Parched Earth: Burning fossil fuels may make planet uninhabitable by 2300; Climate change to increase global temperatures by 8 degrees

Canadian researchers have revealed some pretty grave statistics as to the burning of fossil fuels and its impact on Earth. In a study, published on Tuesday in Nature Climate Change, the researchers said burning all fossil fuels would make our planet so hot that global temperatures would soar by eight degrees. It would release five trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide that would drive global temperatures warmer than pre-industrial levels by 2300.

The study used extended models for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It found the impact of burning fossil fuels immensely large than previously thought. By 2300, Arctic regions would warm by as much as 19.5 degrees, global temperatures would range between 6.4 to 9.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times and would have a mean warming of 8.2 degrees.

Lead researcher Katarzyna Tokarska said that rainfall in temperate areas such as parts of Mediterranean, Australia and the Amazon may have their rainfall halved. On the other hand, global warming would make tropical areas witness a fourfold rainfall increase. Tokarska pointed out that earlier climate models either underestimated or oversimplified the potential of global warming or simply ran out to as far as the year 3000.

“Such climate changes, if realised, would have extremely profound impacts on ecosystems, human health, agriculture, economies and other sectors,” the study stated.

If manmade climate change pushes global temperatures by eight degrees, most of the planet would become unliveable, too hot for humans to survive. All coastal and low-lying areas in the world would also go underwater. The planet would become as warm as it was 65 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed Earth.

In order to reach the two degrees stabilisation of the climate, humans need to curb fossil fuel use dramatically and quickly. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is dangerously close to getting 100 percent bleached due to El Nino conditions. Economies need to change course and it is matter of concern that fossil fuel explorations are still on.