Q1.
If your area is getting warmer, what actions can be taken to keep it cool?
Answer
Two kinds of action work: add shade and greenery, and stop surfaces from soaking up heat.
1. Plant trees, and keep the old ones
- Plant shade trees along the roads and around the school and houses — neem, peepal, banyan, gulmohar, jamun.
- Under a big tree it is several degrees cooler than in the open. A tree also lets water out through its leaves, and that cools the air, exactly as sweat cools you.
- Saving one old tree does more than planting ten saplings. Big trees give big shade; a sapling gives almost none for years.
2. Change the surfaces
- Paint roofs white or with reflective paint.
- Do not cement every open patch of ground. Bare soil and grass stay much cooler than concrete and tar, and they let rain soak in.
- Use light-coloured paint on outside walls.
3. Keep water in the area
- Clean and refill the village pond or the town lake. Water bodies cool the air all around them.
- Harvest rainwater instead of letting it run into drains.
4. Make less heat
- Switch off lights, fans and vehicles that are not in use — every running machine gives out heat.
- Walk, cycle or share a vehicle for short distances.
- Never burn leaves or rubbish. Burning heats the air and fills it with harmful smoke. Compost the leaves instead.
5. Build to catch the breeze
- Windows on opposite walls, so air can pass right through a room.
- Shade the windows that get the afternoon Sun — a chhajja, a curtain, a creeper on a frame.
Why a city becomes hotter than the village around it: Concrete, tar and rooftops absorb heat all day and give it out again at night, so the city never cools down properly. Trees, open soil and water do the opposite. So the cure is not one big machine — it is many small patches of green, shade and water, spread all over the area.
What your class can do this month: plant three shade trees near the school gate and take responsibility for watering them; ask that the roof of the hottest classroom be white-washed before summer; and check that the trees already growing on your street are not being cut for a widening or a signboard.