Ninety per cent of humans will perish in 31 years due to climate change, says Australia’s Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration (BNCCR), an independent climate research think-tank.
“We must never forget that we are in a unique situation with no precise historic analogue. The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is now greater and the earth is warmer than what human beings have ever experienced. There are almost eight billion of us now living on this planet,” the report states.
The report states that a three-degree rise, as decided in the Paris Agreement, is dangerous enough for disaster. A three-degree rise equates to 0.5m rise in sea levels and this would mean that cities such as Shanghai, Lagos, Mumbai at risk and trigger ‘large flows of climate refugees’.
A hotter climate would mean no polar ice caps to reflect back the sun’s rays leading to further increase in temperature. No ice caps in the Arctic will result in the release of trapped methane, which would increase the greenhouse effect more.
Giving the example of the recent heatwave in India, the study said that there will be “record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires, more intense flooding and more damaging hurricanes” every year. This would result in a billion people from West Africa and Middle East needing new places to live.
The study concludes with a scary warning, “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon, humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences.”
