Climate change could make much of the world too hot for human habitation (居住) within just three centuries, according to some scientists. These scientists found that rising temperatures in some places mean humans would be unable to adapt or survive. "' It would begin to occur with global - mean warming of about 7℃, calling the habitability of some regions into question," the researchers wrote in a paper. With 11-12℃ warming, such regions would spread to include the majority of the human population as currently distributed. Professor Steven said there was no chance of the earth heating up by 7℃ this century, but there was a serious risk that the continued burning of gas and coal could create the problem by 2300. "'There's something like a 50/50 chance of that over the long term," he said. The study, which examined climate change over a longer period than most other research, looked at the "heat stress" produced by combining the influence of rising temperatures and increased humidity (湿度). Professor Steven said climate change research had been "short-sighted" not to realize the long-term consequences of the influence of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. "It needs to be paid attention to," he said. "There's not much we can do about climate change over the next two decadesbut there's still a lot we can do about the longer term changes." "Near 2300, we may be faced with temperature increases of 12 degrees or even more," Professor Tony Michael said." If this happens, our current worries about sea level rise, occasional heat waves and bushfires, biodiversity (生物品种) loss and agricultural difficulties will appear in front of us -- as much as half the currently inhabited globe may simply become too hot for people to live there. " |