Study says majority of world burdened by climate change
Findings focused on floods, heat
At least 85% of the global population has experienced weather events made worse by climate change, according to new research published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Using machine learning to analyze and map more than 100,000 studies of events that could be linked to global warming, researchers paired the analysis with a well-established data set of temperature and precipitation shifts caused by fossil fuel use and other sources of carbon emissions.
These combined findings — which focused on events such as crop failures, floods and heat waves — allowed scientists to make a solid link between rising temperatures and human activities. They concluded that global warming had already affected 80% of the world’s land area.
“We have a huge evidence base now that documents how climate change is affecting our societies and our ecosystems,” said lead author Max Callaghan, researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Germany.
The study provides hard numbers to back up the lived experiences of people from New York City to South Sudan. “Climate change,” Callaghan said, “is visible and noticeable almost everywhere in the world.”
The findings come amid a major push to get countries to commit to more ambitious climate goals ahead of a United Nations summit in Glasgow next month. Research shows that existing pledges will put the planet on track to heat up about 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century — a level of warming that would lead to drastic food and water shortages, deadly weather disasters and catastrophic ecosystem collapse.
Activists worry that an emerging energy crisis, which has raised prices and triggered blackouts, could imperil efforts to get developing economies to phase out polluting fuels.
In the United States, climate disasters have already caused at least 388 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage this year, according to analyses from The Washington Post and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.