The overheating of our planet, which has led to changing weather patterns, is undoubtedly a huge problem for life on Earth. But it is also a problem that can be difficult to conceptualize on an individual level. When we talk about it, we often cite statistics and numbers that do not allow people to truly understand what this means for them.
In order to help give people a more personalized understanding of the issue, some researchers at MIT have developed a free web tool that allows them to calculate how changing weather will affect their ability to enjoy the outdoors where they live. The tool was summarized in a post at Phys.org.
The tool, which the researchers are calling Global Outdoor Days, allows users to select the region where they live and personalize their own parameters for comfortable outdoor weather. They are then given a graphic representing the number of "outdoor days" they will have per year.
"This is actually a new feature that's quite innovative," said MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Elfatih Eltahir, one of the architects of the tool. "We don't tell people what an outdoor day should be; we let the user define an outdoor day. Hence, we invite them to participate in defining how future climate change will impact their quality of life, and hopefully, this will facilitate deeper understanding of how climate change will impact individuals directly."
Eltahir and his colleagues, postdocs Yeon-Woo Choi and Muhammad Khalifa, published their findings in the Journal of Climate.
In addition to allowing people to visualize how changing temperatures would impact them personally, the tool allowed the researchers to compare how it would impact people around the world. They found, unsurprisingly, that people in the Global South are being disproportionately affected, with places like Bangladesh and Sudan losing significantly more outdoor days.
Ultimately, what Eltahir and his colleagues hope the tool accomplishes is getting more people more personally engaged with the issue, bringing about more widespread societal changes.
"I think [it] brings the issue of communication of climate change to a different level," said Eltahir.
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