With all the talk about climate change and global warming, we are often presented with the risks that come with a 2° to 3°C increase in temperature. The focus is on how that has an impact on rising sea water levels, the melting of the ice caps, and the Arctic and Antarctica. How it causes more turbulent weather, more storms, heavier rain, drought, and wildfires etcetera. However, only little attention is placed on how much a 2°C temperature increase may impact on our daily lives? Of course, it depends on where you are in the world. If you are in the temperate climate in the northern hemisphere, 2° warmer weather may often be considered as being very welcome. However, there might be big areas of the world where people live in a temperate to tropical climate with around 24 to 26° C. In such areas 2°C increase in temperature may have a major impact on the well-being and the sense of comfort for a lot of people.
I’ve been living in places where the average temperature is 26 to 27° in the afternoons. But it’s common that the temperature increases to 34 and 35°C in the periods where the sun is shining and outside the rainy seasons. So, I just want to share with you my experience of how an increase of 2°C feels in terms of my comfort and workability.
24°C is probably the ideal temperature for a human being. However. Just two degrees increase above this temperature makes a huge difference in terms of the comfort that one feels. When the temperature is above 26° and if the night temperature does not fall considerably during the night, for instance because of humidity in the air, you will find it hard to sleep well. This may prompt you to use your air-condition, which in turn contributes to global warming.
An increase of just 2°C during the daytime, for instance from 26° to 28°C, has a major impact on the functionality my body. The body gets lazier. You feel more tired, and your brain simply starts feeling a little bit fuzzy. Basically, you feel tired much quicker, and your head feels heavier much quicker. Hence you will also feel a loss of concentration much earlier than you usually would. In other words, it has an impact on your capability of working. Not only for hard manual work, which obviously is more difficult in a hot than a temperate or cold climate, but also for desk-oriented types of work because your head becomes more heavy and tired much quicker, and you are therefore unable to concentrate well on your job.
At home you will feel very lazy and tired, which also can have an interesting effect on your body in the sense that you will move and exercise less. Hence if you do not eat less and drink (sugarless) more when it’s hot, you will simply start gaining weight, which is kind of a surprising effect perhaps.
For some, a heatwave being 1.4 or 1.5°C hotter because of climate change might not sound like a big increase. But this additional heat would have been the difference between life and death for many people.
To summarize this: A seemingly small increase in temperature of 2°C will have a major impact on your sense of comfort. We will feel lazier. Our workability will be reduced. Our level of concentration will be reduced. Sleeplessness will be more common. You might gain weight. We will become much less productive, unless we compensate by using more air conditioning, which in turn is counterproductive in regards to the effort at reducing global warming.
