Millions of Indians died during Covid, did India change? No.
Nah. Even it gets hot, healthy people hide under the sun. Only weak and old die. Good for india demographic
You guys are really underestimating the effect that heat has on society. No one has to die and high temperatures will still fuck shit up. It's literally thermodynamics in action here, a heat engine, aka the basic unit of work, works better the colder it is. And it's much easier to heat things up than to cool things down.
I myself live in a hot and humid place, somewhere that max only gets to around 35-38 degrees, rather than the 40-50 that you see in India, and it already sucks big time. It's like everyone is carrying a 20kg load constantly. Physical activity basically becomes impossible in the noon. Even morning and evenings are hard too, your physical endurance is reduced by a lot even in 30 degree temperatures. You need to drink so much more water, everything stinks because everyone is sweating, tempers flare up a lot easier, cognition is effected as you struggle to think, skin conditions become a lot more common. Even reproduction is affected as your sperm get boiled. There's lots and lots of minor things that add up, even something as simple as "the average joe will need to shower 3 times a day instead of just 1", because everyone is so sweaty, has major implications on water usage and water stress when applied to hundreds of millions of people.
This of course reduces productively and GDP, especially for a country like india that still depends on a lot of outdoor activities like construction and agriculture, and most indians can't afford air-conditioning, nor can India build up the grid fast enough to provide the dozens of GWs needed for hundreds of millions gaining access to air-conditioning. Why do you think most indians are so desperate to escape the country?
And of course, if you see 1 heat stroke death, there's probably a hundred times that number that got heat exhustation or heat stroke that didn't result in death. I myself got a veryy mild case of heat exhustation once, and it knocked me out for almost a week, it was like a really bad case of flu. Heat stroke is very serious, even if you survive, you will need months to recover and if it's a particularly bad case, it can leave you to lifelong side effects, as if you had a stroke or heart attack. Literally nobody has to die but if India has two hundred million heat exhustation cases over the course of a month that leaves the vicitims bedbound for a week, that's still gonna fuck their economy up badly. We are already seeing this in 2024. Most Indian companies earning calls in 2024, reported that the heat wave greatly impacted their earnings, workers couldn't work as long hours, people getting sick, decreased consumption etc etc. There's a reason why global south features a lot of countries that usually have higher than average temperatures ranges than the optimal 28-22 degree for humans.
And that's humans. Livestock share the same biological heat limits as humans. Plants are more heat resistant, but heat stunting and wilting is common and in 50+ degree temperatures, plants can also outright die like mammals. Food also spoils a lot faster in high temperatures. Even non-ogranic aren't spared, a lot of stuff like ICEs, solar panels, computing, heat engines of all kinds work better when it's cold. Increased heat expansion increases wear and tear. Droughts and wildfires will rise with the temperature. Even the Monsoons that bring relief from the heat will be affected, since warmer air can hold more moisture, which increases the risk for massive floods.
There's probably even more downsides. 2024 really showed how bad it is and it will only get worse from here. It's not like we're going carbon neutral anytimes soon after all. Even year will be a little bit worse, and India is on the forefront for just how bad shit is gonna get. It's kinda crazy how Modi is still going around begging for F-35 sales, instead of facing this incoming threat with full focus. There can be zero deaths, but I can guarantee you that summer is still gonna be a stab in the gut for India.
Fun fact, in SEA, studies have found that productively per worker more than doubled with access to air-conditioning vs room temperature.
