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Climate-Driven Heat Extremes May Make Earth Too Hot for Billions of Humans (phys.org) 227

An anonymous reader shared this report from Phys.org: If global temperatures increase by 1 degrees Celsius (C) or more than current levels, each year billions of people will be exposed to heat and humidity so extreme they will be unable to naturally cool themselves, according to interdisciplinary research from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development, Purdue University College of Sciences and Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future... Humans can only withstand certain combinations of heat and humidity before their bodies begin to experience heat-related health problems, such as heat stroke or heart attack. As climate change pushes temperatures higher around the world, billions of people could be pushed beyond these limits...

Results of the study indicate that if global temperatures increase by 2 degreesC above pre-industrial levels, the 2.2 billion residents of Pakistan and India's Indus River Valley, the one billion people living in eastern China and the 800 million residents of sub-Saharan Africa will annually experience many hours of heat that surpass human tolerance... Troublingly, researchers said, these regions are also in lower-to-middle income nations, so many of the affected people may not have access to air conditioning or any effective way to mitigate the negative health effects of the heat.

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Climate-Driven Heat Extremes May Make Earth Too Hot for Billions of Humans

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  • How to... (Score:5, Funny)

    by weirdow ( 9298 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @03:46AM (#63926017) Homepage
    ... cook humans on a well seasoned planet. Our alien overlords are going to love this dish.
    • Well seasoned? I think they would find our oceans overly salty. They might have to put a giant space potato in them.

    • ... cook humans on a well seasoned planet. Our alien overlords are going to love this dish.

      Made me think of the 1996 film The Arrival [wikipedia.org].

    • What do you think those deodorants, sun lotions and other "beauty products" are for except to marinade you?

      You thought it's so you're more appealing to humans? Have you ever smelled that shit?

      • Two words, cocoa butter.

        I grew up in Santa Cruz and that smell is forever sexy in my mind because the most gorgeous bodies on the beach were coated in it. No bets on whether those women got skin cancer later, but wowsers

  • by SysDaemon ( 301739 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @03:47AM (#63926019) Homepage
    "Earth to Hot" -> "Earth too Hot" Some old grouches are irritated by this. Especially when it's so damn hot around here.
  • No shit, Sherlock. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Sunday October 15, 2023 @04:10AM (#63926039)

    This isn't news. This is man-made eco-disaster and man-made climate change 101 and the problem has been well know for at least 5 decades.

    I'm in Germany and the summer here has been too hot for me for the last 3 years already, with this year luckyly having an excess of cold and rainy days in the summer. We still had too little rainfall overall, and the replenishment of the German water table is already lagging 2 years behind. This will only get worse. The German forrests are basically history as are the glaciers.

    We are screwed already. How much though is up to us. I still see a chance that modern civilization manages to survive but time is running out quickly.

    • by sonlas ( 10282912 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @04:55AM (#63926083)

      I'm in Germany [...] We are screwed already. How much though is up to us.

      What if we didn't close down nuclear plants but instead prioritized them over burning lignite/coal?

      This observation is not specifically directed at you but rather at the overall actions of the German government, which sets a concerning precedent for our collective efforts.

      I still see a chance that modern civilization manages to survive but time is running out quickly.

      I am not really worried about (modern) civilization: it will survive. Just not everyone will, and inequalities will increase. At some point, force will be used to keep slaves, sorry I mean people in poor countries making stuffs for us while barely surviving, in line.
      Unfortunately, humanity has not much changed in the last 2000 years.

      • At some point, force will be used to keep slaves, sorry I mean people in poor countries making stuffs for us while barely surviving, in line. Unfortunately, humanity has not much changed in the last 2000 years.

        Within the next 50 years I think the majority of the US population is going to fall into deep poverty. The US is rapidly declining in influence and power, and our backslide in democratic norms is going to make us vulnerable to external competitors. Without the US to align with, I don't know how other western countries will be able to defend against the rise of authoritarian powers.

