Climate change blamed for more home runs in baseball: Warmer air, more dingers

As the climate continues to change, it’s not just polar bears and ice caps that are affected. According to a recent article, warmer air is also having an impact on America’s favorite pastime: baseball. The article suggests that this phenomenon is causing more home runs to be hit than ever before.

As a sports fan myself, the title of this article definitely caught my eye. It turns out that the science behind the home run surge is pretty straightforward. When the air is warmer, it’s less dense, which means that baseballs travel through it with less air resistance. As a result, batters are able to hit the ball harder and farther.

Researchers analyzed data from over a million pitches thrown between 1980 and 2016, and found that for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature, there was a corresponding increase in the number of home runs hit.

But why does this matter? On the surface, it might not seem like a big deal whether baseballs are traveling farther or not. However, the article points out that climate change is happening all around us, and the impacts can be felt in unexpected ways. In this case, the effects on baseball are just the tip of the iceberg. Climate change is causing more extreme weather events, threatening food security, and putting vulnerable populations at risk.

So the next time you’re at a baseball game and you see a home run sailing over the fence, remember that there might be more to it than just a skilled batter. It could be yet another example of the ways in which our changing climate is affecting the world around us.