Well, hon, you better plan on sweating a lot more, and staying indoors for your own safety. It seems that global climate change could double the number of oppressively hot days in Charm City and significantly worsen our summertime smog pollution, making something as simple as breathing more perilous for those with asthma, lung or heart conditions.

That was the warning delivered today in Clifton Park by a handfull of scientists and environmental activists who called a press conference there to highlight the health threats facing urban residents as the planet heats up.

"Baltimore is facing a blistering hot future due to global warming," says Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation.  Climate scientists predict that average temperatures nationwide could increase by 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit within the lifetime of children born today, Inkley said, but the extremes could be even worse.

Here in Baltimore, it could mean roughly two dozen extremely hot days a year, twice what we swelter through now, according to the federation's analysis.  To read the full report, go here.

About one in four Baltimore residents lacks air conditioning, Inkley says, making them especially vulnerable to the heat.  And with 20 percent of city households living below the poverty line, they can't afford to have or run the AC.

More and longer heat waves could translate into more people being felled with health-threatening heat stress, notes Dr. Cindy L. Parker, codirector of the program on global sustainability and health at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Without prompt treatment, Parker says, the headaches, nausea and faintness afflicting heat stress victims can worsen into heat stroke, leading to brain damage and even death.

As if the heat is not enough, Inkley pointed out there'll be a "double whammy" as rising temperatures worsen the city's chronic bouts of summertime ozone air pollution. With the outdoor air already unhealthy to breathe at times for sensitive adults and children, higher temperatures are likely to raise the ozone levels siginficiantly, Inkley warns. Ozone inflames the lining of the lungs, causing coughing fits and tightness in the chest and may actually send some people to the hospital with breathing or heart problems.

"A lot more of us are going to become ill if we don't act," says Parker. "We can't simply adapt to ever-rising temperatures."

As if to emphasize her point, the Clifton Park swimming pool, one potential oasis from the heat, sat empty. The group called the press conference to remind the public that once Congress gets through with the health-insurance reform debate, it has pending legislation to deal with climate change. The House has already passed a bill aimed at curbing climate-warming emissions of carbon dioxide, but the Senate has yet to take it up. An aide to Sen. Barbara Mikulski stepped up to point out that she is a cosponsor of the legislation.

(2006 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)