Home World Africa One in three people will live in dangerously hot areas by 2080 Global warming will create hot areas which will witness heat-related deaths, lower crop yields, spread of infectious diseases and more negative impacts by Bloomberg May 28, 2023 Image credit: Getty Images A new study has found that a third of the global population will be living in dangerously hot conditions by 2080 if the world continues on its current trajectory and entire countries in West Africa and the Arabian Gulf will fall into the extreme heat zone. According to researchers from Exeter University’s Global Systems Institute, average global temperatures are on track to rise 2.7C in the last two decades of the century to rise 2.7C. They defined dangerously hot areas, or areas falling outside the so-called human niche, as having a mean annual temperature above 29C. “The lifetime emissions of 3.5 global average citizens today (or 1.2 average US citizens) expose one future person to unprecedented heat by end-of-century,” the researchers wrote in the study – Quantifying the Human Cost of Global Warming. Impact of living in dangerously hot areas The higher temperatures will lead to more heat-related deaths, reduce productivity and result in lower crop yields, increased migration and the spread of infectious diseases. Hot areas create extreme drought conditions. Image credit: WMO The land masses of Burkina Faso, Mali, Qatar, Aruba and the UAE will almost entirely fall outside the human niche, the study found. In terms of the absolute number of people affected, India, Nigeria and Indonesia will suffer the worst impact, with 600 million, 300 million and 100 million inhabitants respectively falling out of the niche later this century. The ability of countries and their citizens to withstand extreme heat will largely depend on their wealth. “It depends on your resources to protect yourself in the prevailing climate and that depends on how well off you are,” Timothy Lenton, director of the Global Systems Institute, said in an interview. The UAE and Qatar are among the world’s richest countries per capita while Burkina Faso and Mali are among the poorest. If the world reduces greenhouse gas emissions enough to limit global warming to 1.5C, it would reduce the number of people affected by dangerous heat to 90 million in India, 40 million in Nigeria and five million in Indonesia. Tags 1.5 degrees celsius 2080 extreme heat zone Global Systems Institute Global Warming 0 Comments You might also like How heat fueled extreme weather across the world in 2023 $9bn boost for nations worst-hit by climate change Daily Insider: All eyes on COP28 as climate crisis worsens Fires, hurricanes, dangerous heat: The US is reeling from a string of disasters