Alaska to get British-style temperatures

Parts of the world could heat up by over 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) this century with big areas becoming uninhabitable, according to a climate prediction experiment.

“We are very rapidly heading back toward the greenhouse world of the dinosaurs,” Bob Spicer, one of the scientists who mounted the joint BBC/Oxford University study, said on Friday.

“Back then northern Alaska had mean annual temperatures of about the same level as we have in London — about 10 degrees (C).”

Most scientists agree average world temperatures will rise 2 to 6 degrees C this century, mainly because of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, putting millions of lives at risk from flood and famine.

Reuters