Indian Construction Manager: "The Heat Is Never So Bad That We've Had To Do This Before"

[hatrack]

EDIT

Raghvendra Tewari, a local official overseeing NREGA programs in Banda, set a target of about 6,000 workers digging canals and ditches. But only 2,000 showed up during the peak of the recent heat wave, he said, and organizers have stopped taking daily attendance. Instead of working 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., teams now start around dawn and disband by 11 a.m. “The heat is never so bad that we’ve had to do this before,” Tewari said.

The extreme heat is straining not only farmers but also their crops, as high temperatures coincided with the final weeks of the planting season, when grains need cool weather to mature. Devinder Sharma, an agricultural policy expert, said a quarter of every acre of Indian wheat could be lost to the heat.

The world’s second most-populous country isn’t on the verge of food insecurity, Sharma said, but could face an emergency if the wheat crop falls short again next year: “What happened this year was a clear sign that if there is a repeat, India will be standing with a begging bowl.”

Shukla, the farmer in Banda, is already seeing the effects on his withering wheat crop. His income this year fell by almost $40,000, he estimated, and he has had to scale back plans for family weddings. But the greatest burden has fallen on those in the fields. Laborers on Shukla’s farm, including women and children, were working under umbrellas with towels wrapped around their heads, and resting in makeshift sheds made of bamboo and straw. But there was no protection from heat this extreme.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/09/india-heat-wave-climate-change/

[LastDemocratInSC]

1. Photosynthesis stops working at about 104 degrees F.

https://sciencing.com/effect-temperature-rate-photosynthesis-19595.html

[CrispyQ]

2. And in our country, we have an entire political party more concerned about my uterus. -nt

[dutch777]

3. New GOP motto-- Worry about the unborn, f*** the living.

Unfortunately, this callous calculus seems to manage to get them re-elected in many places. They would never care about Indians anyway unless they had alot of oil or something else we really want or needed.

[CrispyQ]

4. New GOP motto--Worry about the unborn, f*** the living.

That would make a damned good campaign ad!