In March, the north and south poles had record temperatures. In May in Delhi, it hit 49C. Last week in Madrid, 40C. Experts say the worst effects of the climate emergency cannot be avoided if emissions continue to rise
. “If we continue with business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions, there is no adaptation that is possible. You just can’t.”Photograph: Kabir Jhangiani/Pacific Press/Rex/ShutterstockEven the mountains, the traditional escape from the unbearable city heat, now offer little respite
Street vendors selling fruit, vegetables and flowers have been cowering under makeshift awnings for shade while constantly splashing water on to their produce to keep it from shrivelling up. The kind of crop damage that climate experts have predicted is already happening. Farmers in north India have seen their wheat being burnt by the sun. An estimated 15 to 35% of the wheat crop in states close to Delhi – Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, India’s “wheat bowl” – has been damaged.
Female construction workers already suffer health issues. “There aren’t any clean public toilets around so I limit my water intake to avoid having to go to the toilet. Last month I ended up in hospital with dehydration,” said Sunita Devi, who is carrying rubble away from a construction site in Friends Colony West.
The tree-lined streets of the Tiro de Línea neighbourhood in the southern city of Seville have long played host to a little-known guest: one of Spain’s largest swift colonies. “It breaks your heart,” said Del Mar Molina, one of dozens of volunteers who have been patrolling the pavements to collect birds that could be nursed back to health. “This is a protected species, there should be some sort of climate emergency protocol for these kinds of heatwaves.”
At a meeting last week, executives told her that they had been allowing employees to work through lunch and leave early. “They had noticed that the heat was affecting productivity.” Those who managed to master the fickle app to snap up slots that went on sale 49 hours in advance, still had to beat the crowd.
More than 100 million Americans were urged to stay indoors over the past week, as record-breaking temperatures left multiple people and thousands of cattle dead. “You never get used to this heat, but we have to deal with it,” said Kim Gallego, 46, a Phoenix city parks employee with a heat rash on her legs. Gallego starts work at 5am and on Thursday it was already 44C by the time she knocked off at 1.30pm.