Jakob Owens - Unsplash
Almost all over the world temperatures have been rising over the past 20/30 years beyond the long-term historical recorded trend. This rise has perhaps got accentuated over the past five years or so. It is accelerating every five years. The past three years have witnessed new highs on all continents. In view of this it is essential that appropriate measures are adopted for alleviating extreme heat waves. There is an urgent need for an integrated holistic approach to combat and survive the severe heat waves which will only deteriorate in the coming decades. New Grammar of Living forecasts that by 2035-50 average temperatures will be about 2⁰C higher than obtaining now. Hence need for proactive measures to be implemented from now instead of waiting before it’s too late. Humans to eschew their energy intensive lifestyles.
1. Houses:
a. All buildings to be based upon principles of heat reduction and reflection.
b. Colour of outer walls and roofs white, light shades.
c. Outer walls should be made of hollow bricks¹.
d. Roofs either exterior or interior should have appropriate insulation². Choice of exteriors in rural areas: thatch, tiles coloured white.
e. Windows / doors to have white curtains.
f. During peak heat hours, need for wet curtains, khus khus curtains. Khus Khus is an aromatic grass, which acts as a natural coolant. Curtains and mats made of the material are sprinkled with water to keep rooms cool in summer³.
g. Wet sacks on dwellings with tin / corrugated roofs.
2. Clothing:
a. Light colour, cotton. Cover as much of body as possible when going out.
b. For indoors, shorts and t-shirts, round-neck tees ideal.
c. For >45⁰ C, thin layers of cotton for insulation.
d. Appropriate wide rimmed head gear. In rural areas pagri, turban, topi, duppata, etc.
e. Protection from UV rays by covering face or applying cream.
f. Suits strictly banned.
g. Short hair.
3. Households:
a. Restrictions on AC usage. To be used only when temps go above 30C.
b. Ban on use of personal care products like electric hair dryers, shavers, clothes irons.
c. Ban on household consumer durables like washing machines, dish washers, mixies, juicers, toasters, vacuum cleaners, deep freezers.
d. Internal lighting norms and caps to be fixed in terms of lumens.
e. Living space for households / families to be capped in terms of sq ft / cu ft per head. Excess sq ft / cu fts rooms in houses to be closed for use.
4. City restructuring:
a. No new sanctions for buildings in cities with population above 10,000.
b. Hence forth only green standard buildings in areas which are environment friendly.
c. Illegal structures to be demolished.
d. Green surface areas to increase.
e. Plant trees on empty plots.
f. Roads and other structures to be painted white.
5. Decongest cities:
a. People not working in cities to be shifted / deported to towns, villages.
b. Send offices which need not be CBDs (central business districts) to suburbs, periphery of cities, towns.
c. Car usage on alternate days and compulsory pooling.
d. Take over properties of closed fossil based & related industries after giving them time to sell. Give them token compensation and green bonds. Convert to green uses.
e. Targets to reduce populations of cities to environmentally safe and friendly levels. Safe and friendly levels to be defined.
f. Build alternative tier 2/3 cities and outskirts where companies and employees can be moved out of city CBDs.
g. Rehabilitate people sent of cities.
6. Carbon reduction:
a. Shut down non-essential carbon intensive manufacturing / businesses in phase 1. Essential manufacturing / businesses to move over to 0/low carbon products/processes within time bound framework or close if not able to.
b. Green / carbon indices for buildings, offices, institutions, factories, businesses. Audits for ensuring proper implementation.
c. Plans for 0 carbon targets by 2020/22.
d. Audits for electric consumption and AC usage. Caps for consumption & usage for all categories of electricity consumers based upon consumption standards set up by CC authorities.
e. Electricity use budgets for all consumers (household and commercial) based upon basic needs standards and per caput / activity use.
f. Targets for increasing production of electricity produced from alternative renewal energy sources especially solar. Solar panels on all eligible surfaces in phased manner.
7. Organisational Structure:
a. Appoint Climate Champions in each city district / area. He/she will implement / monitor HAP/CAP. Person will coordinate with all street heads and building heads. They will be assisted by Climate volunteers for groups of families / people.
b. Clear-cut roles and functions for all posts.
c. Targets for reducing carbon, electricity and water usage.
d. At the country level Governance Structure:
i. Ministry of Climate Change
ii. Ministry of Energy Use
iii. Ministry of New Economics,
8. Governance and Political Setup:
a. Climate emergency government / Benevolent dictatorship.
b. Climate scientists and economists to set up all policies.
c. Climate Marxism for reducing inequalities.
9. Communities:
a. Cooling centres / shelters to accommodate poor who do not have cooling facilities. Heat Risk Cards (HRC) will be issued to all people who are at heat risk due to lack of coolers, ACs, fans, etc. admission to these cooling centres strictly based on HRCs.
b. Cooling centres will be constituted of all cinema halls, auditoriums, libraries, closed offices’ etc which can double up as cooling centres during peak heat hours.
c. Fan distributions programs for below poverty line (BPL) people.
d. Fans in bus stands.
e. Top rich will have to share their extra / spare cool facility accommodation with BPL in phased manner.
10. Diet / Food:
a. Compulsory vegetarian / vegan food. Less carbon intensive and easily digestible.
b. Ban on meats starting with carbon / water intensive ones like beef, other red meat, steroid meats like chicken, fish from polluted waters or disappearing species.
c. Only aging cattle, sheep, goats, etc can be sold to those in population most deserving like old, critically ill below 40 yrs, children. Not to the rich based upon price.
d. All food recipes should be so that they will require low energy cooking processes. High energy food dishes to be phased out within one year.
e. Reduce food wastage to 0 in two years. Make it punishable offence.
f. Encourage vegetarian cuisine globally.
g. New laws on curbing, then stopping fast food, sweets, etc which harm health.
h. Black market in banned food to be punished severely.
i. Need of new-borns, children and old below 70 to be met on priority basis.
j. Link food purchases to Aadhaar card. Rations and caps on food categories based on software driven new nutrition guidelines. Family budgets based upon actual needs.
11. Population Control / Family Planning:
a. Stop new births from cut-off date.
b. Forced abortions post cut-off date.
c. Adoption of kids from large families by no kid couples.
d. Compulsory sterilisations after first kid.
e. Incentives for those who voluntarily offer excess kids for adoption, voluntary sterilisations, don’t want kids, adopt kids.
f. Selective population growth in order to maintain minimum demographic balance. Workforce ratio to be maintained since gradually most countries will be having aging populations.
12. Finance and Economics:
a. Impose green tax on those companies, building complexes which are not adhering the green living norms.
b. Green bonds to be launched for raising funds for green development.
c. Move towards green currency which will be only exchange currency for green activities. Non-green activities will run on non-green or black money, which will be taxed heavily.
d. Universal basic income for all who lose jobs due the upheaval caused by closing non-green businesses.
e. Climate insurance schemes.
