India and Pakistan could see more than usual number of heat waves per year by 2100 if the countries continue to contribute to the greenhouse effect as they are doing currently, according to a study.
Climate change is a reality and extremely high temperatures have been reported by India and Pakistan this year.
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden noted that heat waves are expected to increase, affecting up to half a billion people every year.
In turn, they can lead to food shortages, deaths and refugee flows when the heat reaches levels that exceed what humans can tolerate, they said.
However, the researchers said, this does not have to happen if measures are put in place to reach the Paris Agreement targets of keeping the temperature rise below 2 degrees.
The study, published in the journal Earth's Future, outlined different scenarios for the consequences of heat waves in South Asia by the year 2100.
"We established a link between extreme heat and population. In the best scenario, we succeeded in meeting the targets in the Paris Agreement, which added roughly two heat waves per year, exposing about 200 million people to the heat waves," said Deliang Chen, Professor at the University of Gothenburg and one of the authors of the research article.
"But if countries continue to contribute to the greenhouse effect as they are still doing now, clearing and building on land that is actually helping to lower global temperatures, we believe that there could be as...
Read Full Story: https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/world/story/india-pakistan-may-witness-heat-waves-more-frequently-in-future-study-339527-2022-06-28
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.
