A warming world makes football more challenging
Professional soccer player Samantha Mewis and Maureen Raymo, director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and co-founder of the Climate Institute.Photo: Francesco Fiordra
The changing climate has many serious consequences – among them our ability to work and play outdoors.
On Wednesday, professional soccer player Samantha Mewis visited Columbia Climate Schoolof Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Attend an event that focuses on how climate change is affecting sport. It’s a timely topic, as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar this weekend is sure to be one of the hottest on record.
“One of the reasons I’m here is to protect our sport and the athletes who are playing,” Mavis explained, “but of course, obviously to protect the planet and the environment and make sure the two can continue to coexist in a way that’s important to everyone. both in a sustainable and enjoyable way.”
During the event, Mevis, who plays as a midfielder for the Kansas City Current in the National Women’s Soccer League and the U.S. National Team, shared some of her personal experiences playing soccer in the heat and how difficult it can be.
“It feels like you’re running through this thick air — you’re soaking wet,” she said. “It’s really not that fun anymore because it’s just physically exhausting and you don’t have as much output.”
The event combines Mewis’ athletic expertise with Leading climate scientists and medical expertswith the aim of “connecting her experience in the field to the research questions we think about,” says maureen remo, Director of Lamont and Co-Founding Dean of the Columba Climate School. The event generates ideas for future research questions and potential solutions and ways for the sports industry to adapt.
Lamont Climate Science Presentation radley horton Provides a broad overview of the various ways in which climate change is making sport more difficult – including reduced snowfall and low temperatures for winter sports, damage to sports venues from flooding, and wildfire plumes that could worsen air quality around the world. He also focuses on a topic that he has researched extensively: heat and humidity.
Horton explained that while a global warming of just a degree or two may not seem like much, it can significantly increase the number of days with extreme heat.
A slide from Horton’s presentation showed how a few degrees of global warming could dramatically increase the number of extremely hot days. Before human-induced climate change (shown by the bell curve on the left), only a few days per year would have been very hot (shown in red). But climate change pushes the bell curve to the right, so a larger portion of the curve — representing a larger proportion of days — crosses the same thermal threshold, and there are days of unusually high temperatures.
As the heat increases, so does the humidity in many areas, as warmer air can hold more moisture than cooler air. High temperatures and high humidity can be a deadly combination because humid air hinders the body’s ability to cool down through sweating.requirement is has become deadly In some parts of the world, especially the tropics and subtropics, this will worsen as the planet continues to warm.
The Middle East, which hosts the 2022 World Cup this year, is one region where climate change could make conditions unbearable for years to come, so even people resting in the shade outside could die from overheating, Horton and his colleagues’ research suggests.
Even under the current circumstances, this year’s games will have to be postponed so that players and fans can avoid Qatar’s summer temperatures of around 106 degrees Fahrenheit.But the scorching weather has reportedly Thousands of migrant workers died Who built the stadiums, roads and other infrastructure needed to host the World Cup.
“Climate is one of the things that will increasingly expose inequality,” says Christina Douglas, associate professor at Columbia Climate Institute, during a panel discussion. “Where there’s inequality … those effects are bigger. That’s a fact.”
Some parts of the world are experiencing deadly combinations of heat and humidity that will become more common in many parts of the tropics and subtropics. resource: Raymond et al. 2020
For those who are more fortunate, there are many technologies that can help protect fitness and performance in hot weather. Ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, Mevis and her teammates worked out for hours in the hot indoors to get used to the sweaty weather, warming up by wearing ice vests under their tops before competing. The game includes hydration breaks based on a combination of heat and humidity. Hydration popsicles are sometimes provided, as well as tanks where players can dip their arms in cold water during breaks. There are patches to monitor sweat rate, urine tests to measure hydration levels and even weigh-ins to see how much water players lose during training.
“We can only touch so much,” Mevis said. “It’s been such an honor to have that kind of attention and care.”
Ultimately, though, it remains to be seen whether these solutions and other behavioral changes will be enough to keep up with a changing climate. Researchers at the event called attention to the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, saying that working with star athletes like Mevis offers a unique opportunity to effect change.
“Sports is one of the ways we can really connect,” Mevis said, “so I think this could be a powerful tool to spread that message and have a bigger impact.”
