Modern children will see a record number of climate disasters

Scientists have found that modern children will experience several times more climate disasters during their lifetimes compared to their grandparents.

The study was published in the scientific journal Nature.

The team analyzed data on 1.69 billion young people aged five to 18.

The results showed that even under the optimistic scenario of +1.5°C (34.5°F), 52% of children born in 2020 will face extreme heat that previous generations have not experienced.

At the same time, during their lifetimes, heat waves, floods, and other weather disasters will occur 2–7 times more often than during the lifetimes of people born in 1960.

With the current climate policy of +2.7°C (36.86°F), this figure will increase to 90%.

“This means that 1.5 billion children will be exposed to extreme heat. In the pre-industrial era, such risks would be less than 0.01%,” explained the study’s lead author, Dr. Luke Grant.

The researchers emphasize that urgent action can halve the risks.

Under a +1.5°C (34.5°F) scenario, the number of children at risk of hunger would fall from 400 to 316 million, the risk of wildfires would affect 25 million fewer children, and the frequency of catastrophic droughts would decrease by 20%.

The scientists are calling for these data to be considered a “code red” for humanity.

According to their calculations, the planet will cross the fatal +1.5°C (34.5°F) mark as early as the early 2030s unless emissions are cut by 45% by 2030.

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