One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years // Green stimulus can repair global economy and climate
The human cost of
the climate
crisis will hit harder, wider and sooner than previously believed,
according to a study that
shows a billion people will either be displaced or forced to endure
insufferable heat for every additional 1C rise in the global temperature.
In a worst-case
scenario of accelerating emissions, areas currently home to a third of the
world’s population will be as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara within 50
years, the paper warns. In the most optimistic outlook, 1.2 billion people
will fall outside the comfortable “climate niche” in which humans have thrived
for at least 6,000 years. The authors of the
study said they were “floored” and “blown away” by the findings because they
had not expected our species to be so vulnerable....
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/one-billion-people-will-live-in-insufferable-heat-within-50-years-studyGreen stimulus can repair global economy and climate, study says
Green economy recovery packages for the coronavirus crisis will repair the global economy and put the world on track to tackle climate breakdown, but time is running out to implement the changes needed, new analysis has shown. Projects which cut greenhouse gas emissions as well as stimulating economic growth deliver higher returns on government spending, in the short term and in the longer term, than conventional stimulus spending, the study from Oxford University found.
Many of the projects
that could create new jobs in the UK are “shovel-ready”, compliant with social
distancing requirements and could be started quickly, said Cameron Hepburn,
director of the Smith School of enterprise and the environment at Oxford
University and lead author of the study. He cited energy
efficiency programmes to insulate
the UK’s draughty housing stock, the building of electric
vehicle charging networks, redesigning roads for more cycling, flood
protection and planting trees. “These need large-scale deployment, offer
low to moderate skilled work and will have benefits in terms of climate change
as well as boosting the economy”...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/green-stimulus-can-repair-global-economy-and-climate-study-says