The daily ways of climatic ways are already aggravating our lives

When you think of the threats of climate change, you are probably considering the floods and the wind of the supercharged hurricane or unprecedented heat waves. A investigation In the United States, people at the end of 2024 found that the majority of people consider extreme time as the greatest danger linked to the climate. But there are a multitude of more persistent ways of climate change disrupts our daily experiences.

“These are the types of events that affect people's lives but do not necessarily make the news,” says Jennifer Carman at the University of Yale.

Although these more banal impacts of climate change – such as worse allergies or longer journeys – may seem pale compared to climatic disasters, they can add up to represent a big change, explains Carman. Knowing them can also help people prepare for the way climate change will affect their lives. After all, about half of Americans now report having personally experienced climate change, twice as ten years ago.

“Extreme events will not affect everyone,” says Carman. “But people experience daily effects every day.”

Climate change leads to the cost of food – and everything else

The warmer temperatures due to climate change contribute to price inflation. Friderike Kuik At the European Central Bank and its colleagues have analyzed the links between the evolution of temperatures and thousands of price indices around the world. Overall, they found that higher average temperatures – not just extreme events – lead to inflation. This was particularly true in the regions closer to the equator, where the effect persists all year round.

They planned that in 2035, warmer temperatures will lead to annual price inflation on a range of goods from 0.5% to 1.2%, depending on the amount of greenhouse gases that the world issues. The effect is approximately twice as important for food prices because agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the evolution of weather conditions. “All this unpredictability makes food cultivation more difficult,” says Carman.

Air conditioning becomes more and more common – and costly

Higher temperatures also increase air conditioning costs. In hot places, those who have air conditioning must execute it longer and most often for the same cooling effect. This can often Increase energy bills Beyond what people can afford.

People living in places that were once cool enough to manage without air conditioning, such as London or in the North West of the Pacific in the United States, must now install it for the first time. In most of the world, the Increase in cooling cost Wipes any reduced heating cost.

We sleep less because of the rise in temperatures

Even when we can launch air conditioning, warmer temperatures during the night can disturb our sleep. Renjie Chen At Fudan University in China and his colleagues have analyzed more than 20 million sleep surveillance nights to hundreds of thousands of people in China. They found that an increase of 10 ° C temperature during a given night made 20% more than someone did not sleep enough. With climate change in a scenario of emissions from the worst case, they estimated that higher temperatures could constitute each person in China Lose about 33 hours of sleep per year At the end of the century.

This is a global problem. Kelton Minor At Columbia University in New York and his colleagues examined the links between the ambient night temperature and the sleep data of tens of thousands of people in 68 countries. They found Higher night temperatures reduce the amount of sleep Overall, mainly by delaying when people fall asleep. However, the effect was the most important for people in poor or hotter countries, as well as for the elderly and women.

Climate change stimulates air pollution and makes it more harmful

Atmospheric pollution, whether tiny PM2.5 or ozone particles, is harmful to human health. Recent studies have shown that the effects of this ambient pollution can be even worse when combined with higher temperatures, either due to the modification of the heat of the pollutant mixture in the air, or people who spend more time outside.

The rise in temperatures can also Stimulate air pollution By increasing the request for electricity, including air conditioning (see above), which can launch electricity production to what are called “advanced factories”. These are transmitter power plants designed to meet the peak demand, and are part of the dirty fossil fuel power plants.

Pollution by combustion of fossil fuels in general fell because the electrical network has become cleaner, which should be a boon for public health. But decades of progress could be reversed by more frequent exposure to smoke from forest fires, as climate change feeds more intense and more frequent fires. A study revealed that an increased exposure to this smoke could lead to around 700,000 additional deaths in the United States by 2050.

Allergies get worse while the world heats up

Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also lead to longer hot seasons and greater pollen production, which is Stimulate allergies. And people notice. Carman says it has proven in the data of their annual investigationWith 38% of respondents reporting that the allergy season is getting worse.

The data support what people sniffs tell them. William Anderegg at the University of Utah and his colleagues found that The pollen season in North America has lengthened On average 20 days since the 1990s, with a 21% increase in pollen amount in the air. They attribute most of this change to warming caused by humans.

Voyages take more time, whether it is a long-haul flight or a daily journey

Climate change is increasingly involving delays related to weathering on transport systems, which leads to billions of hours of time lost.

For example, Valerie Mueller On the Arizona State University and its colleagues examined how regular coastal floods affect journey times in the east of the United States. They estimated that the average person who leads to work there is now about 23 minutes of delays per year due to these floods – double the amount two decades ago. In their analysis, they dedicated the extreme floods of the storm overvoltage, which is mainly due to the elevation of sea level.

Although a few dozen additional minutes move over an entire year may not seem so much, this represents billions of hours of time lost overall. In the coming decades, a new elevation of sea level could multiply this at hundreds of minutes per year per person, they found.

Weather -related delays are also increasing for train systems and airports. For example, the International Air Transport Association reports that Delays related to weather conditions Started from 11% of overall delays in 2012 to 30% of delays in 2023. And even when you are able to get on board, your flight can be more bumpy, climate change increasing certain forms of turbulence.