The Planet Earth could change climate zones by 2100 by up to 40%

MAY 17, 2023 13:00

by LORENZO CIOTTI | VIEW 672

A new study has alarmed researchers across the globe. The Planet Earth could change climate zones by 2100 by up to 40%. By 2100, the climate crisis and consequent global warming could cause such significant changes in local temperature and rainfall as to force a redrawing of the map of climate zones on almost half of the planet's land surface, with the most significant changes detectable at the poles , in Europe and North America.

This was revealed by simulations published in Earth's Future magazine by an international team coordinated by George Mason University in Virginia.
The most dramatic changes could instead affect the polar area, which at the beginning of the twentieth century represented 8% of the emerged lands while today it has already narrowed to 6.5%.

Researches explained: "Since the early 20th century, Earth has already seen the climate classification of 14.77% of its landland change, with the most significant changes observed in North America, Europe and Oceania."

The Planet Earth could change climate zones by 2100 by up to 40%

According to the analysis, the tropical climate could expand from 23% to 25% of the land, while the arid zones would increase from 31% to 34%.

Very noticeable changes are expected in the cold climate zones of Europe and North America, which could slide into a new climate zone with 89% and 66% of their territory respectively. The researchers started from the mapping of climatic zones conceived in the late nineteenth century by German climatologists Wladimir Köppen and Rudolf Geiger, which classified the different regions of the Earth into five different types, such as tropical, arid, temperate, boreal, glacial, based on temperatures, rainfall and seasons.

By simulating the changes forecast for 2100 with the most up-to-date climate models, it emerges that up to 40-50 percent of the land surface could find itself projected into a new climatic zone, with serious consequences for agriculture, the spread of diseases and the survival of many species.

What we need to understand is that the climate crisis can no longer wait to waste time, but concrete and decisive actions are needed to ensure that our children do not have to suffer the consequences.