Scientists said that as a result of a sharp rise in air humidity and constant rise in temperatures, almost all of India and some countries in South Asia will become uninhabitable.
According to Elfatikh Eltahir, a spokesman for the American Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the region is home to about one and a half billion people. Most of these people live in conditions in which their lives depend on agricultural land, which must be constantly looked after, for many hours under the open sun. Due to this, the inhabitants of South Asia are most vulnerable to climatic conditions of this kind.
According to the researchers, at present, about three quarters of the population of South Asia live in areas that in about a hundred years will become completely uninhabitable. Scientists have made a similar conclusion while studying the probable changes in the so-called wet bulb temperature in the next century in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and neighboring states.
Scientists note that the temperature of a wet bulb, as understood by geologists and climatologists, is a combination of several factors, including the ambient temperature and the accompanying humidity. This term means that above this level, no objects will be able to cool themselves by evaporating moisture from their surface.
This parameter is extremely important for a person, because his body cools when sweat evaporates from the surface of the skin. Thus, in the event that the temperature of the wet thermometer exceeds 35 degrees Celsius, the human body will overheat, which can lead to not only sunstroke, but also death after only a few hours, if there are no external sources of cooling.
Several years ago, Eltahir, together with his colleagues, established that the countries of the Persian Gulf would very quickly cross this mark. This will happen already in the 70s of this century if the Paris Climate Agreements are not implemented.
Scientists estimate that the situation in South Asia is more dramatic - as the wet bulb temperature will exceed 31-32 degrees Celsius for about 75 percent of people in India and other countries in the region, if these countries do not refuse to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. About 4 percent of the population will be in those regions in which this mark exceeds 35 degrees Celsius. Thus, these regions will officially become uninhabitable.
If humanity begins to actively fight the consequences of global warming, the situation may change, but not dramatically. Conditions incompatible with normal life will become characteristic of the territories in which about half of South Asians currently live. At the same time, the maximum temperature indicators will come close, but will not exceed 35 degrees.
Promotional video:
According to the researchers, the main reason for such serious and large-scale climate change in South Asia lies in the unchanged territory of the region, high rainfall in the summer, as well as constantly high levels of humidity, the presence of many large rivers and the high prevalence of irrigation systems.
As Eltahir notes, first of all, it is the people of India themselves who must deal with this kind of consequences of global warming, since it is India, together with China, that are the main suppliers of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The share of these emissions is constantly growing, while the developed countries of the West have already reduced this figure.
Thus, the scientists conclude, the reluctance to fight climate change because such a struggle will slow down India's economic growth can now provoke the most serious consequences for the country's population in the very near future.