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In the summer of 2016, temperatures in Phalodi, an old caravan town on a dry plain in northwestern India, reached a blistering 51°C-a record high during a heat wave that claimed more than 1600 lives across the country. Wider access to air conditioning (AC) could have prevented many deaths-but only 8% of India's 249 million households have AC. As the nation's economy booms, that figure could rise to 50% by 2050. And that presents a dilemma: As India expands access to a life-saving technology, it must comply with international mandates-the most recent imposed just last fall-to eliminate coolants that harm stratospheric ozone or warm the atmosphere. [Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)]
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