
Couple kissing on a blanket.
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Climate change could affect out sex drive according to a new research conducted as a result of collaborations between researchers from Tulane, UC-Santa Barbara and the University of Central Florida. The two teams of scientists co-authored a new scientific study that suggests global warming can negatively impact our sex drive.
The research has found that, as the global temperatures rise, people may be less inclined to have sex. Economists have also studied a large amount of fertility data spanning 80 years and have then cross-referenced it to temperature data only to come to the conclusion that when there is an above average number of days with temperatures over 80 degrees, there is also a drop in “coital frequency”. This, in turn, leads to a drop in birth rates nine months later.
The days with such high temperatures lead to a 0.4 percent decrease in birth rates and, on top of that, the economists analyzing the data have also reached the conclusion that the cooler days which follow do not help bring the birth rate back up to its original point, only managing to make up for about 32 percent of the gap.
According to Alan Barreca, one of the researchers involved in the study at Tulane University, the decline in birthrates is a major issue for many countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which both have below-replacement birth rates. This means that the number of people born in the country at the moment is not enough to compensate for the number of people that die in the country within the same timeframe.
Many developed countries face the issue of declining birth rates and, according to the study, as time goes on and as temperatures will continue to rise during the summer, these already low birth rates will drop even more.
While the study focuses on “coital frequency” and the alarming decrease in the numbers of people born versus the death rate, there are other signs that many developed or developing countries are starting to notice the issue and are trying to find measures to resolve it. China has recently confirmed the problematic decrease in birth rates after abandoning its long time one-child policy and allowing people to now have two children for every family.
It also seems that controlling the climate at home can help with solving the problem. The United States may face a birth decline of 2.6 percent this year as a result of the rising temperatures. One solution would be controlling the temperature at home and air conditioning could be used to combat the ill effects of climate change in this situation.
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