Climate Change Could Result in Certain Areas Becoming Uninhabitable Like Mars

Huffington Post - Michael Lazar



Climate change could impact the Middle East by the mid-century, say leading experts and scientists. Its wide-reaching effects could result in massive regions in the Middle East and in Africa being rendered uninhabitable.
According to researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and The Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, extreme heat days in these areas have increased twofold since the 70s, and could become so hot in the years to come that human beings would be unable to inhabit them.
During the hotter days, these regions can routinely see temperatures that exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. But if climate change continues unabated, this could increase to 114 degrees by the year 2050, and peak at 122 degrees by the year 2100.
According to the study's lead author, Jos Lelieveld, who is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, "Prolonged heat waves and desert dust storms can render some regions uninhabitable, which will surely contribute to the pressure to migrate."
The heat waves could result in the displacement of more than 500 million people when all is said and done.
To create this dire prediction, the researchers studied data that goes all the way back the mid-80s. Using this technique, they were able to accurately predict modern day heat waves and temperature patterns.
The study compared what would happen if fossil fuels were reduced over the next 100 years, and what would happen if they were not, to create a predictive model.
From the years 1986 to 2005, heat waves in these areas were confined to 16 days on average.
But by the middle of the century, they could last as many as 80 days, and by the end of the century they could last over 100 days.
The study noted that these regions could experience 200 warm or hot days by the middle to end of the century if something is not done to curb climate change.
A hot topic for debate, there are arguments on both sides of the climate change topic. But the reality is that one way or another the world is heating up. Modern science, and the community at large believes that humans have helped speed up this process, at the very least, or are vast contributors to it.
If changes are not made soon, we could see hotspot regions that emulate Mars on our home planet.