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The heat waves that are impossible to survive without air conditioning could soon affect the world of what they do now, has found a new study.
This change could occur -even if climate change remains within the limits of international agreements, according toresultsPosted on Tuesday in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.
Heat waves have killed more than 260,000 people since 1990, and a large research body shows that the human cream of fossil fuelsMakes these events more common.
The next increase in temperature means an urgent need for hot climate countries to adapt to prepare for the “unusual heat thresholds,” said the main author Tom Matthews, who teaches environmental geography at Kings College of Londonstatement.
These are conditions in which “prolonged outdoor exposure, even for those in the shade, subjected to a strong, well -hydrated breeze, is expected to cause a lethal heat stroke”, until And all in young people, said Matthews.
At current warm -up levels, these heat events currently affect about 2 percent of the Earth’s Earth Earth, or about 14 times Texas size, researchers found. For adults over the age of 60, the regions are currently at risk of lethal heat waves ten times higher: 20 percent of the earth’s surface.
But if the average temperatures increase to 2 degrees Celsius the total global area of the same size as the United States in general, found the study.
These impacts will be worse for parts of the densely populated equatorial countries in sub -Saharan Africa and South Asia, where billions of people could be at risk, even if planetary heating is kept at bay by significant changes in The way in which the nations of the world use energy and boundaries according to the study, on the burning of fossil fuels.
If they move away from coal cream, oil and gas are not produced, projections suggest that heating could exceed 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit). In this scenario, the study found, 40 percent of the earth’s surface of the planet could feel the impacts of heat waves that adults cannot survive.
In this scenario, Matthews said, only the farthest regions of Ecuador – OOA high elevation – would not be affected.
In all cases, he said: “As the planet experiences too hot outdoor conditions for our physiology, it will be imperative that people have reliable access to the coolest environments to accommodate the heat” .
These protections may require more than access to air conditioning. Although air conditioning is almost ubiquitous in the cities of southern United States, these protections are vulnerable to disaster. During the post-Hurrican dulls last July millions of residents of Houston, Texas,sweaty in the heat and the darknessFor more than a week, underline the dangers that overlap through a heating planet.
