When was the last time you flew too high on a swing and lost your stomach, or burst out laughing so hard that you started crying? If it’s been awhile since you’ve had this kind of fun, you’re not alone.

A lot of us are still recovering from the habits formed in the past. And these days, events outside of our control are taking a serious effect on our health. Last fall, 76% of adults surveyed by the National Psychological Association said stress from various aspects has affected their health. They reported experiencing headaches, depression, nervousness and exhaustion.

But the antidote may be hiding in plain sight. Two recent books argue that making room for more fun in your life could balance out both the stress and the tendency to escape it.

In The Fun Habit: Hone The Disciplined Pursuit of Joy And Wonder Can Change Your Life, published in January, psychologist Mike Rucker makes the case that pursuit of fun experiences may be even more valuable than seeking the sometimes abstract goal of happiness. “Happiness is a state of mind,” Rucker writes. ”But fun is something you can do. It doesn’t require education, money or power. All it requires is intentionality. If happiness is a mirage (海市蜃楼), fun is your backyard oasis.”

And science journalist Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, published in 2021, has a similar view. “We really neglect fun and we are so casual and careless about how we use the word,” Price says, but it is “essential for our happiness and health.”

And fun can be so many things. Last year, when NPR asked readers to share what they’re really into, more than 1, 500 of you responded with a deliciously wide range of pursuits. Meanwhile, Price and Rucker presented much advice for ways to build more fun into your life.

Hurricanes could be lasting longer after they make landfall, and spreading their damage farther inland, a new study suggests, which is a previously undescribed effect of climate change.

The study, published in the journal Nature, analyzed hurricanes that have struck North America from 1967 to 2018. It found that hurricanes making landfall in the 1960s lost 75 percent of their power in the first day after coming ashore, while today a hurricane that strikes land typically decays by about 50 percent in the first day.

The study’s authors claimed rising ocean temperature is the driving force behind the formation of longer-lived hurricanes. They ran four models that simulate (模拟) a hurricane moving over land. In each, they adjusted the temperature of the ocean water underneath the storm. The higher the sea surface temperature was, the researchers found, the more moisture (水汽) a storm carried over land and the longer it lasted. They said if a hurricane is like an engine, the warm ocean water beneath it is like fuel. When ocean water is particularly warm, as it is in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, it can increase pressure on hurricanes. If human-caused climate warming continues, they added, the destructive power of hurricanes—some with 100-plus-mile-per-hour winds and heavy rainfall—could extend farther inland and especially affect ill-equipped communities.

James Kossin, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said, “They make a convincing case that the long-lasting hurricane is related to higher ocean temperature, and this can in turn be linked to climate change.”

“I would probably support the opinion that this phenomenon (现象) is possibly happening,” said Dan Chavas, an atmospheric scientist at Purdue University and one of the study’s reviewers. “I think the effect is very real, but the question is how strong the effect is. We still have a long way to go.”

Life-threatening heat waves in the U. S. and Europe, along with China’s record-setting heat, are directly linked to human-caused climate change, according to international researchers. These extreme temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere this summer, breaking over 2,000 high-temperature records in the U. S. alone, are heightened by global warming. Palermo, Sicily, saw a historic 117-degree Fahrenheit temperature, while a northwest Chinese town experienced its highest recorded temperature.

The team, including experts from the World Weather Attribution group, stressed that such events would be nearly impossible without climate change. The influence of El Niño, a natural pattern, is noted, but the burning of fossil fuel (化石燃料) is the main driver of severe heatwaves. Human activities have driven a nearly 2-degree Fahrenheit global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution’s onset. The researchers utilized weather data and computer models to analyze the impact of warming on ongoing heatwaves. Their rapid attribution report, though yet to be peer-reviewed, indicated that greenhouse gas release increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central, agreed with this conclusion, stressing the connection between rising greenhouse gases and heat occurrences.

Even a slight temperature rise poses serious health risks, as indicated by the World Health Organization. Heat-related illnesses, heart attacks, and strokes become more probable. Vulnerable communities, including low-income areas and communities of color, face heightened risks due to rising temperatures.

Last year, Europe’s heatwaves killed around 61,000 lives, predominantly among women. Similarly, a heat dome in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 led to hundreds of deaths in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, warned that dangerous climate change is a present reality and demanded heightened awareness of its results.

In reality, the current heatwaves devastating various regions are basically linked to human-induced climate change. As the world experiences extreme temperatures, it is necessary to recognize the urgency (紧急) of solving this dangerous situation through sustainable practices and policies (政策).