    • And... bringing up nuclear power in 3, 2, ... damn, already there!
    • We used to have Octobers around here with temperatures close to the freezing point. This year, we got temperatures like in a normal August.

      We're fucked. But that's ok, I'm 50, I don't need that planet much longer, so, frankly, I can't be assed to worry anymore. I used to, but then I noticed, hey, if people who are young and/or have kids don't give a shit, why the fuck should I?

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        "if people who are young and/or have kids don't give a shit, why the fuck should I?"

        Because it is important not to be a self-centered prick.

      • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

        I'm 50, I don't need that planet much longer, so, frankly, I can't be assed to worry anymore.

        If you don't care about the future then please stay silent and stop voting. Don't be like these people. [nextcity.org]

        • by Ichijo ( 607641 )
          Or these people. [youtube.com]
        • Hey, I'll even vote for the parties that claim to be ecology-conscious.

          Since they all are nowadays, it doubly-doesn't matter. Once, because voting is meaningless, no matter how you vote, nothing changes. And second, it's lip-service for all of them anyway.

          So don't you worry about me voting. It won't have any relevant impact on this planet, why would it have any impact on the planet if it already doesn't have any on thing people actually care about?

        • If you don't care about the future then please stay silent and stop voting.

          They have taken a page from the strategy of all the other useless protesters. I got a good laugh recently reading about a large group of people organizing against wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey. They actually came right out and said “The objective is to hold them up and make the cost so overwhelming that they’ll go home.” Right out of the anti-nuclear playbook. Makes me smile. What is good for the goose and all that.

          https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

      • >We're fucked. But that's ok, I'm 50, I don't need that planet much longer, so, frankly, I can't be assed to worry anymore. I used to, but then I noticed, hey, if people who are young and/or have kids don't give a shit, why the fuck should I?

        I'm also around the half-century mark. I've been bitching about the obvious stupidity of many things we collectively do for my entire adult life, and I will probably continue to do so until I die because truth is truth and stupid is stupid. An economy based on gree

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 )

          We wouldn't have to lose 90% of our standard of living. Note the we in this sentence. We could actually have it all. Granted, no 5-mile-a-gallon guzzlers SUVs. Then again, I don't need a car that can transport a university football team if I only have two kids. I really wonder how people got by with the cars of the 1960s when they actually had MORE kids. But aside of things we really don't need that only let us compensate for puny little dicks, I can't think of anything we would have to do without.

          But it wo

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by MacMann ( 7518492 )

            I really wonder how people got by with the cars of the 1960s when they actually had MORE kids.

            I don't wonder at all. Have you seen cars from the 1960s? They had much more legroom, to the point people could sit on the floor in the backseat and still have room for someone to sit. There were no seat belts, and the seating was typically a bench, so there was nothing to define how many people could or should sit other than the width of their hips and whatever they defined as "personal space". The cars were generally HUGE, with big engines, which allowed for plenty of space and power to move many peop

          • Absolutely.

            Communally it can be done much more efficiently. We'd still have a drop in standard of living, but it wouldn't be so bad. Trying to save the world solo is just an exercise in flagellation.

            Here's another 'imagine' for you: Imagine 20 years ago we'd been allowed to drive modified golf carts that could do 50km/h (30mph).

            I've done the stats for my personal commute going from suburbia to downtown Toronto - rarely does the average speed exceed 60km/h, mostly because the closer you get to the core, th

            • If what you say is true, and I'm not going to dispute it in the least, then I expect someone to eventually fill that market gap with road legal battery-electric vehicles.

