Southeast Asia ‘in a frying pan’ as extreme heat ‘rewrites climatic history’
Inside the small classroom, 50 teenagers are struggling to keep cool. One of the two ceiling fans is broken, and the free-standing alternatives reach only a handful of the students.
“Imagine all 50 people, sharing those fans,” says Heart Coña, a grade 11 pupil in General Santos City, on the southern tip of the Philippines, where a punishing heatwave has driven temperatures above 40 degrees.
“The heat here is like standing under the blazing sun on a scorching summer day, except it lasts from morning ‘till evening,” the 17-year-old adds. “It’s the kind of heat that makes you feel like you’re melting, where seeking shade provides little relief as even the air feels hot to breathe.”
Children rest in the shade by the train tracks in the Khlong Toei district of Bangkok as the region broils in extreme heat
Inside the small classroom, 50 teenagers are struggling to keep cool. One of the two ceiling fans is broken, and the free-standing alternatives reach only a handful of the students.
uk.yahoo.com