74% of the world's population could be exposed to deadly heat waves by 2100

Map of places vulnerable to lethal heat waves

Possible scenario for the year 2100 in which emissions have not been reduced. Yellow represents 10 days of deadly heat, and black 365 days. Image - Screenshot.

Heat waves are meteorological phenomena that will be produced more and more frequently going forward as the global average temperature continues to rise. For now, who else who least remembers the one in 2003, which killed 11.435 people in France alone, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.

Currently, 30% of the world's population is exposed to a potentially fatal heat wave for 20 days a year or more. If emissions are not reduced, by the year 2100 this percentage could be 74% according to a study developed at the University of Hawaii (Manoa, USA) and published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The study authors used three types of scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to create a Interactive map where you can see the risks. Each of them is known as a Representative Concentration Path or CPR.

Thus, we can see that keeping emissions at the same level as today (RCP 2.6 scenario), in 2050 in places like Panama there will be 195 days of lethal heat year; in Bangkok (Thailand) 173 days, and in Caracas (Venezuela), 55 days. But if there is an increase in emissions (RCP 4.5), by the end of the century in places like Malaga there will be 56 days of potentially dangerous heat wave.

Thermometer

The sad thing is that although countries take the necessary measures to reduce environmental pollution people are going to die from excessive heat. A heat that, when there is high humidity, the body is not able to release.

You can read the study here.


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