WASHINGTON (AP) – A new study says global warming’s milder winters will likely nudge Americans off the couch more in the future, a rare, small benefit of climate change.

With less chilly winters, the study forecasts that Americans will be more likely to get outdoors, increasing their physical activity by as much as 2.5 percent by the end of the century, especially in the nation’s northern tier. But hotter summers mean parts of the deep south and desert southwest would exercise less.

Still, study author Nick Obradovich of Harvard and MIT and other experts said any overall exercise benefit for Americans will probably far outweighed by many other ways that climate change is likely to hurt human health.

The study is in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature Human Behaviour.WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:

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