The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😜
Main Topic: Reduced Physical Activity Due to Global Heating Will Lead to Rise in Health Issues
Dear Diary. No one wants to go outside and run or do exercise on a hot steamy day. I know that I didn’t before falling and becoming a paraplegic. From my 20s through my early 50s I did manage to garner seven 10K Peachtree Road Race shirts, but these were earned with training during hot uncomfortable days.
During times over 90°F such training runs would have been unhealthy. Time is precious for most people, so when the window for exercise gets cut by hotter weather, outdoor activities are one thing that gets the ax. Many people in the southwestern U.S. will spend much more time in air conditioning this week than normal March, for example.
That leaves the great indoors where people can exercise in comfort. But not doing so outdoors say on a bicycle instead of on a stationary bike can give some an exercise routine that is refreshing and not boring. So, here we have another reason to keep our climate stable.
Here are more details from the Guardian:
Health and climateClimate crisis
Reduced physical activity due to global heating will lead to rise in health issues, study says
Researchers project that reduced activity could contribute to half a million additional premature deaths annually by 2050
A man jogging in Victoria Park, east London, during a heatwave in 2022 Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA
Health and climateClimate crisis
Rising temperatures are making physical activity undesirable and even dangerous in many parts of the world, and as global heating worsens, it will further affect how much people are able to move.
Researchers analysed data from 156 countries between 2000 and 2022 and modelled how rising temperatures may affect physical activity globally by 2050.
They found that each additional month with an average temperature above 27.8C would increase physical inactivity by an average of 1.5 percentage points globally, with an even higher increase of 1.85 points in low and middle-income countries.
Physical inactivity increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and mental health disorders, all of which shorten life expectancy, said the study’s lead author, Christian García-Witulski, a research fellow at the Lancet Countdown Latin America and a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.
Reduced physical activity is already a big global health problem and is responsible for an estimated 5% of all adult deaths, according to the study, which was published in the Lancet Global Health journal. About a third of the world’s population fails to meet World Health Organization guidelines for weekly exercise.
The study projects that the increase in physical inactivity could contribute to about half a million additional premature deaths annually and $2.4bn – $3.68bn in productivity losses by 2050.
The biggest increases in inactivity are projected to be in hotter regions such as Central America, the Caribbean, eastern sub-Saharan Africa, and equatorial south-east Asia, where inactivity could rise by more than four percentage points a month.
“This is not just a climate story, it is also an inequality story. The places expected to face the greatest increases in climate-driven inactivity are often the same places with fewer resources to adapt,” said García-Witulski.
“In settings where people have less access to cooling, fewer safe indoor alternatives, and less flexibility in their daily schedules, heat appears more likely to translate into reduced physical activity.”
The model also predicted a bigger increase in inactivity among women, which could reflect physiological differences as well as social factors, such as less time and access to cool places for exercise, said García-Witulski.
The findings are modelled projections based on self-reported activity surveys and don’t account for other climate impacts such as extreme rainfall, flooding and tropical cyclones.
The authors say the results show that physical activity should be treated as a climate-sensitive public health issue, not just an individual lifestyle choice.
“Staying active in a warming world depends not only on personal motivation, but also on urban design, infrastructure and access to reliable information. In practical terms, climate-resilient physical activity policies are those that help people remain active safely even under hotter conditions,” said García-Witulski.
That includes designing cooler cities by expanding the tree cover and shade networks in streets and parks, providing affordable air-conditioned places to exercise, and giving clear advice on how to stay safe in extreme heat, as well as ambitious emissions reductions.
Here are some “ETs” recorded from around the U.S. the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Tuesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)