If you are a resident of Hyderabad, then you must be already experiencing the extreme temperatures since the beginning of April. The State Government has issued heat wave warnings for the entire Telangana State including Hyderabad. Normally, summer temperatures in Hyderabad vary between 30°C to 40°C, whereas winters will be in the range of 14°C and 25°C. But this year, city residents are very much concerned to go out of their houses after ten in the morning due to unbearable heat. Despite the high level of discomfort due to hot temperatures, the city is also facing water scarcity in most of the residential areas. In fact, the situation is even worse in other parts of India, with temperatures scorching beyond 40°C which is almost five to six degrees higher than the normal standards.
Many of us just blame the nature for being so harsh on us but we never think that we are the main reason for such uncontrolled climatic changes in the atmosphere. The most observed reason that is causing the earth get hotter is the human activities like pollution by burning fossil fuels, increase in the use of automobiles, releasing more chemical wastes into the air by industries, deforestation etc. The implications of global warming is raising red alert all over the world and because of this reason we have taken some effort to educate everyone on this topic.
Temperature observations
As per the scientists’ analysis at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), there is an increase of 0.8° Celsius (1.4° Fahrenheit) raise in the global average temperature since the year 1880. They also found that two-thirds of the global warming has happened only after 1975, which is approximately 0.15-0.20°C per decade. You may not give much attention to this small alteration in numbers because every day we see variations in climate by few degrees. But this one degree change matters a lot at every corner of the earth as it takes huge amount of sunlight to heat the entire globe including land, oceans and the atmosphere. This triggers us to be aware of the fact that global climatic changes are happening at a faster rate and we need to do something to stop this from devastating the earth.
What could be the exact reason for global warming
We constantly hear the words global warming and greenhouse gases but many of us are not really sure how these two terms are interlinked. Global warming is defined as the raise in earth’s surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide, ethane and other synthetic chemicals induced by human activity & industrialization. Generally, greenhouse gases acts as an insulation, by passing just the sunlight through them but trapping the heat to keep the globe warm at comfortable temperatures. However, this has turned out to be the primary problem for earth as more human activity is causing the potential increase in the greenhouse gases which is holding more heat in the atmosphere, eventually increasing the global surface temperatures.
What is our responsibility to minimize the harmful consequences?
These climatic changes and droughts due to intense heats are becoming greatest threats for humans and animals survival. Any action that leads to the reduction or elimination of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will help in keeping the temperatures under control. This problem is too enormous to handle individually. It needs everyone support as a community to involve in climate friendly activities that reduce the carbon footprints in the atmosphere such as recycling, planting trees, using public transport, consuming less energy etc.
Guidelines to cope with the excess heat
We know, it is really hard to cope up with the raising temperatures, but to some extent you can overcome the heat problems by sticking on to some precautionary guidelines –
In order to maintain adequate levels of hydration in the body, consume as much water as possible, than the normal intake.
Try to avoid caffeine and alcoholic beverages, because both these drinks are diuretics and promote dehydration.
Do not step out in the hot sun unless it is necessary or urgent. Make sure to wear some protection from the sun while going out in the hottest hours.
Finally, if you have the symptoms of heat related illnesses such as sun stroke, heat rashes, or high temperature, consider it as an emergency and visit doctor immediately.