My tuxedo cat Poppy was a two kg loud “meowler”. I say meowler because his meows were practically cat howls each time he demanded food. However, when I walked into my apartment on that suffocating day in June 2023, I found him panting in a corner near the ventilation duct. A freak meteorological combination of humidity and hot continental air from Cyclone Biporjoy’s churning over the Arabian Sea had caused my sun-exposed apartment to turn into a tandoor [clay oven] — a hot and muggy enclosure.

I realised Poppy was indoors since the morning, ie exposed to an extended period of heat, had become heat-stressed and was suffering from heat exhaustion. I instantly hauled his warm body to my room. An hour later, his panting ended with him fast asleep in my arms.

This was the first time I felt I was at a loss to provide the care and comfort for him when I am not at my apartment. I comically imagined him grabbing the AC remote with his pink toe-beans to switch it on, much like I imagined him opening the refrigerator to acquire his food.

Of course, those are just imaginaries. The reality is as a housecat, Poppy — like other non-human species — was dependent on me as his kahu or guardian to protect and preserve his life from all forms of danger. This includes monitoring any increase in indoor heat during the hellish summers of Karachi.

As Karachi experiences sweltering conditions under record-breaking heat in 2025, unchecked urban development, energy poverty and poor governance are creating dangerous microclimates for its most vulnerable citizens

AN INVISIBLE SUFFERING

His feline existence is 100 percent dependent on the kind of decisions I can make for him concerning his living environment. It also includes monitoring and managing the build-up of heat and its risks inside our shared living space because of the double action of sustained urban warming and micro-urban heat islands, such as in this scenario. When it is hot, the two of us need to stay grounded in my room with the air conditioner turned on for hours — a privileged activity.

Life with heat stress is the new norm and this has come to dominate here in the concrete jungle of cement, glass and steel in this southern megacity in Pakistan and other high-density urban agglomerations across South Asia and the Global South.

2025 is coming to be known as the year of higher-than-average temperatures recorded across South Asia, beginning from February. This is unprecedented. India recorded its warmest February in 125 years. Bangladesh logged its highest day and night temperatures since 1948, while above-high temperatures were measured for Sri Lanka in over a decade. Essentially, I witnessed the shortest spring of my life to date.

Farmers across the region saw risks to their wheat and other crop yields as higher temperatures impact crop development just before the harvest season. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has been recording temperature anomalies since February through June 2025, with the month of April registering three distinct hot spells across Pakistan. The forecasts for the remainder of the summers already point to higher-than-average temperatures that will be breaking established records.

This is the ‘new normal’ and we are fast moving into unknown territory.

THE LIVED IMPACT

I have written in-depth on the lived impact faced by the citizens of Karachi and other similar urban-blocs of the Global South dealing with urban heat and rising greenhouse gas emissions. Unplanned and variegated urban development, building material and design, construction, other anthropogenic sources of heat, and increased densification and expansion are leaving regions during peak summers at dangerously higher risks to continuous heat-exposure — both indoors and outdoors.

Heat stress as a phenomenon is now a worldwide problem. However, countries of the Global South are at higher risk due to the scale of the impact, given the high population numbers, fast urbanising trends and energy poverty.

While the year-on-year rise in urban warming as Karachi has expanded has been a permanent feature, the risks are higher today because of an increasing frequency of above-average air temperatures. An unchecked increase in heat-retaining built-environments and the growing usage of air conditioners — as a natural consequence of attempting to stay cool — are further adding to heat stress felt inside microclimates.

In Karachi, the high-density zones are where a large part of the urban poor reside and who also provide ancillary services as daily-wage earners. These are your street hawkers and vendors, food delivery riders, mechanics, factory workers, those who work in the construction industry and as house-help, and several others who constitute the megacity’s political economy. Many reside in areas with unregulated building quality standards and limited green spaces and are thus at a higher risk. During hot days, it is normal for families to spend their nights sleeping in public spaces, including the beaches at Seaview or on open green belts across the megacity.

Indoor heat — a less studied form of heat exposure — in such zones is causing residents and workers alike to be subjected to increased local........

© Dawn (Magazines)