Descrição:
The development of means of transportation and communication has enabled an increasing flexibility of the location of households on a global scale, both for workers and retired individuals. The search for climatic comfort in the environment, influencing human well-being and productivity, can be satisfied by indoor artificial climate control; however, this generates environmental impacts and an artificialization of human life experience. In this study, our planet is investigated to find where the places with better natural climatic comfort would be. Global spatial climate databases are used to assess climatic comfort regarding relative temperature, air humidity, and natural lighting. The most comfortable places are in tropical/equatorial regions, on savannas adjacent to water bodies. The results are discussed in the face of the current spatial distribution of population in the world, and the past, current, and future scenarios of demographic dynamics. Our hypothesis is that the exposure of the population to a more comfortable climate is forecast to improve by 2100, although many possibilities for a better fit between global territorial occupation and climatic comfort could be explored.