Those born today are destined to suffer many more climatic disasters during their life than their grandparents
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThose born today, in the midst of the climate crisis, are destined to suffer many more extreme heat waves and other climatic disasters during their lives than their grandparents
Infants today will experience twice as many fires and famines and three times as many floods in their lifetime as their grandparents have witnessed. This is what emerges from a new study that compared the different experiences with extreme climatic phenomena in different age groups: the result is a strong intergenerational injustice caused by the climate crisis which has been developing in recent years.
The study shows that a baby born in 2020 will have to endure an average of 30 waves of extreme heat over the course of his life - seven times more than a person born in 1960. This is if the nations of the world fail to keep the agreements made on the climate. and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. If the increase in global temperatures were instead kept within the + 1,5 ° C established by the Climate Agreements, the number of extreme heat waves that today's children would have to experience during their life would halve, while it would reduce by half. a quarter if the increase in temperatures reached + 2 ° C.
(Read also: Rising floods are man's fault. Here's the scientific proof)
Climate change already confronts humanity with unprecedented challenges and has already created many social injustices, but certainly the injustice between generations appears to be the most serious. The results highlight a real threat to the safety of younger generations and impose a drastic reduction in emissions now, to safeguard their future: people who are under 40 today are living an unprecedented life, dominated by droughts, fires, floods and famines that would have been unthinkable without global warming.
But there is good news, however. It is possible to lighten the burden of the climate crisis on the shoulders of our children if we really limit the increase in global temperatures to + 1,5 ° C in the transition to renewable energy sources. In addition to this, today's children will have to emit eight times less CO2 into the atmosphere over their lifetime than what their grandparents did, if the rise in temperatures is to remain effectively contained at the levels that humanity it has set itself not to exceed.
The study also highlights how only those under the age of 40 today will live long enough to see the consequences of the choices made to put a stop to harmful emissions into the atmosphere; those who are older will die before the effects of these choices are tangible in the world.
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Fonte: Science
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