Thousands Could Perish Annually In US If Global Heating Not Curbed, Study Finds
Source: The Guardian
- Every year nearly 5,800 people are expected to die in New York, 2,500 in Los Angeles and more than 2,300 in Miami.
Thousands of heat-related deaths in major US cities could be avoided if rising global temperatures are curbed, new research has found. On current global heating trends, thousands of people are set to perish due to the heat every year across 15 major US cities, in an analysis by a team of British and American researchers.
Once the average worldwide temperature rises to 3C (5.4F) above the pre-industrial period nearly 5,800 people are expected to die each year in New York City due to the heat, more than 2,500 are forecast to die annually in Los Angeles and more than 2,300 lives will be lost annually in Miami.
This dire scenario would probably be avoided if the world was able to keep to its commitments made in the Paris climate agreement, where governments pledged to limit the global temperature rise to 2C, with an aspiration to keep the increase to 1.5C.
If global heating was limited to 1.5C, a total of 2,716 lives would be saved each year from heat mortality in New York City, the researchers found. Thousands of lives across other US cities would also be saved, right down to San Francisco, where 114 people a year would avoid dying due to the heat, compared to a 3C world. -MORE...
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/thousands-could-perish-annually-us-global-heating-study
Researchers project that overall, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia are set to experience the largest number of heat-related deaths, with places such as Boston and San Francisco suffering less death tolls.
The earth has warmed by around 1C since the start of the Industrial Rev., mainly from the release of heat-trapping gases from human activity such as power generation, transportation and deforestation. The world is on course to heat up by around 3C, even if pledges in the Paris Agreement are met.
Experts have warned the world is now dangerously close to breaching the 1.5C limit, which would push societies to a new reality of severe droughts, coastal flooding, wildfires and the loss of key ecosystems such as coral reefs according to the Univ. of Washington study.
Cities examined include: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
- UW Study, 'Urgent Action On Climate Change Will Prevent Heat-Related Deaths In Major US Cities.' June 5, 2019.
http://www.washington.edu/news/2019/06/05/urgent-action-on-climate-change-will-prevent-heat-related-deaths-in-major-u-s-cities/?menu2=http://www.washington.edu/news/category/research/
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