An international group of scientists from Canada, the USA and Sri Lanka published a report on how human life will change in 50 years in the face of global warming. Based on open data, researchers have shown what modern houses will look like in half a century.
Terrible predictions and warnings have been made before. But people tend to underestimate the danger of climate change and do not fully understand the scale of the threat, scientists are sure. Vivid pictures in the style of "post-apocalypse", but based on scientific evidence, are intended to change human behavior in relation to the environment.
As the computer calculated, the main threat to today's megacities is floods and uncontrolled landscape fires. According to experts' forecasts, the average global air temperature will rise by more than three degrees over half a century, which will lead to an increase in the world ocean level, a change in the boundaries of seas and oceans, precipitation rates, flooding of entire cities and, in general, to global climate change. This is important, because approximately two-thirds of all humanity lives in coastal areas.
To teach the computer, the researchers uploaded Google Street View images of the same streets before and after real fires and floods. Thus, the computer learned to understand the difference and independently draw images "after". Then the program added calculations of climate change in the United States for the next 50 years. Considering the dynamics of observations, it is not difficult to calculate this. As a result, the computer showed whole neighborhoods that had sunk one or two meters under the water and huge burnt areas.
So far, the consequences of global warming have been outlined only for the United States. But in the future, the authors intend to draw up a world map. In addition, they intend to complicate the algorithm itself, including other human and natural factors of influence, and different scenarios for the development of world civilization. For example, illustrations of how megacities will look like if humanity drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and for contrast - similar pictures based on today's pollution dynamics, will soon appear.
Alexander Gavrilenko