インドは熱波に苦しんでいる…はずなのだが

　先日も政府肝入り企画で、炎天下の中、熱射病死者が発生したとか。とにかく2020年のディストピア流行小説のように―とまではいかなくとも―危機的な状況のはずなのだが、一般人は割と熱波をなめ気味で…。

BBC Heatwave: Is India ready to deal with extreme temperatures? 19 Apr 2023 By Soutik Biswas

「In his best-selling 2020 novel, The Ministry for the Future, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson opens with a deadly heatwave in India which kills millions of people.

The sky blazes like an "atomic bomb", the heat from it is a "slap in the face", the eyes sting and "everything was tan and beige and a brilliant, unbearable white". Water doesn't help because it is "hot as a bath… worse than the air". People die "faster than ever".」

「Mr Robinson's dystopian tale about global heating might be a horror fantasy of sorts, but it is also a chilling warning. Earlier this week, 12 people died from heatstroke and many others were admitted to hospital after attending a government-sponsored event in an open ground under a blazing sun in Navi Mumbai in India's Maharashtra state.」

「The weather office has predicted above-average temperatures and heatwaves until the end of May. Average temperatures in India have risen by around 0.7% between 1901 and 2018, partly due to climate change.」

　1901年から2018年まで、平均気温は0.7％ほど上がっているんだから！との警告。

　建築業や鉱山など、熱波で労働条件が悪化する職業に従事するひとたちはえらい多い。温度上昇で、労働日が失われ、それはGDPで何パーセントというレベルだとか。

　成長するインド経済。しかし恐らく、環境変動・気候変動は相当な阻害要因になるよなあ…とは、そりゃあ私のような素人でも思うのである。