A warming world makes football more difficult
Professional soccer player Samantha Mewis and Maureen Raymo, director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and co-founding dean of the Climate School. Photo: Francesco Fiondella
Climate change brings a host of serious consequences, including our ability to work and play outdoors.
On Wednesday, professional footballer Samantha Mewis visited the Climate School of ColombiaIt is Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for an event focused on the impact of climate change on sport. A hot topic, given that the 2022 FIFA World Cup which begins this weekend in Qatar is sure to be one of the hottest ever.
“One of the reasons I’m here is to protect our sport and to protect the athletes who play it,” Mewis explained, “but of course, obviously, to protect the Earth and the environment, and to ensure that both can continue to coexist in a way that is sustainable and enjoyable for everyone.
During the event, Mewis – who plays as a midfielder for the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League, as well as the United States national team – shared some of her personal experiences playing playing football in high heat and how difficult it can be.
“It’s like you’re running in this thick air – you get soaked,” she said. “It’s really not that fun anymore because it’s just this physical exhaustion, and you don’t perform as well.”
The event combined Mewis’ sporting expertise with leading climatologists and health professionalswith the aim of “connecting his field experience to the research questions we are thinking about,” said Maureen Raymo, director of Lamont and co-founding dean of the Columba Climate School. The event generated ideas for future research questions as well as potential solutions and ways for the sports industry to adapt.
A Lamont lecture on climate science Radley Horton provided a general overview of the various ways climate change can make sports more difficult – including reduced snow and cold temperatures for winter sports, damage to sports arenas from flooding and wildfire plumes forests that can deteriorate air quality around the world. He also focused on a topic he has done a lot of research on: heat and humidity.
Horton explained that while an increase in global temperature of just one or two degrees may seem small, it can significantly increase the number of days of extreme heat.
A slide from Horton’s presentation shows how a few degrees of global warming can significantly increase the number of extremely hot days. Before human-caused climate change (shown by the bell-shaped curve on the left), only a few days per year became very hot (shown in red). But climate change pushes the bell curve to the right, so that a much larger part of the curve – representing a much larger proportion of days – crosses that same heat threshold and reaches exceptionally high temperatures for a few days .
With heat comes higher humidity in many areas, because warmer air can hold more moisture than colder air. And because humid air prevents humans from cooling off by sweating, high heat and humidity can be a deadly combination. The conditions are already becoming fatal in some regions of the world, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, and will worsen as the planet continues to warm.
Research by Horton and his colleagues showed that the Middle East, where this year’s 2022 World Cup is taking place, is a region where climate change could make conditions intolerable in the coming years, so that even a person resting outside in the shade could die from overheating.
Even under current conditions, this year’s tournament had to be pushed back later so players and fans could avoid Qatar’s summer temperatures of around 106 degrees Fahrenheit. But the scorching heat would have caused the deaths of thousands of migrant workers which built the stadiums, roads and other infrastructure needed to host the World Cup.
“Climate is one of those things that will increasingly expose inequalities,” said Kristina Douglass, associate professor at the Columbia Climate School, during a roundtable discussion. “Where there are inequalities…. these impacts will be more significant. It is a fact.”
Some regions of the world are experiencing deadly combinations of heat and humidity, and these will become more common in many tropical and subtropical regions. Source: Raymond et al. 2020
For those lucky enough, there are many technologies and techniques that can help protect health and performance in hot weather. Before the 2020 Japan Summer Olympics, Mewis and her teammates spent hours exercising in a hot room to acclimate to the sweat, and before matches, they warmed up by wearing ice vests under their tops. The games include hydration breaks depending on the combination of heat and humidity. Sometimes popsicles are provided, as well as tanks in which players can dip their arms in cold water during breaks. There are patches to monitor sweat rates, urine tests to measure hydration levels, and even weigh-ins to see how much water the player is losing during training.
“We have access to so much,” Mewis said. “It was such a privilege to receive this kind of attention and care.”
Ultimately, however, it remains to be seen whether these solutions and other behavioral changes will be enough to keep up with climate change. Researchers at the event drew attention to the urgent need to reduce our carbon emissions and said working with star athletes like Mewis offers unique opportunities to make a difference.
“Sports is one of the ways that we can all really communicate,” Mewis said, “so I think it could be a powerful vehicle to get that message out and make a bigger impact.”
