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Over the past few years, key concerns surrounding climate change and sedentary lifestyles or lack of physical activity have been growing, especially following national lockdowns. But could the two issues share a common solution? For this blog post, Karim Abu-Omar (FA University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany) shares his perspective on the matter, following publication of a dedicated Opinion Article with F1000Research.

I am a Lecturer at the Department of Sport Science and Sport at FA University Erlangen-Nürnberg. I have been trained as a medical sociologist, and conduct research mainly in the area of physical activity promotion and public health. Currently, I am Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) on Physical Activity and Public Health based with our department.

Currently my research is right at the intersections between the social sciences and public health. For example, at our WHO CC, we support the European office of the WHO in assisting nations to formulate and implement policies for physical activity promotion at the population level. We know, and have learned the hard way, that many people remain sedentary because they lack the supportive environments and policies that they would need in order to be more active. Creating physical activity-friendly environments and health-enhancing exercise programs have thus become important means to promote physical activity at the population level. This shift of focus from individual level behavior to policy development to combat sedentary lifestyles has been rapid, and conducting research in this field feels highly rewarding for me.

One practical example that we work on is how to establish community-based exercise programs for hard to reach populations. We have a project that focusses on women who are in difficult life situations such as being refugees, being single-raising, or having low household income. In order to reach these women to take part in exercise, these programs need to be free of charge, culturally sensitive, offer childcare, and be at places where the women feel safe to go. We work with communities to set-up (and sustain) such programs jointly with women following the principles of action research. Our primary research interest is how the scale-up of such programs can be facilitated, and what the effects of our participatory approach is on women, and all stakeholders involved.

Exploring physical activity promotion in the age of climate change

I believe the climate crisis is an existential threat to all of us! I joined Extinction Rebellion about 2 years ago and thus have joined what Michael Mann has called the “new climate war”. As an action researcher I can’t sit still and not act. As the school strike movement says, we have no planet B, and I feel a great sense of urgency to combat global heating and our, to this point, abysmal global policy responses to this issue.

I realize in my daily work that the sport and exercise research community is only starting to grasp how the climate crisis will affect our work in the future. To facilitate discussions in our field of research on the intersections between physical activity promotion and climate change, we wrote this piece.  

I guess the key finding is – and this is really encouraging – that in many ways, what helps people to become more active also helps us lower greenhouse gas emissions. A typical win-win situation. Take active travel (walking, biking), if we can shift inner city traffic from cars to walking and cycling, this creates an immediate win-win. Cleaner air, lower greenhouse gas emissions, healthier and more active people, better quality of life. So, obviously, we need to push for policies that discourage car use and encourage active transport in cities.

Streamlining physical activity promotion with climate protection goals

We need to do more to “climate streamline” our actions for physical activity promotion. Take exercise programs. They are great for health, but if we think of water aerobics in a heated indoor-pools, the carbon footprint of such programs is pretty miserable. So, we need to learn to consider the carbon footprint of different sport and exercise programs when we advise communities or policy makers. For example, outdoor programs can come with additional health benefits (being in nature), and have a much lower carbon footprint.

I guess this is about raising awareness. That physical activity promotion, as any field of research nowadays, needs to consider the climate crisis and the impact it will have on all of us in our daily research. In physical activity promotion some researchers think, simply because physical activity and exercise is good for health, we do not need to worry about the carbon footprint that we have. But obviously, this is not right.

Challenges in researching two areas in tandem

I guess on the one hand, there have not been many challenges. I have wonderful colleagues who supported me greatly in writing this piece and without whom the article would be nowhere near being published. On the other hand, I realize that other colleagues of mine still do not think that the climate crisis will impact our field of research in the future, and that such papers are kind of weird… So, in a way, we still have a long way to go.

Final comments on open research  

I try to only publish open research/open access. There should be no restricted access to research findings at all! Insofar, I was very happy to publish with you. Thank you for the interview!

Read the full Opinion Article: Physical activity promotion in the age of climate change >>