A global warming study suggests that rising temperatures may cause more harm than people originally thought. A study conducted by researchers at Stanford, the University of California, along with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, indicate that children and babies that have not been born yet could be economically affected for decades.
According to MIT Technology Review, rising temperatures could decrease productivity and negatively impact earnings. The study also suggests that extreme heat could cause outbursts of rage and violence.
The findings were published in Proceedings Of the National Academy Of Sciences. It isn’t just long-term exposure to hot temperatures that can affect children’s futures. Even short-term exposure can result in long-term consequences. The paper doesn’t limit children to being affected, either. It claims that even unborn babies could be at risk of financial consequences for the next 30 years.
The global warming study states that each day that the temperature goes above 90 degrees, it results in a 0.1 decrease in average earnings by the time individuals reach 30 years of age. The paper says this just doesn’t include children, but can go as far back as conception.
It is not known exactly how climate change affects children’s financial futures. However, it does address fetuses and babies being exposed to extreme temperatures. The paper claims that these individuals, even unborn children, are sensitive to heat due to their thermoregulatory and sympathetic nervous systems not being fully developed yet.
Previous studies linked extreme heat in early life to higher infant mortality rates and lower birth weights.
Maya Rossin-Slater co-author of the study, believes that lower earnings are affected due to missed school and work days because of health reasons, cognition impairments, and lack of ambition, assertiveness, or self-control.
However, air conditioning can help alleviate the problems. As long as everyone has access to ways to cool down. Not everyone has HVAC units or are unable to afford the cost of electricity to keep them running. There is also the issue of repairs, which some people simply cannot afford. This not only includes those the homeless and low-income families, but those who live in poor countries, in which air conditioning is not as common as it is in the United States.
“In poor countries in hot climates that don’t have air-conditioning, we could imagine these effects being even more dramatic.”