A collaborative research effort involving Penn State College of Health and Human Development, Purdue University College of Sciences, and the Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future has issued a stark warning about the consequences of global warming. Published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” the research findings highlight the potential for global warming to induce deadly heat strokes in densely populated regions, with India at significant risk.

The study underscores that regions in the Global South, including India and Pakistan, face a disproportionate risk compared to the rest of the world. If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a staggering 2.2 billion individuals residing in Pakistan and India’s Indus River Valley, along with 1 billion people in eastern China, and an additional 800 million inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, will endure annual periods of heat that surpass human tolerance.

What sets these regions apart is the type of heatwave they are likely to experience, characterized by high humidity. Such heatwaves pose unique dangers because the air’s moisture-absorbing capacity is limited. This, in turn, restricts the body’s ability to evaporate sweat and hampers the cooling effect of infrastructure like evaporative coolers.

What makes this predicament even more troubling is that many of these regions fall within lower-to-middle income nations. Consequently, a significant portion of the population may lack access to air conditioning or effective means of mitigating the adverse health impacts of deadly heat.

India’s impending crisis of deadly heat waves:

Should global warming escalate to 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the researchers warn that heat and humidity levels exceeding human tolerance will extend their reach. At this point, areas in the Eastern Seaboard and the central United States, stretching from Florida to New York and from Houston to Chicago, would see more effect. South America and Australia would also grapple with intensified heat under this scenario.

The research team employed various temperature increase models, ranging from 1.5 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius. The latter represents a worst-case scenario where warming accelerates. This extensive modeling effort aimed to identify global regions where warming could lead to heat and humidity levels surpassing human limits.

In sum, this study issues a dire call to action, emphasizing the critical importance of global climate mitigation efforts to curb temperature increases. Failing to do so could condemn billions of people, particularly in vulnerable regions, to the harrowing consequences of extreme heat and humidity, with limited means to protect themselves.