              I agree with your estimation of there being a large portion of our driving being met with a fairly simple and low cost vehicle powered by lead-acid batteries. This was proven in many ways by the popularity of the GM EV1 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ) and that was a quarter century ago. Shortages of cobalt, lithium, and/or other mat

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      As a country, Germany is probably responsible for a good chunk of the irrational nuclear fear. Good job. This set back the energy transition 50+ years. And I won't mention the Ukrainians who lost their lives because your of Schroeder/Merkel's decisions. How Germany can even pretend to lead on the global stage after such mistakes (and no, I won't go a bit far back in history to underscore my point) is beyond me.
    • By selective breeding we are the first species with the knowledge to create the species that will replace us. We can force ourselves to evolve. We understand how evolution works and we have been manipulating and hybridizing plants and animals for eons. We know how to do it, the trick is to identify what needs fixing. I am an advocate for genetically reducing superstition as a way of reducing tribalism. I propose we, as a society, hybridize humans to enlarger their instinct, darken their skin, and reduc
    • We've known what increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere would do since the late 19th century.

  • Make Earth to Hot

    now hotlings, hotman, hotmo sapiens

  • Exasperated (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

    We have all of the solutions to climate change such as:

    Electric / Arc steel and pig-iron smelting.
    Carbon neutral cement.
    Cheap electricity production
    Electricity Storage (so many ways)
    Electric transport for road, rail and sea.

    All that's needed is for idiot people to stop voting for corrupt politicians that are getting in the way of backing solutions.

    At this point we should be making the funding of further fossil fuel exploration illegal, except we're not. In the UK the gov't is continuing to throw billions of

    • Re:Exasperated (Score:5, Insightful)

      by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @06:21AM (#63926129)
      Hahaha, how cute! You think we have functioning democracies? What we actually have is representative democracies, which roughly translates into we get to vote for the politicians to represent the capital classes.

      The idea of socialist democracy is to mitigate the more extreme effects of capitalism, e.g. universal healthcare, free education, & social safety net, even that is being steadily eroded until we're left as post-democracy serfs to the super-rich. We don't get much of a say in how or when we die from global heating.

      The key issue facing our super-rich overlords is how they're going to maintain control over us when things get really bad & large crowds take to the streets with pitch forks, e.g. Where's the most secure place to be? & How will they prevent their private security from turning against them? This is how our beloved "philanthropists" think.
      • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        I don't recall saying we have a functioning democracy but otherwise agree. I don't expect low-IQ, lazy, deluded, insane, sociopathic or ignorant people AKA the majority to recuse themselves from voting any time soon.

        • ...low-IQ, lazy, deluded, insane, sociopathic or ignorant people AKA the majority...

          Well, that IS how the corporate media portrays us. Do you believe it has any broad basis in reality? Or do you think it's cruel victim-blaming by our illustrious elites?

          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            Do you really think people aren't like this, evidence points to the contrary.

    • Ahem, you have only listed one solution, which is reducing greenhouse gases.

      How about coming up with so other ideas, because the first is patently no going to do the job, for multiple reasons.

      • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        Are you even replying top my post? There are 5 solutions listed which all can lead to substantially reduced CO2 output.

        • DId you read mine? You admit that every one of your "solutions" is about reducing CO2, those are all the same thing! Reducing CO2 is one solution. Please provide solution #2 which is not about CO2.

          Your tunnel vision is contributing to the global warming problem.

          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            As an analogy, 5 apples are 1 apple because they are an apple.

            Your assertion and conclusion are nonsense.

            I should propose a solution that is not about CO2 because? CO2 released due to mankind's activities is the main cause of global warming. The best solution is to not increase global warming further.

            • "The best solution is to not increase global warming further." We all want to reduce warming. What is the best way?

              What is the science supporting CO2 reduction as the only or best solution. Answer this and I shall leave content.

              • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

                "What is the science supporting CO2 reduction "

                It's called climate science, if you want to learn about it you are free to do so, google learn climate science. Or google: "is CO2 the largest cause of global warming, evidence, papers" The answer is yes, there is scientific consensus on this.

                • You misquoted me by leaving out the rest of my sentence. Therefore I am done with this conversation.

                  I shall take my leave by saying that obviously CO2 and other greenhouse gases are the cause of warming. But you still refuse to answer my question - what are the best solutions?

    • All that's needed is for idiot people to stop voting for corrupt politicians that are getting in the way of backing solutions.

