Poor To Get Worst Hit If Global Temperature Rises: Study

Unless greenhouse gas emissions fall, a large population will experience average temperatures hotter than 29-degree celsius, which is considered outside the climate threshold in which humans have prospered for the past 6,000 years.

A UN report found that even if countries adhere to the Paris climate agreement, the world was on course for a 3-degree Celsius temperature rise.

The majority of the population resides in places where the average temperature is 11–15 degrees Celsius. A smaller number of the population lives in areas where the average temperature is 20–25 degrees Celsius.

Global warming causes the temperature to rise by three degrees, a vast number of people are going to be living in temperatures considered outside the “climate niche”.

Mr. Lenton, climate specialist and director of the global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, conducted the study with scientists from China, the US, and Europe.

Lenton in an interview to the BBC said, “The land warms up faster than the ocean due to which land is warming more than three degrees. Population growth is projected to be in already hot places, mostly, Sub-Saharan Africa, which shifts the average person to a hotter temperature.”

Areas projected to be affected include northern Australia, India, Africa, South America, and parts of the Middle East.The study raises concerns about those in poorer areas who will be unable to shelter from the heat.

“For me, the study is not about the rich who can just get inside an air-conditioned building and insulate themselves from anything. We have to be concerned with those who don’t have the means to isolate themselves from the weather and the climate around them,” Mr. Lenton said.

The main message from the team’s findings, says Mr. Lenton, is “Limiting climate change could have huge benefits in reducing the number of people projected to fall outside of the climate niche.