The number of days where extreme heat makes it too dangerously hot to go outside or engage in ordinary activities has doubled over the past 75 years, according to according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research: Health, Bloomberg reports.

The change is not just affecting pensioners who are in danger of dying from heat stress but younger people are also affected, who are losing time as climate-driven heat restricts their lives for 50 hours a year, according to the research that claims to be the first to stydy the impact of the Climate Crisis on everyday life.

The number of days where extreme heat makes it too dangerously hot to go outside or engage in ordinary activities has doubled over the past 75 years, according to according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research: Health, Bloomberg reports.

Scientists have found that extreme heat is increasingly preventing older adults from carrying out routine activities for significant periods each year, with parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and North America becoming difficult environments for senior citizens. The research indicates that people aged 65 and older now experience, on average, about one month annually when temperatures are too high for normal daily tasks.

The findings come as global temperatures continue to climb. Recent researchers confirmed that the last three years have been the hottest year in documented history, with 2024 the hottest year ever.

Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves are already affecting daily life in many regions, even though conditions have not yet reached the extreme “wet-bulb” threshold — a combination of 35°C heat and 100% humidity that can kill a human within six hours of exposure.

The study concludes that large swaths of the planet are gradually becoming uninhabitable as the Climate Crisis accelerates faster than scientists predicted. Overall, more than a third of the global population now lives in regions where heat significantly disrupts everyday activities, according to the research paper.

Scientists analysed global records of heat and humidity from 1950 to 2024. They combined those data with the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures national health and living standards, to estimate how vulnerable different populations are to rising temperatures. The team also developed a physiological model to estimate when outdoor temperatures — even in the shade — become too dangerous for people of different age groups to perform routine tasks.

The analysis shows particularly severe impacts in extremely hot regions. In Qatar, for example, temperatures now make it risky for older adults to perform routine activities for roughly a third of the year. Even younger adults aged 18 to 40 must limit daily tasks for more than 800 hours annually, or about 10% of the year.

“Extreme heat isn’t just affecting our ability to survive or work physically demanding jobs, but also just to do simple, light, daily tasks,” said Luke Parsons, a climate scientist at the nonprofit environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy and lead author of the study.

The change is not just affecting pensioners who are in danger of dying from heat stress but younger people are also affected, who are losing time as climate-driven heat restricts their lives for 50 hours a year, according to the research that claims to be the first to study the impact of the Climate Crisis on everyday life.

US pensioners lose 270 hours of normal activities due to the risks of overheating. In Europe, South America, southern Australia and parts of Asia and Africa have seen the largest increases in restrictions on daily life since 1995, according to the paper.

Global temperatures hit a record high in 2024, a year in which warming exceeded 1.5°C on an annual basis for the first time. “This study provides us with a really grim, unfortunate glimpse into what potentially a one-and-a-half degree warmer world looks like,” Parsons said.