New analysis shows that people born later will experience significantly more severe climate events
Babies born today will experience far more disruption fueled by climate change than their parents or grandparents. In a study recently published in Science, Wim Thiery of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and colleagues combined climate model projections under three global warming scenarios with demographic data to calculate lifetime exposure to six types of extreme weather conditions for each generation born between 1960 and 2020. Even as a climatologist acutely aware of the dangers of rising temperatures, “to see the numbers as a person, as a parent, is a punch in the gut,” he says. Young people in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and those in low-income countries will see the greatest increase in exposure. These estimates only examine changes in the frequency of extreme events – they do not represent how these events may become more intense and longer lasting. Although “younger generations have the most to lose if global warming reaches higher levels,” says Thierry, they also have the most to gain if greenhouse gas emissions can be contained. “It’s a key message of hope.”
This article was originally published with the title “Intergenerational Climate Change” in Scientific American 326, 2, 76 (February 2022)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0222-76
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-climate-change-will-hit-younger-generations/
