more increases in these damages and so we are waking up to it but unfortunately we’re waking up to it only as we see the damages it’s causing um so it’s been silent in our sustainability debates for the last many years and now as we see more extreme heat rise it is it is growing on the agenda um but it’s far from being a priority it is far from being a priority but you know unfortunately as it gets hotter that’s when we’re going to see people demanding action for it and and hopefully government’s responding as well because you know we know what we need to do and we can save a lot of lives if we do it and we’ll leave it there for the moment Dr radika kosla thanks so much for joining us I I know you had to you had to move your schedule around to be able to participate we are so glad you did thanks so much for joining us today thank you and if you’re just joining us on this stream we’ve basically been discussing uh what one can do at an individual level and at a local government level to try and beat the extreme temperatures the the heat that uh uh people are experiencing in many parts of the world and this just a quick summary at an individual level uh our experts are talking about making sure that you have access to ventilation that you have access to water drink water lots of water and you have access to spaces with shade get out of the sun essentially it might sound uh intuitive but I think it just it just Bears repeating so it is there at the at the top of our head the moment we are feeling these kind of extreme temperatures that’s something that one can do at the in individual level it doesn’t cost too much and when it comes to uh things that can be done at the local governmental level something that one can campaign for uh with with local governments is to try and provide more green spaces it is also to try and provide more water bodies in the areas that one is in and also to ensure that the built environment that is essentially the concrete and the steel structures that are around us are more heat reflective and are built better with uh with with the with the heat in in in mind that’s basically what we are discussing here on this stream I just like to sort of bring you in uh uh Nal I mean both of us grew up in India so heat is not something that we are that is alien to us but then things have changed haven’t they I mean there was it’s a different kind of heat that one experiences in India for example Now isn’t it it has become unbearable in a different kind of way and I always struggle to answer this because people always say oh why you struggling in berin and you’re from India but it’s still really hot and I guess part of the reason is um this difference between the temperature that you actually see when you look for the temperature on Google Maps and the feel- like temperature like we’ve been talking about the heat index I think that’s made a big difference you don’t always realize that conditions have changed because you’re just looking at the sort of face value of the temperature um but I’m I’m not sure I have a great answer to that I I just know that it’s a struggle for me as well when I go back to India it’s really hot I know that construction has definitely gone up I mean we see building new buildings coming up on my streets or around my city everywhere and it’s just much hotter Louise just let’s bring you in on this because we were talking about commitment and we were talking about uh and Dr kosa was there was talking about government’s not realizing how acute the uh the problem is and I find that sort of hard to understand given that these governments at these National governments end up at these cop Summits the that’s the you cop is again the climate of parties but then the full definition the full form is United Nations climate framework for on climate change exactly they attend this and we’ve had what 28 of them so far why is this still not being taken seriously I mean I think there are there are lots of different factors I mean politically um you know it’s it’s quite difficult to get some of these these changes through I mean we’ve seen this in Europe over the past four years with the European green deal which you know was trying to move to um for example put in place natural areas natural space to return some agricultural land to to Nature and and those things have been um you know protested against um people didn’t want to see some of those changes happening um we see it in Germany as well with the speed limit you know if we reduce the speed limit then it would mean that um there wouldn’t be so much emissions um contributed by Vehicles so um you know there is this issue that the public is not you know isn’t quite on board with some of these changes happening and so it’s not so easy to to maybe force them through um but it’s also an issue of you know I mean we see this every year at the cop um the the climate conference the governments just don’t agree there are so many interests you know we’re talking about um what like 7 8 or something sorry I can’t remember the figure exactly but um they all come together and they have to agree together on steps forward it was only uh in November that they first put the words fossil fuels into the agreement and you know agreed to transition out of fossil fuels because you know countries like Saudi Arabia which has a lot of interest in oil and and other countries did not want to see these words and these commitments kind of made in such a a really solid way um and so it it’s all of these small things that kind of come together or seemingly small things that just prevent this this action really being taken forward um saying that a lot has changed over the past 28 years and you know there has been a lot of movement made and things are moving forwards you know we had the Paris agreement that was signed in 2015 so this is the agreement to keep Global temperature LEL levels below 2° better you know below 1.5° CSI um and you know that was kind of Unthinkable before that that we could have an agreement that everybody would agree on so you know there are there are steps forwards and step backwards and uh you know getting a global Community to agree is not always as easy as people might think you know I I hate to sound fatalistic but correct me if I’m wrong but this year in February wasn’t it the first time that uh the world crossed about crossed this Benchmark of 1.5° Cel for 12 months at a stretch correct is is is that correct or is that so the yeah the average temperature over the year was just over 1.5° so um that is obviously a ter you breach the mark no it’s a terrifying thought and you know a lot of people might have panicked and thought that we we’re there there’s nothing that we can do anymore but actually you know when they’re talking about global temperature averages they’re talking over a much longer period so a couple of decades or so um and the actual temperature rise has been about 1.2 degrees roughly uh on average above pre-industrial levels it’s still not good we’re still moving uh quicker than some scientists had thought we would towards you know this 1.5 degree limit that has been put in place by by governments but we’re not there yet and uh the well there’s a a little bit of disagreement about it but in general the idea is that we could still stop ourselves getting to that point really do do you believe that I don’t know it’s it’s I mean it’s hard to know I’m not a scientist I talk to them I think we in the realm of belief now yeah maybe yeah question different scientists tell me different things and uh you know I don’t know considering that this year we all already got to 1.5 you know of course um sometimes I feel a little bit pessimistic about it but um I I think the idea is even if we reach 1.5 um there is still the possibility to roll that back and to go under eventually you know there are different uh Technologies being put in place to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for example that could lower the temperature eventually not that we should rely on that what needs to be done is for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to stop being emitted at the rate that they are being emitted um and for that action to be taken as quick as possible and that’s a consensus you know among scientists so some consensus some