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  India has been in the grip of extreme heat for several months now. No doubt, you may have heard that this has something to do with the El Niño. In this blog post, I clarify some popular misconceptions about this phenomenon, its impacts and what constructive insights can be taken from this harsh ordeal. For this blog post, I will rely on the example of this Instagram video  which, at the time of writing, had 820+ thousand likes. Clearly, it would have influenced a lot of people's opinion on the ongoing extreme heat. As a climate scientist, I find certain aspects of the video misleading in ways that are important to rectify. The video In short, the video discusses the role of the developing 'Super El Niño' in making Indian cities unlivable right now. It also discusses the concept of the wet bulb temperature, and how important it is to distinguish it from the dry bulb temperature / air temperature. Before I delve into what's wrong with the video, let me say two things ve...

As I begin writing this, the latest CO 2 reading stands at 429.49 ppm and about 50 wars are ongoing in the world. It feels easier today to sympathize with someone who is not "interested" in tackling climate change. So I write today, not as a climate scientist looking to clarify any technical aspects of the climate crisis, but as a climate-conscious citizen looking to share something that brings her hope. I started thrifting about 7 years ago, when I moved to Montreal. A close friend introduced me to the practice and I cannot be thankful enough. Thrifting is essentially the practice of frequenting "thrift stores" or "used goods stores", knowing that you can find many useful things over time even though you can never be sure of what you would find on a particular day. The practice seems to be quite common and widely accepted in many cities in North America and Europe. This is heartening because these are also the regions with high per capita emissions. I h...