Rising temperatures could make millions of people more sedentary, new study finds
Newsy
New research suggests rising global temperatures are likely to contribute to a decrease in physical activity.
New research suggests rising global temperatures are likely to contribute to a decrease in physical activity.
A group of researchers in South America studied more than 20 years' worth of temperature and activity data collected from 156 countries across the world. Their goal was to model how the two variables would interact come 2050.
The model showed every month the average temperature was higher than 82 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27.8 degrees Celsius, global physical inactivity would climb by 1.5% on average.
The effect was even more pronounced in equatorial regions including parts of Central America, the Caribbean, eastern sub-Saharan Africa, and southeast Asia.
"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 lead author Christian García-Witulski.
