Climate change news from the ground, in a warming world Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here [[link removed]] Megan Rowling [[link removed]]

Climate correspondent

Rain may have brought respite to baking northern India at the start of this week, after more than a month of extreme heat - but such uncomfortable temperatures are likely to hit more often as the planet warms.

Scientists working with the World Weather Attribution initiative said climate change made this year's devastating early heat in India and Pakistan 30 times more likely [[link removed]] - and warned that with future global warming, heatwaves like this will become even more common and severe.

They noted, too, that the people hit hardest are those who must go outside to earn a daily wage, such as street vendors, construction and farm workers and traffic police, who lack access to consistent electricity and cooling at home, limiting their options to cope with prolonged heat stress.

Our correspondents in Delhi and Karachi [[link removed]] reported from their cities on the impacts on locals like fruit seller Mohammad Ikrar who has fed dozens of rotting mangoes and melons to passing stray cows at the end of each day as he doesn't own a refrigerator, meaning his fruit quickly spoils.

"This heat is torturous. But if I want to buy an AC (air conditioner) or fridge one day, I have to do this," said Ikrar, wearing a full sleeve shirt and white headwrap to fend off the 44C heat on the streets of Noida, a satellite city of New Delhi.

Almost 323 million people across India are at high risk from extreme heat and a lack of cooling equipment such as fans and refrigerators, found a report released last week by Sustainable Energy for All, which also listed China, Indonesia and Pakistan as "critical" countries.

Nozipho Sithole holds a fellow survivor’s baby in the community hall where they sleep at night in Ntuzuma, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. May 12, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Kim Harrisberg

In South Africa, meanwhile, communites in KwaZulu-Natal province have been battered by heavy rains once again in recent days.

The new disaster comes hard on the heels of last month's floods, which killed at least 430 people, displaced thousands and caused damage estimated at 10 billion rand ($685 million).

The crisis - as seen with rising cases of extreme weather around the world - has also left mental scars.

In South Africa, many flood survivors are still traumatised or grieving [[link removed]], and others feel defeated and unable to start rebuilding their lives, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Our reporter Kim Harrisberg went to talk to some sheltering at a community centre - including Nozipho Sithole, who when she closes her eyes to sleep still hears the screams of her neighbour's two young children as they were swept away by the floodwaters.

A gas flare burns in the middle of the Amazon rainforest near Lago Agrio, Ecuador. April 23, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Fabio CutticaImage Caption and Rights Information

The burden of climate change and the fossil fuel industry fuelling it is falling on people in many unseen ways in poorer parts of the world.

Rural families in Bangladesh are using a large chunk of their budgets to protect themselves from floods, storms and rising seas, especially lower-income households headed by women who are allocating up to 30% of their spending [[link removed]] for that purpose, researchers said last week.

And in Ecuador, Anastasia Moloney visited the tropical town of Lago Agrio at the heart of the country's oil industry in the Amazon rainforest where indigenous people, farming communities, green activists and lawyers have said gas flaring causes serious damage to the environment and health, contaminating the air and water supplies.

There young people are leading demands for a ban [[link removed]] on the use of the flares, buoyed by court rulings that are starting to recognize the toxic fallout of the practice, even as Ecuador's government plans to ramp up oil production.

"What's happening here is a crime," said 11-year-old Leonela Moncayo who filed a landmark case against the government with eight other schoolgirls. "We'll keep fighting for future generations."

And we'll have more from Ecuador soon on lessons from indigenous groups battling to protect the Amazon - keep reading!

Megan

In Ecuador's Amazon, youth take up the fight against oil pollution [[link removed]]

Young activists in the oil town of Lago Agrio are demanding government action to remove gas flares in the rainforest following a landmark court ruling

Millions at risk as India's severe heatwave exposes cooling gaps [[link removed]]

As India and Pakistan struggled to cope with soaring temperatures this month, experts warn lack of access to cooling tech like AC, fridges and fans will cost lives and livelihoods

COVID-hit China urged to move U.N. summit to save global nature deal [[link removed]]

About 195 countries were set to finalise an accord to safeguard plants, animals and ecosystems at the U.N. talks, known as COP15, which had been due to start late last month in the Chinese city of Kunming

Bhutan looks to taxis to jump-start stalled electric vehicle push [[link removed]]

After one false start and pandemic-related delays, the Himalayan kingdom's project to put more battery-powered cars on the road is picking up speed

Women in rural Bangladesh pay more for rising cost of climate disasters [[link removed]]

Poor households headed by women spend a higher share of their budgets on protecting their families from worsening floods, storms and other impacts of global warming

Egypt's street trees fall foul of urban development drive [[link removed]]

Protests by Cairo residents and environmentalists over tree-felling come as Egypt’s government prepares to host the COP27 climate summit in November

South Africa flooding victims traumatised and homeless [[link removed]]

Recent floods left thousands homeless as they battle the mental scars that make finding work an ongoing struggle

OPINION: Planting trees cannot be our only solution for climate change [[link removed]]

When we think about preserving nature, many of us envision planting trees - but this is an oversimplification of a much more complicated reality

OPINION: Animal agriculture faces 'Apollo 13' climate moment, but solutions aren't rocket science [[link removed]]

From heat stress and the impact of drought on pasture to carbon taxes, the meat industry faces significant risks from climate change - but there are alternatives

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