Is Earth Getting Too Hot For People To Survive? Scientist Explains

Extreme heat has plagued numerous countries recently. But in most of the inhabited world, it's never going to get "too hot for people to live," especially in dry climates, says US-based scientist Fort Collins.

When it turns hot in dry places, most of the time our bodies cool off by perspiring water and heat from our skin.

However, there exists certain places where it gets dangerously hot and humid, such as hot deserts alongside warm oceans. This is where the problem sets in. When the air is humid, sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly, and hence fails to cool us the way it does in drier environments, explained Collins in The Conversation, who then used the 'wet bulb temperature' to better assess this risk.

A wet bulb thermometer allows water to evaporate by blowing ambient air over a damp cloth. If the wet bulb temperature is over 35° Celsius, the human body won't be able to release enough heat. Prolonged exposure to such combined heat and humidity can be fatal, like cases in the Middle East,

Pakistan and India, where summer heat waves merge with humid air blowing in from the sea.

"During a severe heat wave in 2023, wet bulb temperatures were very high over the lower Mississippi Valley, though they didn't reach fatal levels. In Delhi, India, where air temperatures were over 49° Celsius for several days in May 2024, the wet bulb temperatures came close, and several people died from suspected heatstroke in the hot and humid weather. In conditions like that, everyone has to take precautions," Collins warned.

Is it climate change?

When people burn carbon in the form of coal in a power plant or fuel in a vehicle, it creates carbon dioxide (CO2). This gas builds up in the atmosphere and traps the Sun's warmth near the Earth's surface. This result is what we deem as "climate change."

Collins stated that every bit of coal, oil, or gas that ever gets burned adds more to the temperature. As the temperatures rises, dangerously hot and humid weather begins to spread to more places.

The problems of climate change go beyond just hot, sweaty weather.

"Hot air evaporates a lot more water, so crops, forests, and landscapes in some areas dry out, which makes them more susceptible to wildfire. Each Celsius degree of warming can cause a sixfold increase in wildfire over parts of the western US," the scientist informed.

"Warming also makes ocean water expand, which can flood coastal regions. Rising sea levels threaten to displace as many as 2 billion people by 2100," he added.

These impacts expose how climate change threatens the global economy.

The bad news about climate change is that it will continue to get hotter as long as we keep burning carbon. However, the good news is that we can substitute the burning of carbon with clean energy, like solar and wind power.