Overview

• The peer-reviewed paper, published in One Earth, links very hot days to more negative expressed sentiment worldwide and makes its dataset publicly available.
• Sentiment drops intensify above roughly 35°C, with about a 25% decline in lower- and middle-income countries versus about 8% in higher-income countries using a World Bank income cutoff.
• The team processed posts from Twitter and Weibo using BERT across 65 languages, aggregating results to 2,988 locations and matching them to local weather.
• Long-range modeling that assumes some adaptation projects about a 2.3% worsening in emotional well-being from high temperatures by 2100.
• Authors note social-media users underrepresent children and older adults, who may be more vulnerable to heat, underscoring the need for adaptation and mental-health planning.