220 crore people in India, Pak at risk of deadly heat due to climate change: Report

According to recent studies, global warming brought on by climate change by the turn of the century may cause heart attacks and heat strokes in some of the world’s most populous regions, such as India and the Indus valley.

According to interdisciplinary research from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development, the Purdue University College of Sciences, and the Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future, if the planet warms by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the effects on human health will be catastrophic.

Only a limited range of heat and humidity levels may be tolerated by humans without causing heat-related illnesses like heat stroke or heart attacks.

According to the study, if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 billion people in eastern China, and 2.2 billion people in Pakistan and India’s Indus River Valley will all endure heat waves that are too intense for human tolerance.

Delhi, Kolkata, Shanghai, Multan, Nanjing, and Wuhan will all take the brunt of this yearly heat wave.

These regions are low- and middle-income countries, thus the residents might not have access to air conditioners or other efficient cooling systems.

The Eastern Seaboard and the midsection of the United States, from Florida to New York and from Houston to Chicago, might see increased heat levels if global warming continues to increase the planet’s temperature by 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The study discovered that South America and Australia will also endure intense temperatures.

However, citizens in rich countries will endure less suffering than those in poor countries, where the sick and elderly may pass away. According to co-author Matthew Huber, professor of Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at Purdue University, “the worst heat stress will occur in regions that are not wealthy and that are expected to experience rapid population growth in the coming decades.”

“This is true even though these countries produce far lower greenhouse gas emissions than developed countries. Due to this, billions of impoverished people will suffer, and many of them may pass away. However, wealthier nations will also feel the effects of rising heat, and in today’s linked globe, everyone may anticipate suffering some sort of harm.

The researchers asserted that greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels, must be curbed in order to prevent global temperatures from rising. Middle-income and low-income nations will suffer the most if adjustments are not made, they claimed.

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