Children will have to face more climate disasters than their grandparents, says study

A recent research published this week in the journal Science has shown that people born today will have more climate disasters over their lifetimes than their grandparents. As per the research, a child born in 2020 will endure an average of 30 extreme heatwaves in their lifetime, even if countries fulfil their current pledges to cut future carbon emissions. 

This is seven times more heatwaves than someone born in 1960.

Also, the babies of current times will grow up to experience twice as many droughts and wildfires and three times more river floods and crop failures than someone who is 60 years old today.

Professor Wim Thiery, at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and who led the research, was quoted by The Guardian as saying, "Our results highlight a severe threat to the safety of young generations and call for drastic emission reductions to safeguard their future."

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He further said that people under 40 today were set to live “unprecedented” lives, that is suffering heatwaves, droughts, floods and crop failures that would have been virtually impossible.

As a part of the research, drawing on multiple climates and demographic models, Thiery and 36 colleagues compared the risks faced by previous generations to the number of extreme events today’s children will have to witness.

Dr Katja Frieler, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and part of the study team said, "The good news is we can take much of the climate burden from our children’s shoulders if we limit warming to 1.5C by phasing out fossil fuel use. This is a huge opportunity.”