100 Million Indonesian Citizens Predicted to Be Grilled by Extreme Heat at the End of the 21st Century

Indonesian CNN

Friday, May 26 2023 08:33 WIB

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Scientists estimate temperature Earth will rise 2.7º Celsius in 2100 and affect more than 2 billion people or 22 percent population global.

Studies published in the journal nature mentioning the countries with the highest number of people facing deadly heat in this scenario are India (600 million people), Nigeria (300 million), Indonesia (100 million), and the Philippines and Pakistan (80 million each).

“It is a process of reshaping the habitability of the planet’s surface, and has the potential to lead to large-scale reorganization of where people live,” said Tim Lenton, study author and director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter. ScienceAlert.

Experts also warned against complying with the global warming limit stated in the 2015 Paris climate agreement target of 1.5º Celsius.

This would significantly reduce the number of people affected by extreme heat to less than half a billion people. That figure is about 5 percent of the 9.5 billion people who may inhabit this planet six or seven decades from now.

Furthermore, warming levels below 1.2º Celsius to date have increased the intensity or duration of heatwaves, droughts and forest fires beyond what they could have done without carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels and forests.

“The costs of global warming are often expressed in financial terms, but our research highlights the phenomenal human cost of failing to address the climate emergency,” Lenton said.

“For every 0.1º Celsius of warming above current levels, about 140 million more people will be exposed to dangerous heat,” he added.

Global warming is pushing up temperatures worldwide and increasing the risk of death heat especially in areas already approaching the red line of 29 degrees Celsius.

Continuously high temperatures beyond this threshold are strongly associated with greater deaths, decreased labor productivity and crop yields, to more conflicts and infectious diseases.

(lom/arh)