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Billions of People Projected to Dwell Amid Nearly Unlivable Heat in 2070

Associated Press

   KENSINGTON, MARYLAND - In just 50 years, 2 billion to 3.5 billion
   people, mostly the poor who can't afford air conditioning, will be
   living in a climate that historically has been too hot to handle, a new
   study says.

   With every 1 degreeincrease in global average annual temperature from
   man-made climate change, about a billion or so people will end up in
   areas too warm, day-in, day-out, to be habitable without cooling
   technology, according to ecologist Marten Scheffer of Wageningen
   University in the Netherlands, co-author of the study.

   How many people end up at risk depends on how much heat-trapping carbon
   dioxide emissions are reduced and how fast the world population grows.

   Under the worst-case scenarios for population growth and carbon
   pollution -- which many climate scientists say is looking less likely
   these days -- the study in Monday'sProceedings of the National Academy
   of Sciences predicts about 3.5 billion people will live in extremely
   hot areas. That's a third of the projected 2070 population.

   But even scenarios considered more likely and less severe project that
   in 50 years a couple of billion people will be living in places too hot
   without air conditioning, the study said.

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