‘Alarming’: Climate change may shorten human life

An increase in global temperature is proportional to a reduction in the average human lifespan

Fluctuations in temperatures and precipitation, triggered by climate changes, can directly or indirectly cause several health problems, shortening human life expectancy by half a year, according to a study recently published in the open-source PLOS Climate.

The effects of climate change can be seen in the form of natural disasters such as floods and unprecedented heat waves that eventually impact human health.

Using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the author of the study Amit Roy designed a first-of-its-kind composite climate change index that combines the two variables to measure the overarching severity of climate change, as well as measure its impacts by assessing the average temperature, precipitation and life expectancy from 1940 to 2020 across 191 countries.

The results show that a global temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius is associated with a reduction in the average human lifespan of about 0.44 years or about six months and one week.

Source: Newsroom