Children born in 2020 will face ‘unprecedented exposure’ to climate extremes
That is according to a new study, published in #Nature, which calculates the number of unprecedented extreme events that people born in different decades and countries might live through.
Using a case study focused on #Brussels, the researchers find that people born in 2020 will experience an “unprecedented” 11 #heatwaves in their lifetime – even if #GlobalWarming is limited to 1.5C by the end of the century.
In contrast, in a pre-industrial #climate, a person living in the Belgian capital would likely experience just three such heatwaves, according to the study.
More than half of children born in 2020 – around 62 million people – will experience “unprecedented lifetime exposure” to heatwaves, even if warming is limited to 1.5C, the study finds.
However, this number nearly doubles to 111 million under a scenario where warming hits 3.5C.
The study also analyses crop failures, river #floods, tropical #cyclones, #wildfires and #droughts.
The research “helps the climate community build new narratives that better clarify the impacts [of #ClimateChange] on younger generations and vulnerable populations”, one expert who was not involved in the study tells Carbon Brief.
