Q&A: As Temperatures in Pakistan Top 120 Degrees, There’s Nowhere to Run
Interview by Steve Curwood with Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer and a member of Pakistan’s Climate Change Council, Living on Earth.
Excerpt: An environmental lawyer’s frightening report from on the ground in Lahore: animals crumpling, waters rising, crops collapsing, an economy on the brink and millions displaced with nowhere safe to go. Last year was the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere, and 2024 seems likely to top it, with torrid temperatures already sizzling the Southwest U.S., North Africa, South Asia and much of the Middle East. ...And right now, Pakistan is in the grip of yet another extreme heatwave, ...as some cities reached more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. ...In 2022, we had historic floods, and we’re talking 400 percent to 800 percent of monthly averages falling within a couple of weeks. ...Just a few days ago, Mohenjo-daro, the home of an ancient civilization, recorded 53 degrees Centigrade, so in excess of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the hottest place on Earth last week. ...In Punjab, which is the province that I live in, school timings were changed so that schools wouldn’t be let off in the mid afternoon. They were being let off by 12, one o’clock. And then as temperatures rose, schools were shut down throughout Punjab....