Scientists Warn - Even W. "Just" 2C Increase, 1 Billion People Will Face Potentially Lethal Heat

[hatrack]

A billion people will be affected by extreme heat stress if the climate crisis raises the global temperature by just 2C, according to research released by the UK Met Office at the Cop26 climate summit. The scientists said that would be a 15-fold increase on the numbers exposed today.

The key goal of Cop26 is to keep the chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C alive but delegates said there is much work to do to achieve this in the summit’s final week.

The Met Office assessed wet-bulb temperature, which combines both heat and humidity. Once this measure reaches 35C, the human body cannot cool itself by sweating and even healthy people sitting in the shade will die within six hours. The Met Office analysis used a wet-bulb temperature limit of 32C, at which workers must rest regularly to avoid heat exhaustion, for at least 10 days a year. If efforts to end the climate emergency fail and temperatures rise by 4C, half of the world’s population will suffer from this extreme heat stress.

EDIT

Scientists have been warning about deadly levels of heat and humidity for some years. A 2015 study showing the Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, set to suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked. The deadliest place on the planet for extreme future heatwaves will be the north China plain, one of the most densely populated regions in the world and the most important food-producing area in the huge nation, according to 2018 research.

EDIT/END

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/1bn-people-will-suffer-extreme-heat-at-just-2c-heating-say-scientists

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. But poor little

Over wealthy sociopaths waaant their money.

The little people will die who cares they are all expendable to the oil companies,

The billionairs want thier money and they dont care what thier products kill.

[Random Boomer]

2. No one has ever cared

Humans are tribal, and their concern is directed toward the immediate circle of people around them; that's just the way we're built. Those of us who identify at a global level with the fate of the entire planet, we're the anomalies, the weird individuals who are screaming into the wind.

[Delphinus]

4. I've never

thought of it that way, thank you.

And, yes, screaming into the wind is an appropriate metaphor.

[hunter]

3. A Texas scale heat and power failure crisis in the U.S.A....

... is going to look a lot worse than the 2021 Texas winter power crisis.