progress but not enough uh to a hugely complex problem there’s frustration coming out about that in the chat um I kind of cheek remark from that one nothing like having oil baronss on an environmental panel I think they’re referring to to cop but uh that one had another it’s factual that one had another I think really good comment that that sums us up what whatever we do now to improve all this we will not see things getting better or back to normal four years drastic action must be taken the countries who really didn’t contribute are impacted the most I mean I think this is one of the biggest problems right um this issue of climate Justice um the countries that have done least to contribute to the problem of climate change are the ones who are being disproportionately impacted by it um Asia is the you know the continent where the biggest uh climate related disasters are are happening and we’re not just talking about heat we’re obviously talking about you know typhoons and um flooding and and all these kinds of extreme weather events um and yeah it’s it’s really sad that that is the case and it is definitely on the Richer Western countries um to to take action so that that does not get worse right and at that point let’s just uh bring in a cherry you’ve been looking at uh the results of the poll right and can you update us as to where we are with this yeah so we just closed the poll um I’m also again surprised by the result of the poll because I mean looking at the chat and hearing people talk it feels like everyone is a bit pessimistic but um when we ask them do you have the means to cool down actually um 42% of the fot says yes I’m managing fine um 26% says yes but it’s expensive 16% says um no I can’t afford it and only 133% said nothing works it’s too hot so even if we sound pessimistic and the feels like the world is ending actually people are still resilient and trying their best to and I think had some good solutions to offer in the chat they’re thinking about it absolutely about talk about having a forest park uh and infrastructure dominating kolina Vena very active call Carolina she’s really she’s really been there with us thank you it does appear that she’s from Mana she did she said it yeah she said she said I didn’t follow that thanks so much for being on on the on the chat um do we uh have a look at uh what we think about the uh issue or uh should we start with that or yeah I think you know I am really impressed again at the ideas that people have in the chat but also we had some really uh I would say heart-wrenching personal stories people worried about their parents people who feel like they can’t um complete their jobs as they would like to because it’s so hot they’re so tired they can’t find relief and um I think you know we talked about some cheaper ways that you can do that through finding a ventilated Place making sure you’re drinking water find shade but you know it it isn’t really that comforting if if you can’t think if you can’t function and um I just hope people can find some relief and and that the weather does change uh it will but um you know I’m there for you um that’s that’s the best I can say right now all right Louise yeah I mean I I think that I mean we’re dealing with 27 degrees in Berlin and I’m already um super hot so um I can only imagine what it’s like for the people there um I think that uh obviously there is a lot of um action that still needs to be taken for the sake of of everybody um and all I can do is say that despite being climate reporter and always being called the voice of Doom whenever I’m called in anywhere I’m still optimistic that we can uh that the changes that need to be made can be made and that we as a society in general can move forward so you did not sound like the voice of Doom at all I thought very and you helped me understand a number of things because following all the the technicalities of the climate debate is is one thing and then also to sort of distill it at at a very personal level I think you helped me understand a number of things uh so glad to Nal what did you uh think of the the climate talk that we had today yeah I thought it was really fascinating uh when we were talking about Warning Systems being built up um I know that in Germany for instance we already get some you know your phone gets these red symbols of extreme Heatwave or it’s hot outside be careful um and of course I guess was talking about the Waring system being built in India I think that will be incredibly helpful um especially when so many people people you know do have smartphones it’s something they can have access to but it’s also a little strange to have this whole discussion and feel like so much of the pressure seems to come down on local communities local governments how are you going to deal with it how are you going to handle your people when it isn’t their fault MH or at least not a large part a large part of the fault isn’t theirs um it’s it’s just a I don’t know sounds unfair yeah it feels unfair I like what the said earlier it said climate change is gender neutral and I wonder if you can apply the same coroller to well it’s it’s unfair but it’s there now I don’t know I’m just trying to extend expand on what he is saying but maybe it’s the wrong thing to do which is why we come to you Cherry us what the right thing to do is thing to do um no actually what I find um really nice to hear it’s not that I didn’t know but sometimes okay so I’m from Hong Kong and we have been dealing with heat for like a very long time time and my parents are always just saying that just turn on the AC and then you will cool down and like I’ve been hearing this from even like in Western countries the government say saying just that like we need to install AC for everyone and one of our expert I can’t remember who but was saying that like this is not a solution it’s actually making things worse and I feel like now I have a strong argument against my parents and like look no this is just very individual solution it doesn’t help anything and yeah we need to like look for a cop operative better solution for everyone yeah radica said in some of her research energy needed for air conditioning likely to Triple by 2050 so yeah the demand that that places on enough power grides I don’t know I just I just learned a lot on this thing as I was saying to Louise earlier I mean I just find that following the climate debate as as just as just an ordinary as as an ordinary person ordinary person is it becomes slightly hard because there’s so many technicalities involved but at the end of the day I think it just boils down to what you do at a deeply personal level which is why I think what radika was saying there about ventilating drinking water and finding shade to be in I think I think goes some way I don’t know if I can say it goes a long way but I think the message the take away for me there is that there is a lot that one can do at an individual personal level uh a lot or at least considerable amount of things that one can do at a individual personal level to try and beat this oppressive heat um yeah that’s what I stand on that and and keep up the conversation because the more we’re talking about it the more officials are hearing this is something we want we want action on that so thanks everybody for sending in your your your comments it’s it’s just just been a pleasure seeing this this very active uh chat with people bringing in their suggestions and their questions I think it’s it’s really enriched the conversation in a way that uh really pleases me at least and we will get to the bottom of the Tintin incident you to understand what happened to Tin there but that’s it uh for this this time that’s right we’ll be back again next week next Wednesday that’s right uh we’ll be back we’ll put the question up uh just about 24 hours ahead of time so you will be aware in our community area on the DW YouTube channel what that is and make sure you subscribe so you can take part in the conversation because we want you here and thanks to everybody at the table who joined Louise thanks so much for coming in Nal Cherry always a pleasure having you guys thanks so much and thank you to all in the in the community who were responding and taking part in the chat we’ll see you next week bye-bye thank you bye-bye [Music]

