By Johanna Gardener •
Updated: 20 Oct 2024 • 10:42 • 2 minutes read
NASA has issued an urgent warning for the future of certain parts of Spain, with worrying predictions that they will possibly not be livable in 30 years time.
Despite huge concerns around climate change, scientists and citizens alike do not appear to be taking this topic too seriously meaning that if there is no turning point soon, we may be facing unprecedented changes and in a global predicament where there is no going back.
What is going to happen to Spain by the year 2050?
According to recent NASA studies, the situation is dire and climate change is catching up on humanity and the planet quicker than we think. This comes in conjunction with various elements that are being impacted by human behaviours and could be responsible for marking the beginning and end of currently inhabitable areas. NASA experts warn that a series of radical changes are on the way that until now we have perhaps been unaware of. Most poignantly, the rise in temperature which is having and will continue to have severe consequences across the planet. This news is not unheard of. A few years ago, a similar report was issued, warning the world of what would happen in 2050.
We are getting closer to that date and with it, predictions are becoming more real. The study entitled, Too Hot to Handle: How Climate Change May Make Some Places Too Hot to Live presents us with an alarming picture of the countries that will be most at risk in the face of climate change. It warns that some parts of the planet and more pertinently, certain regions of Spain may become no-go areas within several decades including Madrid, the autonomous community of Valencia and Andalucia, where heat waves are most prevalent.
Will Spain become too hot to live in?
In about 30 years, climate change may make temperatures so high that life becomes unsustainable. The process is developing differently and at different rates across the globe but it is imperative to take steps to be prepared, especially in more vulnerable areas such as South Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea at risk by 2050 and eastern China, parts of Southeast Asia and Brazil – at risk by 2070.
Experts certify: “Past heat waves offer a glimpse of the future for cities expecting rising temperatures. Today, nearly a third of the world s population is exposed to life-threatening heat extremes for 20 days a year or more. Events such as the 2003 heat wave in Europe, which claimed more than 70,000 lives, will become more frequent and severe from the 2040s onwards. People already living in hot places will have to adapt to even longer periods of heat stifling, while those who live in colder cities will be exposed to levels of extreme heat to which they are not accustomed.”
Cities will need to urgently adapt before 2050 according to NASA study
Cities will need to adapt rapidly to be able to cope with exponentially rising temperatures or life outdoors may become impossible. Without proper ventilation or adequate air conditioning, life indoors may be equally unsustainable. The urban island heat effect generated by scarce green space, usually in more populated towns and cities, will make these regions more susceptible to extremes of temperature, provoking health challenges ranging from dehydration and heat stroke to cardiovascular complications and death.
This is especially true for the more vulnerable in society including the very young, the elderly, and people with pre-existing medical conditions. Experts affirm: “Heat impacts also disproportionately affect poorer citizens, who cannot stop working during a heat wave and are more likely to work outdoors or in poorly ventilated factories.”
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Written by
Johanna Gardener
Originally from Manchester, UK and with a degree in English with Modern Foreign Languages, she has been a permanent resident in Spain for the past 12 years. Many of these years, she has spent working as a secondary school teacher, as well as in journalism, editing and marketing. She currently lives in the historic centre of Malaga, where she enjoys writing, walking and animals.
Time and time again, climate alarmist have been wrong, wrong and yet wrong again. Banks still making loans on beach front properties. The fact of the matter is, these are total power grabs by governments and the richest. The earth is in one of its coolest periods of the last 1 billion years. Oil and gas bad, solar panels, wind turbines which can t be recycled and create toxic waste, good. Stop already.
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The previous comments are totally correct, to-date no climate change prophesy has come true, NOT ONE, I think ex-President Barack Obama just bought a multi million dollar beach front property last month so I guess the man knows something otherwise why spend millions on a property that will disappear soon. The clime will change as it has through out the history of the planet, we have had many ´´ICE AGES´´ and as per the current science information are are entering a new ICE AGE. However Spain will have problems, there is a genuine water shortage throughout Spain but for some greedy reason Spain keeps building more and more holiday homes and you do not have to be too clever to realise that this will just accelerate the water problem but in a typical Spanish government way that is someone else´s problem further down the road.
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I lived in Andalucia for 20 years and have seen the change first hand. Summers are longer hotter and dryer the rainy season is shorter each year and the reservoirs are running dangerously low.
Extrapolating I chose to move to the more temperate rainy north of Spain. I don t think it s climate alarmist as Galan said. Be up the change is already happening the trend is already here. People don t want to see it as it would spoil their dream of a life in the sun, but that s another story.
Human society has thrived in the last 10,000 years of climate stability that period is undoubtedly coming to an end.
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