A climate scientist said about two thirds of Earth's population is under an effective "death sentence" as global warming continues to worsen, bringing brutal heat waves , disastrous hurricanes and terrifying tornadoes that will eventually be too much for humans to handle.
The recent climate catastrophes —midwest states enduring unhealthy air quality due to smoke from wildfires in Canada and the western US followed by the deadly landfall of Hurricane Debby which brought torrential flooding to Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas and killed eight people—was but a taste of the hell to come, according to Dr. Deborah Brosnan, an ocean and climate scientist.
She said about two thirds of the 8.2billion people who live on this planet are under an effective "death sentence" as natural disasters will continue to grow more deadly in the years to come unless human behaviors change. "The point is that climate change is happening to everyone and in every region of the world," she said.
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Indeed, every corner of the planet is poised to endure dangerous weather. Dr. Brosnan clarified that people shouldn't be scared for the planet because Earth will adapt to its new conditions. However, the extreme events could stress humans, infrastructure and resources in ways municipalities couldn't adequately handle.
"What everyone is missing about climate change is that it's not about saving the planet or about science: it's about people. Earth will survive – it'll be different, but it will carry on. Humans are the ones at risk." For those living on the coast, hurricanes have become far more intense in recent years. Rising sea levels drive increased flooding, far more brutal than the inundation Georgia and the Carolinas faced last month , and erosion that will destroy properties and sink their monetary values, Dr. Brosnan said.
Hurricanes are more frequent and intensify much faster thanks to the rising sea temperatures, which averaged 84.7F in one week in May.
"Oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat from increased CO2 due to human activities," Dr. Brosnan said. "We have primed conditions for more intense hurricanes. If water temperatures stay high, and there’s every evidence that they will, we can expect stronger and more rapidly intensifying hurricanes."
In early July, Hurricane Beryl, which killed 36, had one of the fastest intensifications on record—taking just 42 hours to go from a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 38mph to a major Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of more than 111 mph. This represents a domino effect as hurricanes are expected to be less severe at the start of the season because the oceans hasn't had a lot of time to heat up. Beryl's record-setting ascent in July may very well be broken down the road as Hurricanes typically become more dangerous later in the season, which goes from June 1 to November 30, according to the NOAA.
There are anywhere between 17 to 25 hurricanes left this year.
The calamitous storm ravaged several islands in the Caribbean Sea, causing approximately 20 deaths across the board, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Island nations will always feel the brunt of these disasters. Dr. Brosnan said SIDS—Small Island Developing States—like Grenada and St. Vincent in the Caribbean sea are "caught in a vicious cycle of having to choose between growth or recovery from the most recent natural disaster, which adds "crippling debt" to the equation.
Island governments know all too well how difficult it is to keep communities safe through a vicious storm and the frustration of rebuilding just to plunged back to square one after the next storm.
City dwellers are largely safe from the destructive forces of tornadoes and hurricanes but will likely swelter during extreme heat waves brought by climate change. More than 100 million Americans were under a heat advisory in 2023 with the south-west and parts of the west hit the hardest.
Officials in California, Nevada and Arizona at the time told residents to take the heat seriously—Phoenix experienced scorching 118-degree weather. That year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several southern states had reported an influx of heat-related emergency room visits.
"2024 is proving to be equally brutal and the heat waves are starting earlier in the season.," Dr. Brosnan said.
She says we as human must act to offset this bleak future. US President Joe Biden in 2022 passed the Inflation Reduction Act(IRA), which was the biggest climate legislation in recent history.
The IRA aims to ramp up US investment in green technology by allocating $369 billion in funds through grants, loans and tax credits to public and private organizations. The ultimate goal is to lower carbon emission levels by nearly 40% by 2030.
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This is not enough according to Dr. Brosnan, who gave a laundry list of steps the world could take to save the ozone layer. The IRA has done its part on financing the fight against climate change, which she says could help island nations and other at-risk populations escape the damage-rebuild cycle.
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However, financial institutions could "accelerate and mainstream the sustainable transitions" to get the job done faster. To get every nation on board they need incentives, she said. The implementation of the loss and damage agreement, an initiative that grants funding to at-risk territories that passed by the United Nations at its Climate Change Conference in 2022, will help support those who struggle to pick up the pieces after a natural disaster.
Additionally, there need to be stronger policies that "demand" changes and simultaneously support them. " The private sector has to step up and realize that they have a moral obligation and a business opportunity combined," Dr. Brosnan said.
"Things cannot be done the same way: This can no longer be business as usual. The good news is that we have the science, the technology, and the human capacity to transition through climate change and create a far more sustainable and equitable world that we have today- the only ingredient in short supply is the will to do so by those who can do most."
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