‘Blown away': Safe climate niche closing fast, with billions at risk

As much as one-third of the world's population will be exposed to Sahara Desert-like heat within half a century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the pace of recent years.

Dust storm near Orange, NSW in January. The relatively stable climate
that has supported human civilisation for the past six millennia
 is likely to shift in the next 50 years because of climate change.

Scientists from China, the US and Europe found that the narrow climate niche that has supported human society would shift more over the next 50 years than it had in the preceding 6000 years.

As many as 3.5 billion people will be exposed to "near-unliveable" temperatures averaging 29 degrees through the year by 2070. Less than 1 per cent of the Earth's surface now endures such heat.

That heat compares with the narrow 11- to 15-degree range that has supported civilisation over the past six millennia, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “‘Blown away': Safe climate niche closing fast, with billions at risk.”