If there’s one thing that unites India’s 1.3 billion people, it is heat. Even in a country with a variety of regional climates—from tropical to Himalayan alpine—hot, sweaty summers are a constant. For centuries, Indians have developed original approaches to enduring such extremes by dressing in breathable, handspun cotton and building low-energy, naturally cooling architecture. But scientists predict that longer, hotter summers and more frequent heat waves could overwhelm the subcontinent. The country has seen a 33.3 degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature since 1901, compounded by severe urban air pollution. Climate change puts India’s handloom sector in a particularly delicate position, as its age-old khadi and silk weaving crafts are threatened by economic and environmental stress. The Indian textile sector employs more than 40 million weavers, dyers, and tailors; it is the country’s second-largest employer after agriculture and accounts for 60% of textiles imported by the United States and Europe. But as the country struggles to control another wave of COVID-19, the textile indust...

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