The world’s hottest summers on record will be the new norm within 20 years due to human-influenced climate change, says the president of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at the University of Victoria.
Climatologist Francis Zwiers co-authored a study confirming that sweltering summers as gauged by a long-standing measurement of human heat tolerance have become at least 70 times more likely over the past four decades. By 2050, virtually every summer will be hotter than any experienced to date.
The world’s hottest summers on record will be the new norm within 20 years due to human-influenced climate change, says the president of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at the University of Victoria.
Climatologist Francis Zwiers co-authored a study confirming that sweltering summers as gauged by a long-standing measurement of human heat tolerance have become at least 70 times more likely over the past four decades. By 2050, virtually every summer will be hotter than any experienced to date.
“We’re more than 95 per cent certain that human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the primary cause. The evidence is extremely strong,” says Zwiers, whose study found that even the hottest summers experienced since 1973 will be just typical summers within two decades.
Zwiers’ study examined wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a standard measure of heat that takes temperature and humidity into account and is often used to manage heat exposure for people working outdoors in summer in direct sunlight.
Continue reading at University of Victoria.
Photo via B.C. Wildfire Service.
