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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 28 2015, @01:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-global-warming? dept.

The Hindustan Times reports:

An unrelenting heat wave has killed more than 1,100 people across the country over a fortnight with southern neighbours Andhra Pradesh and Telangana bearing the brunt, as torrid temperatures melted roads in the national capital and have forced people indoors.

Authorities said on [May 26] most of the victims were construction workers, the elderly, or the homeless, as the weather office predicted the mercury will continue to soar this week with substantial relief expected only when the southwest monsoon hits the Indian mainland around May 31.

[...] The meteorological department issued "red box" warnings for Odisha, Jharkhand, and coastal Andhra Pradesh, signalling high chances of heatstroke, dehydration, and fatality with temperatures inching upwards of 45°C and conditions worsened by constant dry, sweltering winds.

[The state of] Odisha continued to reel, with [the town of] Titlagarh in Balangir district clocking the highest temperature of 47.6°C [117.7°F], while authorities said they received reports of 67 deaths in the past week.

[...] Experts warned [that] no let-up in the heat wave would lead to large-scale power outages in several parts of north India, bringing back memories of a horrific blackout in 2012 that affected nearly 600 million people.

In a separate story, Arne Winguth, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas-Arlington led a study on future environmental conditions in central Texas in the year 2100.

The professor was interviewed by KERA TV:

Winguth's study predicts more cracks and potholes, even buckling and melting of roadways in extreme 125-degree heat.

"The 125° Fahrenheit is a prediction for the future that is predicted for the year 2100. That would be the extreme temperature--that is based on most recent climate assimilation from the National Center for Atmospheric research."


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 28 2015, @08:22PM

    by Reziac (2489) on Thursday May 28 2015, @08:22PM (#189300) Homepage

    The fact that we need more than just sodium salt is probably why ramen flavor packets work so well... my guess is they contain a lot of potassium, that being the critical element when someone is to the nauseated stage; consuming a ramen flavor packet and some water effects a cure in about 10 minutes. (I had the fun of beating a former Seattle resident with a cluestick til she figured out life in the desert....)

    That article doesn't strike me as very balanced either, in fact looks to me like it comes from the vegan agenda side of things... eating carbs, and more critically, fibre, helps dehydrate you: water is required to metabolize carbs, and fibre retains water in the gut rather than letting the gut resorb it; that water is lost.** Conversely, metabolizing fat releases some water into your system.

    Gatorade doesn't rehydrate well because it's too "thick" -- too much salt (here meaning sodium, potassium, et al.) and especially too much sugar; overall, it makes you more thirsty, not less (well, that sells you more Gatorade, eh?) Dilute it by half and it's not so bad. The stuff made as livestock electrolyte (made to treat scouring calves) works best, but tastes like pee.

    The formula used to rehydrate kids by relief workers in Africa is one cup of water, a three-finger pinch of salt, and about a spoonful of sugar. I remember when this was first promulgated by relief outfits some decades ago, and how much better it worked than water alone. Suddenly their save rate went way up, IIRC something like 90% vs 10% for plain water.

    ** Realworld example: Raising fibre in dog food by just one percent =doubles= the amount of water the dog needs to drink. And substituting soybean meal for meat meal doubles or even triples the dog's water requirement, if not more -- I've seen the water needs of a medium-sized dog go from about a gallon a day to over FIVE gallons a day, just from being put on a high-fibre, soy-based diet. Conversely, substitute fat for some of the carbs and the dog's water intake will shrink by up to half.

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
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