--- title: Climate Change: Parts of South Asia Will Be Unlivable description: Temperatures in heavily populated South Asia will exceed habitable levels by the end of this century without efforts to stem climate change canonical: https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-02T20:45:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:50:28.532Z article:section: Science og:title: Climate Change Will Make Parts of South Asia Unlivable og:description: Heat waves in the region have killed thousands of people in recent years og:url: https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c568406dccc74a0/6988d836e76ad23faa62e92d/gettyimages-533030722.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: INDIA-HEAT-WEATHER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Climate Change Will Make Parts of South Asia Unlivable twitter:description: Heat waves in the region have killed thousands of people in recent years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c568406dccc74a0/6988d836e76ad23faa62e92d/gettyimages-533030722.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Climate Change Will Make Parts of South Asia Unlivable by 2100, Study Says  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 2, 2017 8:45 PM UTC  Children bathe in water in a decorative shallow pool adorning the gardens surrounding the India Gate monument on a hot Indian summer afternoon in New Delhi on May 20, 2016. Children bathe in water in a decorative shallow pool adorning the gardens surrounding the India Gate monument on a hot Indian summer afternoon in New Delhi on May 20, 2016.Roberto Schmidt—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 2, 2017 8:45 PM UTC Temperatures in heavily populated South Asia will exceed habitable levels by the end of this century without efforts to stem manmade climate change, according to new [research](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/8/e1603322). Researchers behind the study, published in the journal _Science Advances,_ found that 4% percent of the South Asian population is expected to experience temperature and humidity conditions in which humans cannot survive without air conditioning by 2100\. Three quarters of the population will experience environmental conditions considered dangerous, even if not downright unlivable. The effects of unchecked temperature rise would extend beyond the health concerns associated with being outside in high temperatures. With workers unable to stay outdoors for extended periods of time, the region’s economy and agricultural output would decline, experts say. “With the disruption to the agricultural production, it doesn’t need to be the heat wave itself that kills people,” says study author Elfatih Eltahir, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a [press release](http://news.mit.edu/2017/deadly-heat-waves-could-hit-south-asia-century-0802). “Production will go down, so potentially everyone will suffer.” Currently, extreme unhealthy temperatures in South Asia—a region that includes India, Pakistan and Bangladesh—affect around 15% of the region’s population. A number of deadly extreme weather events in the region reflect that reality, including a [2015 heat wave](http://time.com/3904590/india-heatwave-monsoon-delayed-weather-climate-change/) that killed more than 2,500 people. Researchers note that the disastrous scenario could be avoided if countries meet their commitments to keep temperatures from rising more than 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100\. That goal, embedded in the 2015 [Paris Agreement](http://time.com/4146764/paris-agreement-climate-cop-21/) on climate change, will likely be difficult to meet without increasingly ambitious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. South Asia ranks high on lists of the most threatened regions, but it is far from the only place where scientists say global warming could change the fabric of society. In a 2015 [study](http://time.com/4087092/climate-change-heat-wave/) in the journal [_Nature Climate Change_](http://time.com/4087092/climate-change-heat-wave/), Eltahir found that a number of Persian Gulf cities would reach similarly unlivable temperature thresholds by 2100. “We have built entire infrastructures with particular temperatures in mind,” Matthew T. Huber, an associate professor of geography at Syracuse University, [told](http://time.com/4830147/extreme-heat-climate-change/) TIME earlier this year. “When temperatures get really high, we don’t have the material capacity to deal with that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/"},"headline":"Climate Change Will Make Parts of South Asia Unlivable by 2100, Study Says","datePublished":"2017-08-02T20:45:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:50:28.532Z","description":"Heat waves in the region have killed thousands of people in recent years","url":"https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/","keywords":["climate change","Environment","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c568406dccc74a0/6988d836e76ad23faa62e92d/gettyimages-533030722.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c568406dccc74a0/6988d836e76ad23faa62e92d/gettyimages-533030722.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"INDIA-HEAT-WEATHER","caption":"INDIA-HEAT-WEATHER","creditText":"Roberto Schmidt—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4884648/climate-change-india-temperatures/","name":"Climate Change Will Make Parts of South Asia Unlivable by 2100, Study Says"}}]}] ```