As many as 4 million people in India scratch out a living searching through landfills for anything they can sell. These waste pickers endure a miserable job that is growing more dangerous as climate change leads to rising heat. In the northern city of Jammu, this summer's temperatures have regularly surpassed 43 degrees Celsius, or about 110 Fahrenheit. It's not just the heat that's dangerous. Summer means more landfill fires that release dangerous fumes from burning items like plastics. And even ordinary decomposition of garbage rises along with heat, increasing methane and carbon dioxide emissions. One garbage picker in Jammu, 65-year-old Usmaan Shekh, hopes to earn the equivalent of $4 a day. If he doesn't work, his family doesn't eat.