A record-breaking heatwave is scorching South and Southeast Asia. How are people in the region coping with the dangerously hot weather? And what can cities do to keep people cool?

Here’s a poll that we’d like you to participate in before the livestream will start:
https://www.youtube.com/@dwnews/community

Urban climatologist Radhika Khosla is one of the experts who joined us. You can find her work here along with other researchers working on sustainable cooling, heatwaves, climate change and sustainability. https://www.youtube.com/@oxfordsmithschool

Here you can find out the work of earth systems scientist Raghu Murtugudde https://twitter.com/rmurtugudde

Find out more the about DW climate reporter Louise Osborne’s work: https://twitter.com/LouLizzie

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome and panel introduction
6:40 Record temperatures across South and Southeast Asia
12:30 What’s causing the heat?
14:38 El Nino pattern especially bad this year
18:30 Long-term planet warming
19:22 Importance of heat adaptation
22:20 Socio-economic impact of heat
23:21 Situation in India
25:20 Heat index vs wet bulb temperature
29:30 How heat-prepared are governments?
34:00 Chat check
35:00 How can poor people deal with heat?
37:30 Staying hydrated
39:00 Cooling down overheated cities
45:50 How expensive are cooling solutions
47:10 Creating green spaces
48:45 Are governments committed to heat plans?
50:10 The state of global climate action

#heatwave #southeastasia #newsdesk
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch