The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-24)

A14 EZ RE the washington post.tuesday, may 24 , 2022

University.

Many of them are responding

to business imperatives; the rush

of sanctions imposed by Western

governments has made it impos-

sible for foreign firms to conduct

even basic business transactions

in the country.

They have also cited the grow-

ing humanitarian crisis in

Ukraine. The war has displaced

8 million within the country, and

more than 6 million refugees

have been registered by the U.N.

refugee agency, according to data

released Monday.

Weeks into the conflict, the U.S.

State Department determined

that Russian forces had commit-

ted war crimes in Ukraine, citing

indiscriminate bombings as well

as those that deliberately target-

ed buildings known to contain

civilians. A theater filled with

civilians in Ukraine’s southeast-

ern city of Mariupol was bombed

despite having the Russian word

for “children” marked in huge

letters that were visible from the

sky. On Monday, Ukraine’s pros-

ecutor general, Iryna Venedikto-

va, said her country has opened

more than 13,000 investigations

into suspected war crimes com-

mitted by the Russian govern-

ment and military.

In comments published in ear-

ly March when Starbucks tenta-

tively moved away from its Rus-

sian business, the company’s

chief executive at the time, Kevin

Johnson, condemned the “unpro-

voked, unjust and horrific attacks

on Ukraine by Russia,” adding

that “our hearts go out to those

affected.”

The company did not disclose

any Russia-related charges or

write-downs in its quarterly earn-

ings call on May 3, suggesting the

loss of its Russian business may

not have been material to its

finances. Monday’s announce-

ment provided no information on

the financial costs of leaving.

While relatively few U.S. com-

panies want to remain in the

country, many have found that

cutting ties is easier said than

done. Some leading tech compa-

nies, including Google, have been

limited by a 2021 law that re-

quires them to keep employees in

the country.

Other companies have been

reluctant to make any move that

will put their employees at risk of

retaliation. Starbucks, for its part,

said it will pay its 2,000 Russian

employees for six months and

help them find new work outside

the company.

Food retailers have had diffi-

culty fully extricating them­selves

from the country. Many

­quick-service restaurants, such as

KFC and Pizza Hut, are run by

franchisees, limiting a corpora-

tion’s ability to control local oper-

ations.

Last Monday, McDonald’s an-

nounced it would exit the county,

citing the “untenable” business

climate after more than three

decades of investment, and look

for a local buyer. Within days, the

company announced that Siber-

ian franchisee Alexander Govor

would take over as many as 850

stores, operate them under a new

brand, and retain McDonald’s

employees for at least two years.

BY JACOB BOGAGE

AND AARON GREGG

Starbucks announced Monday
that it will exit the Russian mar-
ket, joining such corporate giants
as McDonald’s, ExxonMobil and
Netflix in pulling out of the coun-
try over its invasion of Ukraine.
The coffee giant has 130 shops
in Russia, which account for less
than 1 percent of its annual rev-
enue, according to CNBC.
The Seattle-based chain had
closed those locations, which
were run by franchisees, in March

after the invasion but left open

the possibility of reopening them.

But nearly three months later,

Starbucks announced Monday it

had “made the decision to exit

and no longer have a brand pres-

ence in the market,” according to

an update posted on its website.

Multinational corporations

have fled the country in droves as

financial and reputational liabili-

ties have stacked up during the

war. Nearly 1,000 companies had

curtailed operations in Russia as

of Monday, according to a widely

followed list maintained by Yale

Starbucks exits Russia,

closing all 130 locations

BY KASHA PATEL

The punishing heat experi-
enced by India and Pakistan in
March and April was the most
intense, widespread and persis-
tent in the region’s history. A
study released Monday finds that
human-caused climate change
had made this historic event at
least 30 times as likely. It deter-
mined that climate change elevat-
ed temperatures by about 1.8 de-
grees Fahrenheit (one degree Cel-
sius).
“What was particularly excep-
tional and particularly unusual
was how early it started,” Frieder-
ike Otto, co-author of the study,
said in a news conference on Mon-
day.
India experienced its highest
March temperatures in 122 years,
and Pakistan and northwestern
and central India endured their
hottest April. Numerous all-time
and monthly temperature records
were broken across both coun-
tries. Over the two months, ex-
treme heat affected nearly 70 per-
cent of India and 30 percent of
Pakistan.
This heat event would have
been “highly, highly unlikely” in a
world without climate change,
said Arpita Mondal, a co-author
and professor at the Indian Insti-
tute of Technology Bombay.
The heat took an enormous toll
on people throughout the region.
Workers were no longer able to

work full days outside, putting a

strain on their livelihoods and the

economy. Key farming areas in

India are expected to see a 10 to

35 percent decrease in crop yields

due to the heat wave, driving up

local market prices and reducing

global wheat supplies at a time

when supplies are already under

stress because of Russia’s invasion

of Ukraine. Hundreds of forest

fires also burned across India. In

Pakistan, snowmelt caused a gla-

cial lake to flood and wipe out a

key bridge.

Across the two countries, at

least 90 deaths have been tied to

the heat.

The analysis was conducted by

the group World Weather Attribu-

tion, which uses computer model-

ing to investigate the links be-

tween ongoing weather events

and climate change. The team ran

simulations using 20 different

models with and without the ef-

fects of human-induced climate

change to determine the effect of

rising temperatures on the mag-

nitude of the heat. The results,

which are not yet peer-reviewed,

come from well-established meth-

odologies that have been used in

past analyses, including one con-

ducted on the 2021 Pacific North-

west heat wave.

Otto said that the study’s esti-

mate of climate change’s effect is

conservative because of data con-

straints and that rising tempera-

tures probably increased the like-

lihood of the event “higher than

30 times.”

The study was released five

days after a similar analysis from

the British Met Office. It found

that a record-warm April and May

in northwestern India and Paki-

stan has become about 100 times

as likely because of climate

change. Otto said the Met Office’s

estimation is well within the

range of uncertainty of the latest

study.

“Both show that climate

change is a real game changer

when it comes to these kind of

heat waves,” Otto said. “The main

message to take away here [is]

that adaptation to heat has been

the absolute essential thing to do

in life in every part of the world,

really, but especially also in this

part of the world.”

The World Weather Attribution

study also examined how likely a

heat wave similar to this year’s

would occur in an even warmer

world. The team found that such a

heat wave would become two to

20 times as likely if the planet

reaches 3.6 degrees (two degrees

Celsius) above preindustrial lev-

els.

India has warmed about 1.8 de-

grees (one degree Celsius) since

the preindustrial era. Pakistan

has warmed 2.2 degrees (1.2 de-

grees Celsius).

The study adds to growing re-

search that underlines how cli-

mate change is increasing ex-

treme weather events across the

world. According to the climate

report released by the United Na-

tions last year, evidence shows

that heat waves have increased

across almost all land areas be-

cause of climate change.

“We have studied many heat

waves, and in all cases but one

climate change was clearly as-

sessed as the main driver of the

change in the likelihood,” said

Robert Vautard, director of the

Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute in

France and co-author of several

studies with World Weather Attri-

bution.

Northern India and Pakistan

face another round of heat later

this week. After some relatively

cool weather the next several

days, temperatures are forecast to

rise several degrees above average

Friday into the weekend.

Study: Record heat now far likelier in India, Pakistan

Manish Swarup/Associated Press

Homeless people shelter in the shade of a bridge in New Delhi on Friday. A heat wave experienced by

India and Pakistan in March and April took an enormous toll on the region and led to dozens of deaths.

Health Equity

Aging in America

Wednesday, May 25 at 2:00 p.m.

Thought leaders in the health-care community and a

key lawmaker explore ways telemedicine can provide

better access especially for seniors working full-time at

the highest rate on record.

To register to watch, visit: wapo.st/healthequitymay

or scan code using a smartphone camera:

Listen wherever podcasts are available.

@ P O S T L I V E # P O S T L I V E P R E S E N T I N G S P O N S O R

Johns Hopkins Medicine National Capital Region

is forming vital community partnerships that aim to

promote health equity, while enriching the health and

wellness of our neighbors.

SUSANNA GALLANI, PHD

Assistant Professor

Business Administration

Harvard Business School

LISA FITZPATRICK, MD

Founder & CEO

Grapevine Health

Content from JOHNS HOPKINS

MEDICINE-NATIONAL CAPITAL

REGION

CAROLYN CARPENTER, MHA

President, National Capital Region

Johns Hopkins Health System

DAN BUETTNER

Author