Mexico, the United States and some parts of Europe experienced brutal heat waves in 2023. The temperatures recorded set off the alarms of the world’s governments and scientists who seek to somehow stop global warming.
The figures for the increase in temperatures are being met as established in the Paris Agreement (1.5°C annually). However, a study carried out by the University of Pennsylvania and Purdue University finds that it is not enough: it should be lowered much more so that billions of people do not suffer the consequences.
What are the consequences? uninhabitable areas; heat that exceeds the tolerance of any human body, even though some physiognomies are suitable for high temperatures. The research team from the two aforementioned study houses created a model of temperature increases ranging between 1.5°C and 4°C.
For the model, they considered the highest temperatures, to be able to see which areas would be most affected, according to the review. Very interesting.
Uninhabitable areas due to high temperatures
Thus they found that people living in Pakistan and the Indus River Valley of India; eastern China; and a large part of Africa, will register temperatures that are intolerable for anyone.
“To understand how complex real-world problems like climate change will affect human health requires expertise on both the planet and the human body. I am not a climate scientist and my collaborators are not physiologists.
Collaboration is the only way to understand the complex ways the environment will affect people’s lives and begin to develop solutions to the problems we must all face together,” explained study co-author W. Larry Kenney, professor of Physiology and Kinesiology at Penn State University.
“If temperatures continue to rise, we will live in a world where crops are failing and millions or billions of people are trying to migrate because their native regions are uninhabitable,” the authors added.
Tropics and subtropics are regions that will be affected, causing the extensions of our world to be unable to accommodate the development of life as we know it.