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Title: India Needs To Turn the Air-Con On

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/29/2011...

India faces a paradoxical climate challenge that requires embracing air
conditioning despite the environmental costs, according to analysis of the
country's warming patterns and pollution crisis. While the past decade marked
India's warmest on record, the nation has warmed at only 0.09C per decade
compared to 0.30C globally, with horrific air pollution serving as an
unintended cooling agent by intercepting solar radiation and making clouds
more reflective. The cooling effect creates a dangerous trade-off: cleaner
air would accelerate temperature rises just as the country desperately needs
relief from intensifying heat waves. Only one in ten Indian households owns
air conditioning, compared to two-thirds in China and four-fifths in
Malaysia, despite air-conditioner sales doubling between 2020 and 2024.
During heat waves, cooling systems already account for one-fifth of power
demand, mostly supplied by coal plants that worsen the pollution problem
India must eventually solve.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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