Recommended reading about the topic of climate change and wet bulb temperatures:<p>Kim Stanley Robinson's novel "The Ministry for the Future".<p>Here's the blurb from goodreads:<p><i>Established in 2025, the purpose of the new organization was simple: To advocate for the world's future generations and to protect all living creatures, present and future. It soon became known as the Ministry for the Future, and this is its story.</i><p><i>From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined.</i><p><i>Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry For The Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come.</i><p><i>Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.</i><p><i>It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.</i>
If I understand this right, this is not just the heat, but the humidity as well. The UK <i>Daily Telegraph</i> had an article[1] about how nearby Jacobabad crossed the 35C wet bulb reading threshold, at which point — according to the article — the body can no longer cool itself.<p>I assume Karachi isn’t that bad yet. A cursory Google search showed a wet bulb reading of 27C for Karachi — still very hot but not life-threateningly so. In fact, the <i>Telegraph</i> article notes that those who can afford it spend the summer in Quetta or Karachi.<p>Of course this article also focuses on the cost of electricity and air conditioning, which is a major factor as well.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/hotter-human-body-can-handle-pakistan-city-broils-worlds-highest/" rel="nofollow">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people...</a>
Unfortunately, this seems to be the new norm.<p>Even in Canada, we are breaking records for heat. Temperatures have reached 49 C / 120 F<p>Despite that, I believe Canada will be a major recipient of these climate refugees when places just get too hot to live in.<p>That'll also be an option reserved for the privileged.
> And it’s getting worse. Now it goes above 40C on an average day, and the intensity of the heat is different to when I was growing up in the city; the sunlight’s brighter, more piercing.<p>This links to: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/one-billion-people-will-live-in-insufferable-heat-within-50-years-study" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/one-bill...</a><p>Titled: One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study<p>Can't they just link to historical temperature records for Karachi rather?
Are we going to have to start living underground? I went to Beer Caves [0] in the UK recently, where I was told that no matter the outside temperature it was always a consistent temperature within the caves (which was great for mushroom farming in the caves).<p>Obviously living in a cave is not great, but properly built underground habitats?<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Quarry_Caves" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Quarry_Caves</a>
I live where it is 30C during summer (low humidity) and about 10C during winter - Mediterranean climate thanks to proximity to the two oceans (Atlantic/Indian) which differs in temperature.<p>One of the main reasons why I would never move to another part of the country.
Unless I see resonantly well documented rising temperatures, I'm not inclined to believe that there are climate extremes any different from what are normal variations. ( and no this does not mean we get a free pass to mess up the environment, which IMO need to be cleaned up big time).<p>People have very short memories, and often it is the _current_ summer/winter that appears to be the harshest to them, not the one that happened 20 years ago. Memories are even more shorter when it is generational.
The tone of so many articles and comments online seems to be "Shrug, not much we can do about it". Or pedantically arguing about minutia.<p>Between this and the pandemic response in so many places, I'm not so sure humanity is going to be around in a century or two.<p>The rich will live in climate controlled domes on remote islands or ships, while billions of people starve, overheat, or fight over scraps. The global "elite" rich have a serious blind-spot though: They never seem to realize that they rely on a massive robust web of interconnected humanity to support their wealth and privilege. From billions of farmers, miners, craftspeople, teachers, to workers of all types, the global rich live at the top of a massive pyramid of humanity.<p>Makes me wonder if the person who is desperately trying to bootstrap a society on Mars has the right idea...<p>Sorry for a depressing comment. It's sobering to know that despite having another 50 years or so of life left to live, I will probably die in a food riot or from home invaders looking for water and food.
Stop complaining about the hot weather please and focus on more pressing global issues. Karachi has had 44 C before like many other places.<p>In fact, mean temp of Karachi is 32 C in June - which is not Low at all.<p><a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/pakistan/karachi/climate" rel="nofollow">https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/pakistan/karachi/climate</a><p>and 68% percentile high temp is 35 C.<p>The highest temp on record for Karachi was nearly 48 C - in 1938.<p>For sure 44 C is not Cool - but also not worth a Guardian article for a place that has a mean temperature of 32 and many days a year above 40 C.<p>From a personal note - I am writing this as I sit @ 42C and I am not dying. Heck - my laptop probably does though...