How could long-term climate change impact low-income nations? This is what a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the global socioeconomic impacts of climate change. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the non-environmental impacts of climate change and the steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate climate change evolution between now and the end of the century. Specifically, they focused on heat and drought events and how they would impact different global regions. The motivation behind the study stemmed from a knowledge gap in how these events would impact populations on a global scale. In the end, the researchers found that approximately 28 percent of the global population, or approximately 2.6 billion people, will be the most impacted by heat and drought extreme events. Specifically, the researchers note that low-income nations will experience the greatest impact.
“When you get to almost 30% of the global population affected by this, it’s very critical. It should make us consider much, much more deeply our actions in the future,” said Dr. Monica Ionita, who is a climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute and a co-author on the study. “By the end or middle of the century, maybe my children will not be able to experience the life that I have now.”
This study comes as the number and severity of extreme weather events have drastically increased in the past few decades, including higher summer temperatures and more dangerous hurricanes. Therefore, studies like this can help identify future trends so present-day changes can be made to avoid an uncertain future.
What new insight into the future risks of climate change will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Geophysical Research Letters, EurekAlert!
