'Torturous' heat is breaking records and livelihoods in India. It's only going to get worse.
NEW DELHI, India — Street vendor Rohan Mishra wakes before dawn to buy fresh vegetables from the bazaar and steels himself for another day hauling his cart under the punishing New Delhi sun.
Unable to afford time off during India’s record-shattering heat wave, he endures headaches, dizzy spells and nosebleeds as he desperately tries to hawk his produce before it withers in the basket.
“Money has been difficult recently,” Mishra said. “This [weather] is torturous. I frequently have to throw away vegetables because they become mushy and spoil in the heat. We already buy at a steep price because the hot weather has been affecting the harvest.”
Mishra is one of millions of laborers in India and Pakistan who have had to toil through the hottest spring on record, in conditions that scientists fear will soon regularly afflict billions across the globe and contribute to a looming food crisis.
The U.N.’s climate science panel said in February that more than 430 million people globally were exposed to extreme heat in 2020.
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