Rising Temperatures May Make Persian Gulf Uninhabitable By 2090
Image Source: The Washington Post
For many, climate change is easy to ignore in as much as the threat is abstract, imagined, and of the future. But when rising temperatures literally make cities uninhabitable–and when that breaking point may come within this very century–climate change is much harder to ignore.
A new study from the journal Nature Climate Change predicts that the Persian Gulf will experience temperatures that cross the habitability threshold before the century is out. “The threats to human health may be much more severe than previously thought,” said Christoph Schaer, a physicist and climate modeler at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, Switzerland.
While the threat is certainly more intense in areas like the Persian Gulf, places like the United States will not at all be immune. Researchers predict that the number of “dangerous” heat events in the U.S. will rise from four, in 2010, to 35, by 2090. Furthermore, we may soon see “extraordinarily dangerous” heat events that cross the lethal threshold.
“If you’re in the shade and you’re engaging in a 150-watt activity–moderate exercise–in an hour you’ll have a skin temperature and core temperature of 104 degrees,” said Robert Kopp, a co-author of the study and associate director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. “Those sorts of days have no precedent in the United States.”
For more, visit The Washington Post.
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