Weather

One billion people at risk of heat-stress if temperatures rise above 2C

Glasgow, Nov 9 (EFE).- The number of people affected by heat-stress could reach up to one billion people if the world’s temperature rises above 2C, the United Kingdom’s Met Office warned Tuesday.

Currently, some 68 million people across regions are affected by extreme heat-stress. If temperatures rise above 2C, this figure would increase 15 fold, according to the study.

Human heat-stress is dependent on temperature and humidity and indicated using the wet bulb globe temperature WBGT.

When the WBGT reaches 32C, vulnerable populations are at “extreme risk” of adverse health effects from extreme heat.

A map released by the UK national weather service showed that if temperatures rise by 4C, nearly half of the world’s population would be at risk of heat-stress.

“This new combined analysis shows the urgency of limiting global warming to well below 2C,” professor Richard Betts MBE of the University of Exeter and Met Office said in a statement.

“The higher the level of warming, the more severe and widespread the risks to people’s lives, but it is still possible to avoid these higher risks if we act now,” he urged.

A host of world leaders are currently gathered in Glasgow for the United Nations COP26 climate summit in a bid to agree on a path to keep global temperatures below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, a target designed to avoid the worst effects of global warming.EFE

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