Labour In Global Warming

 

Temperatures of more than 50 degrees Celsius. Normal, and sometimes fatal for construction site laborers in Qatar. It’s thought some 400 million workers around the world are suffering in the increasing heat. Climate change is exacerbating social inequality everywhere.

Whether it’s construction workers in the Middle East, parcel delivery drivers in the US or farm laborers in Central America - they’re all being pushed to their physical limits. An increasing number of epidemiologists, doctors and economists are warning of a risk that’s also heading Europe’s way: heat can kill. The film tells the story of the many migrant laborers who arrive in Qatar in good health, but who die on the job. The deaths are officially put down to natural causes. But they are linked to the inhumane temperatures that prevail in the region. 

Heat can also be a stealthy killer. The documentary focuses on the first occupational illness directly attributable to heat: chronic renal failure discovered in sugar cane plantation workers Nicaragua and El Salvador. Kidney disease can also be observed in UPS parcel carriers in the US, who drive in non-air-conditioned vehicles and follow a tight work schedule.

Climate change is exacerbating social inequality worldwide and drawing up new boundaries between those who in a position to protect themselves from its consequences, and all those helplessly at the mercy of rising temperatures.