Global Warming and the Future of Running

I'm moving from the East Coast to the Portland area because of global warming. I can't take this weather anymore and it should be decent in Portland for the next 20 years or so. Beyond that, and I won't really care about my running times.

Muger Cement wrote:

if the Earth continues to get a couple of degrees warmer every half decade or so

Nobody is talking about warming at that rate. In the latest IPCC Report, the high end of the range of predictions is warming of 6.4 degrees Celcius or 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.

The effect of climate change on running should be the least of our concerns.

I think America will just capitalize on it, like everything else.

Someone will invent equipment to keep you cooler while running, etc.

I think that this question in and of itself understates the complexity and significance of global climate change.

First of all, I think that the rapid desertification of Africa will have a profound impact on distance running.

Secondly, predictions have the gulf stream coming to a stop within a couple of decades leaving Europe with a similar climate to that of Canada, so we can forget about the temperate climates enjoyed by those who run spring marathons and even many summer track meets over there.

Last of all I would like to point out that global warming is only one piece of a larger whole which also includes an increase in oil costs and decrease in food production which will make it less cost-feasible to continue buying running shoes and more dificult to stay adequately nourished to maintain a high level of training.

Global climate change will have a profound effect on the world of running.

beerintervals wrote:

Global climate change will have a profound effect on the world of running.

No, it won't. We are adaptable and people will continue running much as they do now.

beerintervals wrote:

Global climate change will have a profound effect on the world of running.

But it'll also be a positive impact. Hotter temperatures means more people will start moving up to altitude, where it's cooler. As a result, endurance performance will increase and times will drop.

Also, track may become a winter sport instead of a late spring and summer sport.

Actually, the planet is heating up most around the poles & least around the equator, so Ireland & New Zealand should have training weather year-round... which is good since we've never had great Irish or Kiwi runners before.

this is such a ridiculous question. has the warming over the last 600 years adversely affected running? did global cooling benefit running from the 1930s to the 1970s?

Your entire hypothesis or premise is wrong. The climate of the earth is constantly changing, from season to season, from year to year. Temperatures vary. It gets colder. It gets hotter. It stays the same. Twas ever thus. Just because we study the weather hundreds of times more intently today than we did before, and more people are exposed to the news of different weather conditions, does not mean that things that happen today never happened before. 70 years ago there could have been a number of large hurricanes in the Atlantic, but we would not have known about them. Today there can be the same number of large hurricanes in the Atlantic, and every information-starved news channel and prime time news program is showing you every wave of those hurricanes. Same circumstance, far different information gathering and dissemination, and all the pied-pipered John Q. Public lemmings are going "Oooh nooooo!!". Scientists can't tell me what the weather will be 5 days from now; I'm not buying their going-after-the-federal-grant-money hype of what the weather will be like 100 years from now. By the way, what kind of SUV did the dinosaurs drive that caused their greenhouse gases? If all these esteemed thousands of scientists that Al Gore is in love with were sitting on the beach watching the tide come in, they'd all be hysterically calling news conferences warning us that at this rate, the water would flood the city by the weekend. You and I understand that the tide comes in, and the tide goes out. We get the big picture.

Whoa, that really brings it all home. Something must be done.

I must have missed Newton's 4th equation relating training temperature to absolute running performance... 0.5 degrees C doesnt really affect performance...

What? Are you denying the fact that the earth is getting warmer? It\'s been warmer in the past, as you acknowledged in your post, and pretty clearly it\'s getting warmer now.

nah, let\'s ignore it! The beach sure is sweet!

Global warming and ozone depletion will kill us all...Fact

Theodoric of York, medieval barber:

"Why, just fifty years ago, they thought a disease like your daughter's was caused by demonic possession or witchcraft ..."

(here he adopts a reassuring, presumptuous, "we finally understand it for certain" tone)

"... but now we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a tiny troll or a frog living in her stomach."

And that sums up the cocksure hubris of most scientists throughout history, from alchemists to stellar evolutionists. But in case the doomsday prophets are right this time, I'm moving to the village of Drumnadrochit, in the Highlands of Scotland.

Max Powers wrote:

Global warming and ozone depletion will kill us all...Fact

Dipshit the sky is still blue... the ozone that's protecting us is fine... and less than 50 years evidence does not prove climate change... maybe abnormality but not change... oh and if you knew a damn thing about science you'd know that ice core samples show that during/ directly before an ice age, that peaks in temperature similar to the one seen over the last 50-100 years is natural. Dont take my word for it, it comes from finding by scientists at Imperial College of London, they were rated 10th in the world in science programs last time I checked... Liberals should have stuck with their first green policy, the attempted legalization of cannabis, at least that green policy made some sense economically, while the bullshit "live green" policy of Gore makes absolutely no sense economically...

Max Powers wrote:

Global warming and ozone depletion will kill us all...Fact

actually the ozone layer is well on its way to recovery. dumbass

WRONG! It will be a superflu or plague that knocks us down to about a half-million or so, total population, quite possibly released by Islamic Extremists. Note however the squirrels are dying of Plague, yes the Plague, in NY or PA. Head's up if you run trails.

I figured a small Pak-Indian nuke exchange a few years back and was wrong, so take this under advisement.

Have a nice day.

Portland Bound wrote:

I'm moving from the East Coast to the Portland area because of global warming. I can't take this weather anymore and it should be decent in Portland for the next 20 years or so. Beyond that, and I won't really care about my running times.

My long terms weather forecasts tell me that Portland will become much cloudier and wetter during the next 20 years.

Hope you like grey gloomy weather.

Muger Cement wrote:if the Earth continues to get a couple of degrees warmer every half decade or so, should we see distance times sort've level off, or will the Elite just move to more cooperating climates?

Dude, I laughed when I read this - a couple of degrees every half decade?!?!? Climate change on a short time scale, as in decades, works in half-degrees. A couple of degrees would easily take a century.

So no, climate change won't have an effect on runners. Even a 3 degree increase wouldn't change anything. It would affect sea level and affect us in that way, but not affect the way we run. I can run in 70 degree weather and 73 degree weather, too.