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Human beings have a standard operating temperature, and the higher the temperature rises across the world, the more people will now be born into unliveable temp

Human beings have a standard operating temperature, and the higher the temperature rises across the world, the more people will now be born into unliveable temperatures. We in Canada or the United Kingdom might not notice, but I'm pretty sure those in Texas or Nigeria will.

coldtea 6y ago
>We in Canada or the United Kingdom might not notice, but I'm pretty sure those in Texas or Nigeria will Is Texas or Nigeria the warmest places people live atm though?
- flukus 6y ago
  It's not the warmest places but the warm + humid places because evaporative cooling ceases to work. Lagos has a very high average humidity and temperature tot eh point where a few degrees more could make it unlivable, parts of Texas seem to be the same. - http://www.lagos.climatemps.com/humidity.php http://www.lagos.climatemps.com/humidity.php The wet bulb temperature is the thing to watch: > A sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it.[9] Thus 35 °C (95 °F) is the threshold beyond which the body is no longer able to adequately cool itself. A study by NOAA from 2013 concluded that heat stress will reduce labor capacity considerably under current emissions scenarios.[10] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature
exporectomy 6y ago
The direct effect of temperature on people isn't a serious consequence of climate change. People thrive in places covering a huge temperature range. We have no trouble accepting the technology that we depend on to survive (houses, heating/cooling, clothing, etc.) just as people in 80 years will accept their slightly different temperature regulating technology.
brabel 6y ago
The problem won't be with the warmest temperatures. People in places like the Middle East and Australia are used to boiling hot summers and a couple of degrees hotter will probably be just a little bit more uncomfortable... what will completely change the world is the range of diseases and insects changing drastically. Places like the Amazon and the African rainforests are currently very hard to live in because of tropical disease. These areas are bound to expand by quite a lot, perhaps reaching places like southern Europe and USA. This, together with the shift in agriculture and sea levels, is what will bring an amount of chaos to the world. Far north places like Scandinavia and Canada might actually benefit a little bit by being able to grow crops that they currently can't due to their harsh winters and cold nights all over the year! But their southern neighbours will surely suffer a lot, and that's where most of the population currently is.
- arethuza 6y ago
  As far as I understand it there is a pretty hard upper limit on the combination of temperature and humidity that people can survive: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity-are-already-reaching-the-limits-of-human-tolerance/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity... What might happen is portrayed pretty vividly at the start of Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future [And yes I know this is a novel].
  - CaptArmchair 6y ago
    I'll add to that that excess mortality has been linked to subsequent heatwaves of the past 20 years in Europe. Here's a primer from the European Environment Agency with a projection: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/heat-and-health-2/assessment https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/heat-and-... > The PESETA study estimates that, without adaptation and physiological acclimatisation, heat-related mortality in Europe would increase by between 60 000 and 165 000 deaths per year by the 2080s compared with the present baseline, with the highest impacts in southern Europe. [...] > Another study estimates that climate change will lead to an increase in hospital admissions owing to heat-related respiratory diseases from 11 000 admissions (0.18 %) in the period 1981–2010 to 26 000 (0.4 %) in 2021–2050. The total number of hospital admissions and the increase as a result of climate change are largest in southern Europe, with the proportion of heat-related admissions for respiratory conditions expected to approximately triple in this region over this time period [...] On the other hand... > The PESETA study estimated that cold-related mortality would decrease by between 60 000 and 250 000 deaths per year by the 2080s, which is about the same magnitude as the projected increase in heat-related mortality [xx]. The PESETA II study no longer considers a potential reduction in cold-related mortality in its climate impact estimates [xxi]. The choice not to include cold spells reflects recent evidence that does not suggest a significant shift in the balance of deaths between winters and summers because of lower cold-related mortality [xxii]. However, the risk from (moderate) cold is expected to continue to account for most of the temperature-related risk throughout this century [xxiii].
blaser-waffle 6y ago
We are definitely noticing in Canada. It's not getting cold enough, long enough, to kill the Pine Beetle or ticks. The result is huge forest fires (e.g. Ft. McMurry) caused by dead trees -- killed by said beetles -- or explosions of ticks and increases in Lyme in Eastern Canada.

