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Rising temperatures may increase global physical inactivity by 2050

NDTV

Physical Inactivity Due To Heat May Cause Up To 700,000 Deaths Annually By 2050, Study Finds

The Lancet

Effects of climate change on physical inactivity: a panel data study across 156 countries from 2000 to 2022

The Washington Post

Inactivity in a warming world could spur hundreds of thousands of deaths

Time Magazine

Scientists Warn of Health Risks As Climate Change Reduces Physical Activity

Guardian

Reduced physical activity due to global heating will lead to rise in health issues, study says

EuroNews

Global warming could make exercise harder and kill 500,000 more people a year, study warns

The Telegraph

Rising global temperatures ‘eroding’ the world’s ability to exercise

AJMC

Is Climate Change Quietly Fueling a Global Physical Inactivity Crisis?

PeterDClack

JunkScience

Metaculus

3.6°C Global Warming by 2100

Science Media Centre

A study estimates that extreme heat-related physical inactivity could cause more than half a million premature deaths annually by 2050

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Freeman Dyson

"[C]limate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax."

"I believe in climate change caused by human beings. What I'm skeptical about is the glib notion that it means the end of the world as we know it."

"The clock is no longer just ticking, it is banging."

"There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change."

"The time for seeking global solutions [to climate change] is running out."

"The climate crisis is the existential threat. That's not hyperbole; it's a fact."

"[W]e are killing our planet."

Climate change is "above all, an existential crisis."

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges mankind faces."

"If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon."

"Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast."

"We haven't yet exceeded the bounds of viable human civilisation, but we're getting close."

Is Climate Change an Existential Threat?

Simon Stiell

Jim Skea

World Meteorological Organization

Myles Allen

Sheldon Whitehouse

"At this point it is virtually certain we will blow through [the 1.5C] target."

'"On our current path... we will reach that 1.5-degree limit sometime in the 2030s."

"Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible [to limit global warming to 1.5C]"

"We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5C world."

We won't have "extreme cases like of 4 degrees [Celsius] warming," but will "miss the 2-degree goal."

"[C]utting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees."

Keeping global warming to 1.5C is "entirely doable" and "simply a matter of political willpower."

Will Global Warming Be Limited to 1.5°C or "Well Below" 2°C?

A study published in The Lancet Global Health analyzed data from 156 countries between 2000 and 2022, finding that each additional month with an average temperature above 27.8°C increased physical inactivity by 1.44 percentage points globally.

A study published in The Lancet Global Health analyzed data from 156 countries between 2000 and 2022, finding that each additional month with an average temperature above 27.8°C increased physical inactivity by 1.44 percentage points globally.

By 2050, rising heat-driven inactivity is projected to cause 470,000 to 700,000 additional premature deaths annually and between $2.40 billion and $3.68 billion in productivity losses, with the steepest increases expected in low- and middle-income countries.

By 2050, rising heat-driven inactivity is projected to cause 470,000 to 700,000 additional premature deaths annually and between $2.40 billion and $3.68 billion in productivity losses, with the steepest increases expected in low- and middle-income countries.

The largest projected increases in physical inactivity are concentrated in hotter regions including Central America, the Caribbean, eastern sub-Saharan Africa and equatorial Southeast Asia, where inactivity could rise by more than four percentage points per month above 27.8°C.

The largest projected increases in physical inactivity are concentrated in hotter regions including Central America, the Caribbean, eastern sub-Saharan Africa and equatorial Southeast Asia, where inactivity could rise by more than four percentage points per month above 27.8°C.

Lead author Christian Garcia-Witulski said heat "gradually erodes the safe, comfortable, and practical opportunities people have to stay active in everyday life," noting that higher-income countries showed no statistically significant change in activity levels as temperatures rose.

Lead author Christian Garcia-Witulski said heat "gradually erodes the safe, comfortable, and practical opportunities people have to stay active in everyday life," noting that higher-income countries showed no statistically significant change in activity levels as temperatures rose.

Currently, about one-third of the global adult population does not meet WHO guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, and physical inactivity is estimated to account for roughly 5% of all adult deaths globally.

Currently, about one-third of the global adult population does not meet WHO guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, and physical inactivity is estimated to account for roughly 5% of all adult deaths globally.

The study's authors recommend integrating heat-risk messaging into exercise guidelines, expanding shaded transport corridors, subsidizing cooled exercise facilities and enforcing occupational heat safety standards, while also calling for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The study's authors recommend integrating heat-risk messaging into exercise guidelines, expanding shaded transport corridors, subsidizing cooled exercise facilities and enforcing occupational heat safety standards, while also calling for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Rising Heat Driving Global Inactivity, Deaths by 2050

Rising Heat Driving Global Inactivity, Deaths by 2050

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Rising Heat Driving Global Inactivity, Deaths by 2050

Rising Heat Driving Global Inactivity, Deaths by 2050

The Controversies

Trump

Michaels

Harris

Sunak

Francis

Biden

Macron

Thunberg

Merkel

Attenborough

Guterres

Mann

Whitehouse

Guterres

Skea

Stiell

Gates

Thunberg

Mann

Go Deeper

Articles on this story

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