A new report released by the Royal Society warned that deadly heatwaves could increase 10 times by the end of the century if the government fails to mitigate the effects of global warming.
The researchers calculated the impact of global warming and compared it to the population changes to determine the number of people that would be significantly affected, as well as the changes in the frequency of floods, droughts, and heatwaves across the world. The computation was based on a "worst case" scenario where the average temperature was increased to 2.6 - 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100.
About 2,000 people die of heatwaves per year in the United Kingdom, and this is likely to rise to 6,000 or even 10 times higher since the population of seniors is steadily increasing too. In addition, annual floods will be three times more often while droughts will be twice, The Telegraph reported.
"We are not resilient to the extremes of weather that we experience now and many people are already extremely vulnerable. If we continue on our current trajectory the problem is likely to get much worse as our climate and population change," said Professor Georgina Mace, chair of the working group for the report. "By acting now we can reduce the serious risks for our children and grandchildren."
The Royal Society recommended some steps that governments can do to improve and protect the lives of the people against global warming. Some of the recommendations include developing new resource strategies, limiting the expenses on disaster responses to redirect the funds to global warming mitigation efforts, implementing policies that would protect people and their assets from extreme weather, and funding more research and programs that would enhance awareness of the impacts of global warming.
An expert agreed with the results and the recommendation of the new study.
"This timely report reminds us that extreme weather events affect us all, that we are not as resilient to current extreme events as we could be, and that the nature of extreme events is likely to change in the future. At a time when deep cuts are being made in public spending it is essential that government does not lose sight of its key role in enabling resilience," said Prof. Andrew Watkinson, at the University of East Anglia, to The Guardian. He is not part of the research team.