coldtea 6y ago

>We in Canada or the United Kingdom might not notice, but I'm pretty sure those in Texas or Nigeria will Is Texas or Nigeria the warmest places people live atm though?

flukus 6y ago
It's not the warmest places but the warm + humid places because evaporative cooling ceases to work. Lagos has a very high average humidity and temperature tot eh point where a few degrees more could make it unlivable, parts of Texas seem to be the same. - http://www.lagos.climatemps.com/humidity.php http://www.lagos.climatemps.com/humidity.php The wet bulb temperature is the thing to watch: > A sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it.[9] Thus 35 °C (95 °F) is the threshold beyond which the body is no longer able to adequately cool itself. A study by NOAA from 2013 concluded that heat stress will reduce labor capacity considerably under current emissions scenarios.[10] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature

exporectomy 6y ago

The direct effect of temperature on people isn't a serious consequence of climate change. People thrive in places covering a huge temperature range. We have no trouble accepting the technology that we depend on to survive (houses, heating/cooling, clothing, etc.) just as people in 80 years will accept their slightly different temperature regulating technology.

brabel 6y ago

The problem won't be with the warmest temperatures. People in places like the Middle East and Australia are used to boiling hot summers and a couple of degrees hotter will probably be just a little bit more uncomfortable... what will completely change the world is the range of diseases and insects changing drastically. Places like the Amazon and the African rainforests are currently very hard to live in because of tropical disease. These areas are bound to expand by quite a lot, perhaps reaching places like southern Europe and USA. This, together with the shift in agriculture and sea levels, is what will bring an amount of chaos to the world. Far north places like Scandinavia and Canada might actually benefit a little bit by being able to grow crops that they currently can't due to their harsh winters and cold nights all over the year! But their southern neighbours will surely suffer a lot, and that's where most of the population currently is.

arethuza 6y ago
As far as I understand it there is a pretty hard upper limit on the combination of temperature and humidity that people can survive: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity-are-already-reaching-the-limits-of-human-tolerance/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity... What might happen is portrayed pretty vividly at the start of Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future [And yes I know this is a novel].
- CaptArmchair 6y ago
  I'll add to that that excess mortality has been linked to subsequent heatwaves of the past 20 years in Europe. Here's a primer from the European Environment Agency with a projection: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/heat-and-health-2/assessment https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/heat-and-... > The PESETA study estimates that, without adaptation and physiological acclimatisation, heat-related mortality in Europe would increase by between 60 000 and 165 000 deaths per year by the 2080s compared with the present baseline, with the highest impacts in southern Europe. [...] > Another study estimates that climate change will lead to an increase in hospital admissions owing to heat-related respiratory diseases from 11 000 admissions (0.18 %) in the period 1981–2010 to 26 000 (0.4 %) in 2021–2050. The total number of hospital admissions and the increase as a result of climate change are largest in southern Europe, with the proportion of heat-related admissions for respiratory conditions expected to approximately triple in this region over this time period [...] On the other hand... > The PESETA study estimated that cold-related mortality would decrease by between 60 000 and 250 000 deaths per year by the 2080s, which is about the same magnitude as the projected increase in heat-related mortality [xx]. The PESETA II study no longer considers a potential reduction in cold-related mortality in its climate impact estimates [xxi]. The choice not to include cold spells reflects recent evidence that does not suggest a significant shift in the balance of deaths between winters and summers because of lower cold-related mortality [xxii]. However, the risk from (moderate) cold is expected to continue to account for most of the temperature-related risk throughout this century [xxiii].

blaser-waffle 6y ago

We are definitely noticing in Canada. It's not getting cold enough, long enough, to kill the Pine Beetle or ticks. The result is huge forest fires (e.g. Ft. McMurry) caused by dead trees -- killed by said beetles -- or explosions of ticks and increases in Lyme in Eastern Canada.