Three Aussie towns to become unlivable within a lifetime due to climate change

Three major economic centres are set to become uninhabitable by the end of the century, with global temperatures on track to warm by 2.7C.

Darwin, Broome and Port Hedland are predicted to be pushed outside the “human climate niche” — that is, the temperature and humidity conditions in which humans can survive.

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The destinations are just three of many in the northwestern section of Australia facing “niche displacement” in the next 70 years.

New research by The University of Exeter, published in the Science journal Nature Sustainability this week, calculates the human cost of climate inaction based on current insufficient policies and government inaction.

Two billion people will be living with unprecedented mean average temperatures (MAT) above 29C, the report states.

MAT >29C is the point at which wellbeing scientifically declines, labour productivity and cognitive ability shrinks, negative pregnancy outcomes are produced, and mortality rates soar.

Twenty per cent of Australia — about 374,977 Australians — will be impacted by a 2.7C temperature increase, the report calculates.

They would join a third of the world’s population, including in South-East Asia, India, Africa and South America.

In Darwin, a 3C warmer world would mean that, for 265 Days Of The Year, temperatures would soar higher than 35C.

At 40C, humidity increases and temperatures become lethal, according to the Australian Academy of Science.

The University of Exeter report also explains the effects of a “wet-bulb temperature” — where temperature and humidity are combined. In temperatures above 28C (WBT) the body struggles to cool itself by sweating, and fails to do so in temperatures above 35C (WBT), which can be fatal.

By limiting global warming to just 1.5C — which is the aim of the Paris Agreement — 80 per cent of those globally at risk of rising temperatures would remain in their climate niche.

But a 1.5C increase will still unleash severe and irreversible effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems, scientists warn.

Currently, global warming sits at 1.2C, but new research from The World Meteorological Organisation suggests there is a 66 per cent chance at least one year in the next five will breach the 1.5C threshold.

“Despite increased pledges and targets to tackle climate change, current policies still leave the world on course for about 2.7C end-of-century global warming,” The University of Exeter report said.

“These results highlight the need for more decisive policy action to limit the human costs and inequities of climate change.”

The report also said the impacts of rising temperatures will not be felt equally, as estimates of the human cost of climate change “tend to be expressed in monetary terms”.

“(Estimates) tends to recognise impacts on the rich more than those on the poor (because the rich have more money to lose) and tend to value those living now over those living in the future (because future damages are subject to economic discounting),” the report said.

“From an equity standpoint, this is unethical — when life or Health are at stake, all people should be considered equal, whether rich or poor, alive or yet to be born.”