The human cost of global warming

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-05-23 01:00

Australia; International; NT

Around 2 billion people will be exposed to dangerous heat conditions if we remain on the path towards 2.7°C of global warming, according to new international research that outlines the human cost of climate inaction. The study shows that the narrow Goldilocks range of the earth's climate, where it is not too hot or too cold to live, called the “climate niche”, is rapidly shrinking. Australia in particular is highlighted as a country that would experience massive increases in land area exposed to extreme heat, if temperatures rise 2.7°C.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Sustainability

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Organisation/s: Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, UK

Funder: T.M.L. is supported by a Turing Fellowship. C.X. is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFF1301000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32061143014) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (9610065). J.-C.S. is supported by VILLUM Investigator project ‘Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World’ funded by VILLUM FONDEN (grant 16549). M.S. is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and a Spinoza award. This work is part of the Earth Commission, which is hosted by Future Earth and is the science component of the Global Commons Alliance. The Global Commons Alliance is a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, with support from Oak Foundation, MAVA, Porticus, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Herlin Foundation and the Global Environment Facility.

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