Cool future fashion: Personal cooling as part of social adaptation to hotter climates

摘要

, a headline from this summer, succinctly summarizes recent weather and predictions on its future patterns. According to World Metrological Organization, the last four years have been the hottest on record and the average global temperature has increased by about 1°C (or 1.8°F) since the industrial revolution. Disturbingly, this deceitfully mild increase is mainly due to longer periods of extremely hot weather. While there are uncertainties in climate change prediction, the consensus is that frequency and severity of such heat waves will increase significantly and will do so sooner than previously thought. Regrettably, significant warming will likely occur even if current prevention efforts are intensified, as illustrated in and its caption [ ]. Consequently, those of us living in already hot places should begin thinking how our own, as well as future generations’, lifestyles will have to change in response to rising temperatures. Here, I argue that our social adaptation will have to involve the broad use of personal cooling garments and contemplate on what the “cool future fashion” might look like.