New study shows increasing heat is straining livability for adults across the world

Rising temperatures are reducing livability around the globe. An ASU professor helped co-author a new study analyzing heat and its impact on people of all ages.

The researchers developed a model to see how much moderate activity, like sweeping the floor or gardening, could be handled in different temperatures and humidity levels before body temperatures got too hot.

For adults younger than 40, those activities were too straining for about 50 hours a year, on average. That’s double what it was in the 1950s. For those over 65, that jumped from 600 hours to about 900.

“It matters how heat affects our day-to-day lives. It affects how people can work, how kids can play, how they can live and thrive in a certain climate," said ASU professor and study co-author Jennifer Vanos.

Vanos says limitations were the worst in regions that often lacked cooling infrastructure.

“Countries that have less ability to escape from the heat because they're not as developed and they're also the hottest and seeing the greatest livability limitations, that's a big concern when we think about the impacts of climate change," Vanos said.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research: Health.