environment. Climate change a bigger threat than thought: Study

Humanity faces a much larger threat from climate change than previously thought, according to a study.

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change , provides one of the most comprehensive assessments yet of how humanity is being impacted by the simultaneous occurrence of multiple climate hazards strengthened by increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

An analysis of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers reveals 467 ways in which human health, food, water, economy, infrastructure, and security have been impacted by multiple climatic changes.

These changes include warming, drought, heatwaves, wildfires, precipitation, floods, storms, sea level rise and changes in land cover and ocean chemistry, said researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the US. Until now, with few exceptions, climate hazards due to greenhouse gas emissions have been studied individually.

However, focussing on one or few hazards may mask the impacts of other hazards resulting in incomplete assessments of the consequences of climate change on humanity.

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