“Climate Niche” in Journal Highlights
AOES associate professor Barry Klinger’s paper on the “Population distribution within the human climate niche” was featured in “Highlights of 2022” for the journal PLOS Climate.The paper, written with University of Florida faculty member Sadie Ryan, looked at various measures of population density in different ranges of annual average temperature and rainfall.
Klinger started the work when he saw a previous paper claiming population densities implied that the optimum climate niche for humans was in the annual average temperature range of 10-20 C (50-68 F – green areas in map below). However, as the Klinger and Ryan paper shows, more people actually live in the range 20-30 C (68-86 F – tan areas on map). Global warming will bring places now in the 20-30 C range into dangerously unprecedented (for recorded history) territory above 30 C, but it can lead to misunderstanding if we claim that the new temperatures are over 10 C (18 F) above “optimum” temperatures.
As an oceanographer, Klinger is used to creating maps where the land areas are whited out. He notes that it felt strange publishing a paper where it is the ocean that is left blank!