      The way the US Senate is run there's an incentive to elect incumbents, and the way elections are run in most states there's a high bar to clear in running for Senate. This means once in US Senate it's very easy to stay in that seat, and very difficult to run against them.

      What's been keeping the one solution we need for lowering CO2 emissions, nuclear fission, is a small (but powerful) group of US Senators that have been in their seats for decades. We are seeing nature take its course and have these senato

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      idiot people

      You have the core of the problem right there. Without that, we would have started to act decisively in the 1980's and everything would be fine at this time.

  • ... that is the question.

    Editorial snarkiness aside ... okay. Fine. Then let's go nuclear.

    Until you support that, you are just virtue signalling, not actually doing anything or encouraging anything useful.

    • by jd ( 1658 )

      I'm fine with nuclear power done right. The reactor in South Carolina that has cracked pipes has inadequate maintenance. I'd be fine with it if it improved there. However, it's the Gen4+ reactors, that can use nuclear waste as fuel, that will be the killer apps if built.

      • However, it's the Gen4+ reactors, that can use nuclear waste as fuel, that will be the killer apps if built.

        The advanced third generation reactors are doing great when and where they've been given a proper chance to compete and managed by people that give a damn about proper large project management. I expect 3rd and 4th generation nuclear power to coincide for some time, with 3rd generation taking on the large power needs and 4th generation being experimented with on smaller scales until we develop a better understanding of the engineering challenges these new technologies pose.

        There is nothing wrong with 3rd g

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The last gasp of the fanatics supporting a dying industry. That, incidentally, cannot help at all globally and this is a global problem in case you have not noticed.

      • The irony is rich, especially coming from a die-hard fossil fuels enthusiast. By all means, continue the fervent burning of your lignite, coal, and gas, as your economy trails behind in the dust.

  • Just what is holding up adoption of climate mitigating changes?
    Here I'll get you started:
    Wind project canceled, reason: slightly to very unprofitable https://www.rigzone.com/news/w... [rigzone.com]
    Electric cars too expensive, reason: cheaper electric cars might be breaking market rules https://www.reuters.com/world/... [reuters.com]
    Canceled solor project, reason: local opponents who said solar power would hurt the community by taking farmland out of production, reducing property values and damaging soil and water. https://abcnew [go.com]
    • Just what is holding up adoption of climate mitigating changes?

      An energy shortage.

      The nations best prepared for a shift to a net zero carbon economy are those with an abundance of fossil fuel reserves. With that energy beneath their feet they can build hydroelectric dams, nuclear fission power plants, onshore wind projects, and other methods of producing low cost and low carbon energy. Without fossil fuels to "jump start" their economy there's no getting to net zero carbon. France is one nation that is in a good place to lower their CO2 emissions as they have built

  • Troublingly, researchers said, these regions are also in lower-to-middle income nations, so many of the affected people may not have access to air conditioning or any effective way to mitigate the negative health effects of the heat.

    They could build underground dwellings. The problem is that food plants can't function in those weather conditions either and taking your food underground requires more equipment than just a hole.

  • may (Score:2, Troll)

    by groobly ( 6155920 )

    May. Won't.

  • by Thoth Ptolemy ( 110353 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @01:31PM (#63926695)
    Summary seems to ignore a major point, namely that all those people without means to stay cool and survive are going to flee. Land too hot to farm will lead to collapse which will lead to migration. Land too hot to live on will lead to migration. All these dumb fucks who lie and pretend AGW isn't real? They also whine about immigration. And will very soon be whining even harder about immigration but be able to do nothing about it. They are making things worse but they're heads are so far up their asses, they won't even see it.

    But they'll still cast themselves as the victim.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Sunday October 15, 2023 @01:32PM (#63926699)

    But essentially that is the problem correcting itself after humans proved unwilling and incapable to do anything effective about it in advance. Not nice, but that is what nature does to species that outgrow their niche.

Air pollution is really making us pay through the nose.

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