At least when it comes to working outdoors. An interesting study published this month in Nature looks at how rising levels of heat and humidity will impact work in military and civilian sites, and draws a broad conclusion:
By 2100 under active mitigation (Fig. 1c), the high stress of present-day India
(green Fig. 1b) expands over much of Eurasia and the greater
Caribbean region (green in Fig. 1c). Under the highest scenario
considered, by 2100 (Fig. 1d) much of the tropics and mid-latitudes
experience months of extreme heat stress, such that heat stress in
Washington DC becomes higher than present-day New Orleans,
New Orleans exceeds present-day Bahrain, and Bahrain reaches a
WBGT of 31.5 ◦C.
WGBT stands for Wet Bulb Global Temperature, a measure developed in the l950's by the Marine Corps to avoid heat stress injuries. Anything above 88 degrees F or 31 degrees C is considered hazardous, which means much less capacity for work out of doors for police, construction work, athletes, etc.
Under two difference emissions scenarios, the study finds that labor loss due to heat stress doubles by 2050. Looking further into the future, later the ability to work out of doors falls dramatically, by 75% in warm months in places like Washington, D.C.
Won't have as big an effect on white collar labor, due to air conditioning. A new social justice issue.
Kit Stolz 