I’m glad this isn’t one of those articles that lazily and hypocritically bashes India and other developing countries for daring to buy the same appliances and conveniences the West did and continues to for fear of future environmental impact. In fact, it acknowledges a governmental push towards more efficient ACs, anticipation of and plans to deal with the electrical demand of wider use of ACs, the use of air coolers as alternatives, better design of buildings, an early warning system to deal with upcoming heat waves
On the other hand, with rising temperatures, this is what could eventually happen, even in the best-case scenario:
People will have to run air conditioners constantly, and new energy sources will have to be built to power them. There will have to be air-conditioned transit because people won’t be able to bike in the sweltering streets. Working hours will have to be shifted to avoid the hottest parts of the day. New buildings will have to be designed that can stay cool with less energy. Maybe, he said, those buildings will have to be prefabricated in cooled warehouses to minimize time spent outdoors. Maybe workers will have to wear personal cooling gear, like the solar-powered cooling hardhats Qatar is experimenting with. Heat kills animals, too, so livestock will have to be brought inside and cooled