Climate change could make it dangerous for humans to go outside – we must act | Science | News
Those who claim that concerns about climate change are driven by hysteria are sorely mistaken and unfortunately not limited to the non-scientific community. Craig Walton’s recent article claiming that the risks of climate change are exaggerated was unfortunately based on unfounded claims. For example, Dr. who studies the origins of planets. “Claims that the frequency and danger of extreme weather events are increasing generally lack a strong scientific basis,” Walton wrote.
This is absolutely not true. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent review of the scientific literature concluded: “Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region of the world. Evidence has strengthened that observed changes in extremes such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts and tropical cyclones are particularly attributable to human influence.”
Just this week the Met Office published evidence that severe heatwaves and droughts are making extreme bushfires more frequent and intense around the world.
Readers, Dr. They could be forgiven for thinking Walton was dismissive of claims that climate change could threaten human civilization, but his talk about “misinformation” was more an expression of hope than knowledge. The truth is that we do not know how human societies will cope with the climate we have created.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s latest analysis of country policies and plans to combat climate change concluded that the global average temperature could be nearly 3 degrees Celsius higher by the end of this century compared to the period before the Industrial Revolution, when we began burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The Earth has not experienced such a global average temperature since the Pliocene Epoch, which lasted about 3 million years, when polar ice caps were much smaller than today and sea levels were 5 to 25 meters higher than today.
Considering that human civilization was created in the last 10,000 years and modern Homo sapiens emerged less than 250,000 years ago, Dr. Walton claims that it is just a dream that we can cope with such a climate.
We must not become complacent about the risks posed by climate change. The global average temperature is currently around 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than before the Industrial Revolution, and the UK is suffering from more intense summer heatwaves and winter rainfall. This summer was the hottest on record; it was even hotter than the summer of 2022, when unprecedented temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius in many parts of the country.
In some parts of the world, daytime temperatures and humidity are now approaching levels where it is dangerous for people to be outside because they cannot cool down by sweating. Living in these parts of the world may become difficult as global temperatures increase.
There is no doubt that the effects of climate change are increasing and damaging lives and livelihoods around the world. These impacts will only stop worsening once the world reaches net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Remaining indifferent or in denial about these risks will only lead to more suffering.
There is no logical reason for any politician or scientist to reject scientific evidence on climate change. Instead, they should lead public and policy debates about the best ways to combat greenhouse gas emissions and the best ways to make our societies more resilient to the effects of climate change that can no longer be avoided.
Bob Ward is Director of Policy and Communications at the Grantham Institute
