The Middle East may become too hot for the human body to tolerate if climate change continues due to unregulated amounts of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere, a new study has warned.
The research, published this week in the science journal Nature Climate Change, projects that cities like Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi may experience temperatures as high as 6O degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) if the current rate of carbon emissions continue.
If the humidity level is factored in, the high temperatures may reach even more dangerous levels, with some places in the Middle East experiencing a scorching temperature of 74 to 77 degrees (165 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six hours.
The harsh temperatures are already too hot for the human body to handle, according to the study, which used carbon emissions trajectory from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'S Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP).
"You can go to a wet sauna and put the temperature up to 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit or so. You can bear it for a while. Now think of that at an extended exposure," Elfatih Eltahir of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a co-author of the study, explained, as quoted by Mashable.
Eltahir added that if this happens, this will be the first time that a place on Earth inhabited by humans will experience prolonged, oppressive combination of heat and humidity.
The study's co-author further explained that by the rate climate change is going, these extreme temperatures may be experienced in the Middle East by the year 2100.
Moreover, due to the unique geography and climate of the Persian Gulf, such intolerable heat may be felt every decade or so in the area.
Carnegie Institute for Science climate researcher Chris Field, meanwhile, said the study just highlights the fact that climate change really threatens communities.
"Some of the scariest prospects from a changing clime involve conditions completely outside the range of human experience. If we don't limit climate change to avoid extreme heat or mugginess, the people in these regions will likely need to find other places to live," Field said.
