1/3 Of The World's Population Will Live In Areas Too Hot To Survive By 2070, With India Suffers The Most

According to a new study, if we do nothing to slow down the warming level of the Earth, 3 billion people will have to live in areas too hot for humans to survive in 2070.

The finding was made public on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this week. The international team behind it warned if we do nothing to reduce the greenhouse gas emission that can trap heat, in the next 50 years, billions of people will have to live in an unfavorable temperature that does not sustain life.

Our planet is on its way to gain at least 3°C by 2100 and since land gets hotter faster than oceans, what humans actually experience is an increase of 7.5°C by the year 2070.

The Sahara region is among the places with the most extreme heat with average temperature usually above 29°C. For now, these regions account for only 0.8% of the Earth.

However, scientists warn, if the current warming rate remains, the figure will spread to cover 19% of our planet’s land area in the next 50 years, putting the lives of 3.5 billion people at risk.

The regions that will be affected include Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, South America, Australia, and Arabian Peninsula.

As stated by Chi Xu of Nanjing University's School of Life Sciences, the study’s co-author, the worst-affected areas would be India and Nigeria with the largest number of people under the effect of unlivable heat.

However, there is still hope. If we can cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, this dire consequences can be avoided. Chi said with effective climate mitigation measures, we could alleviate climate change’s influence on humans.

>>> If You Don’t Like The Hot Weather, This Portable AC Is For You