According to a report by the United Nations and the Red Cross, extreme heat waves will make entire regions of the world uninhabitable in just a few decades.
If climate change continues as before, heat waves in areas such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and South and Southwest Asia would exceed the “physical and social limits” of humans, the UN and the Red Cross warned on Monday when presenting a joint report in Geneva . “Great suffering and loss of life” would be the consequences.
According to the report, heat waves are the highest meteorological hazard in all regions for which reliable statistics are available. Thousands of people are already becoming victims of heat waves every year.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths and Secretary-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC), Jagan Cahpagain, said the death toll will increase year after year as climate change progresses.
Experts predict that the number of deaths from extreme heat will be as high as that of cancer deaths worldwide by the end of the century. The report was published just under a month before the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
