The Economist • 13th October 2022

How to get Asia to net zero

W electricity cut out earlier this month in her flat in Dhaka, Sabina Yeasmin’s first thought was for her 17-month-old daughter. Bangladesh’s capital fills with dengue-carrying mosquitoes at this time of year. With no working fan or air conditioner, Ms Yeasmin could not put her toddler under the stifling mosquito net. A diesel shortage had put the backup generator out of commission. Even the price of candles had quadrupled. Ms Yeasmin could barely keep from crying.

The power cut that plunged he

The Economist • 29th September 2022

Is climate change making hurricanes worse?

H crashed into Florida’s coast on September 28th. It is thought to be tied as the fifth-strongest recorded hurricane to have made landfall on the contiguous United States, with winds approaching 150mph (240kph). It left Cuba in darkness after knocking out its power grid; now some 2m Floridians are without power. Two people died in Cuba; casualties in Florida are as yet unconfirmed. Just a few days earlier Typhoon Noru had slammed into the Philippines after intensifying unusually fast: it killed

The Economist • 19th July 2022

The increase in simultaneous heatwaves

T record-breaking temperatures of more than 40°C were forecast in Britain. Schools closed and hospitals cancelled routine appointments. Trains ran less frequently for fear the tracks would buckle. The Royal Air Force had to rearrange flights from its biggest air base after the runway melted. In mainland Europe, things were bleaker still. After weeks of drought, a heatwave sparked wildfires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Parts of America are slogging through one of their hottest summers e

The Economist • 23rd June 2022

How does Bangladesh cope with extreme floods?

E , people in South Asia anxiously await the start of the monsoon season. More than 70% of the region’s annual rainfall arrives between June and October. Unusual rains almost always spell disaster. If the downpour is too little or too late, drought sets in. If there is too much rain, huge tracts of land disappear under the deluge. For parts of Bangladesh and India, this year has already proved catastrophic. Uncommonly heavy rain in May and June caused rivers to burst their banks. By June 22nd, s

The Economist • 1st June 2022

Climate change is harder on less educated people

W was “nine or ten”, his relatives put him into a bucket and lowered him into a well. From the murky bottom, he filled the bucket and passed it back up so the family’s cows could drink. No one thought this odd. Among his people, the Samburu of northern Kenya, “a five-year-old is regarded as old enough” to help look after cows, he says; herding them, guarding them and making sure the precious beasts have enough grass and water.

Mr Lolokuru is now in his 50s and still owns cows with his two broth

The Economist • 1st June 2022

Why this Atlantic hurricane season is predicted to be unusually stormy

T hurricane season runs from June 1st until November 30th—the months during which tropical storms are most likely to form and wreak havoc on their roughly westerly course through the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. In the past few years it has been common for the first storms to appear before the season officially opens; this year none has, and none looks likely to form in the Atlantic in coming days, though the remnants of a Pacific storm currently passing over Mexico

The Economist • 13th May 2022

The increasing frequency of fatal wet-bulb temperatures

W heatwave hits India’s northern plains, some 20m people are killed by persistent “wet-bulb” temperatures of more than 35°C (95°F). That is the plot of “The Ministry For the Future”, Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel about climate change. The scenario is fiction but similar temperatures have been briefly recorded in the real world. And as the globe warms they will become more common.

The wet-bulb temperature is that which would be recorded by a thermometer wrapped in a moist towel. Water evaporating

The Economist • 3rd May 2022

How can India cope with heatwaves?

T of May in Delhi is a riot of colour. Red and yellow blossoms line the streets. But this year, no one is stopping to see the flowers. Almost everyone who can be is inside, parked in front of an air-conditioner or fan. For weeks India has been in the grip of a punishing heatwave. On 30th April, temperatures in the capital reached 43.5°C for the third day in a row. The heat has come unusually early, with the hottest March since records began in 1901. It is affecting a large area, including coasta

The Economist • 4th April 2022

A new IPCC report says the window to meet UN climate targets is vanishing

T for limiting global warming to relatively safe levels is rapidly closing, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( ). On April 4th the body released a new report, of nearly 3,000 pages. It appeared after two weeks of wrangling by representatives from 195 governments over how best to present the “state of the union” of climate science. Its conclusion is hardly cheering. To meet the goals of the Paris agreement, to limit the average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-

The Economist • 17th March 2022

Mumbai plans for net-zero 20 years before the rest of India

O as commuters stream ed out of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a gothic revival masterpiece in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, they were confronted with temperatures approaching 40°C, nearly 7°C above normal for the time of year. The city is in the midst of a debilitating heatwave, its 13th in the past five decades, nearly half of which occurred in the past 15 years. Mumbai’s average temperature has increased by over 1°C in that period (see chart).

Had those commuters crossed the street from