TUHO:
In August 2021, UNICEF warned that over one billion children are at extreme risk of the impacts of AGW [161]. According to the Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) [161],
240 million children are exposed to coastal flooding;
330 million to riverine flooding;
400 million to cyclones;
600 million to vector borne diseases;
815 million to lead pollution;
820 million to heatwaves;
920 million to water scarcity and
one billion children to dangerously high levels of air pollution.
Looking at the problem from different perspectives provides convergent evidence for an estimate of 1 billion deaths at 2 °C of warming:
The estimate corresponds to 10% of the projected future world population. All 10 billion humans will need food and fresh water to survive, and AGW will seriously affect both.
Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for about a century, the prediction implies that, on average, 10 million additional deaths per year will be due to AGW.
If the wet-bulb temperature exceeds skin temperature, perspiration can no longer cool the body. Already in 2022, this effect was life-threatening for a billion people in India and Pakistan [162]. In the same countries in 2023, maximum temperatures were consistently above 40 °C for over two weeks [161].