Just 0.5°C rise in temperature will make area the size of US unlivable for humans

As climate change continues to worsen the situation across the world with extreme weather events becoming the norm, a new study reveals that just a -5 degree Celcius rise in temperature will lead to more parts of the planet becoming too hot for humans to live in. The team drew together scientific findings to link physical climate science with heat mortality risk, including crossing ‘uncompensable’ and ‘unsurvivable’ thresholds. Scientists distinguish between uncompensable thresholds, beyond which human core body temperature rises uncontrollably, and unsurvivable thresholds, where the body’s core temperature increases to 42°C within six hours. The team also revealed that certain regions are more at risk of crossing the critical uncompensable and unsurvivable thresholds, with people in Saharan Africa and South Asia most in the firing line. The team noted that the three deadliest heat events of the 21st Century collectively caused nearly 2,00,000 deaths, including about 72,000 across Europe during 2003, another 62,000 across Europe in 2022, and the Russian heatwave of 2010, which killed around 56,000.