Climate Change Is Making Us Paranoid, Anxious and Angry
Book review: ‘The Weight of Nature,’ by Clayton Page Aldern The New York Times
sdgtalks
The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains
By Clayton Page Aldern
We know, often with abject precision, what climate change is doing to our coasts, rainforests, wildfires and hurricanes; our immigration patterns, crop yields and insurance premiums. But what is it doing to our brains?
This question, for Clayton Page Aldern, is not rhetorical but bleakly literal. Aldern is a Rhodes Scholar who, in defiance of career counselors everywhere, abandoned a promising career in the field of neuroscience to become a journalist. He traces his conversion to a pair of reports showing a correlation between climate change and increased violent conflict. “It wasn’t just that a warmer world would hurt us,” writes Aldern, “it was that a warmer world would make us hurt one another.”
Most of the violence cited in those reports derives from the effect of higher temperatures on natural resources and weather disasters. The Pentagon report describes how drought and reduced agricultural yields helped prime the Syrian civil war, and how Hurricane Sandy necessitated the mass mobilization of the U.S. military. But it is also true that heat makes people irritable. How much more anger — how many more shootings, road-rage accidents, sporting-event brawls, declarations of war — is stimulated by a warming of one-and-a-half degrees Celsius? How about two degrees, or three? Warmer temperatures also tend to make us more cruel, depressed and dumb.
“The Weight of Nature” observes most of the narrative conventions of advocacy writing. A set of alarming problems is introduced and bemoaned, the dramatic stakes are raised to dizzying extremes, solutions are presented, and the reader is encouraged to act. But the weight of the “Weight of Nature” falls heavily on the problems, which draw from a survey of experimental findings so terrifying that they elicit the prose equivalent of nervous laughter; many of them, as Aldern writes in reference to the prospect of global-warming-induced mass dementia, are “almost comically apocalyptic.”
The book’s exposition, drawing from a selection of recent scientific studies, reads like a demonic Harper’s “Findings” column. Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, has begun infecting swimmers in lakes as far north as Iowa and Minnesota, and may already be present in all fresh water; as lakes and ponds warm, writes Aldern, channeling Vincent Price, “more N. fowleri are waking up.”
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?
- SDG 13: Climate Action
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
- SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?
- SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
- SDG 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
- SDG 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.
3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?
Yes, the article mentions indicators that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets:
- Increased violent conflict as a result of climate change (indicator for SDG 13.1)
- Increase in shootings, road-rage accidents, sporting-event brawls, and declarations of war stimulated by warming temperatures (indicator for SDG 16.1)
- Increase in cruelty, depression, and cognitive decline due to warmer temperatures (indicator for SDG 3.4)
Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 13: Climate Action | 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. | Increased violent conflict as a result of climate change. |
| SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions | 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere. | Increase in shootings, road-rage accidents, sporting-event brawls, and declarations of war stimulated by warming temperatures. |
| 16.4: By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets, and combat all forms of organized crime. | N/A | |
| SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being | 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. | Increase in cruelty, depression, and cognitive decline due to warmer temperatures. |
Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.
Source: nytimes.com
Join us, as fellow seekers of change, on a transformative journey at https://sdgtalks.ai/welcome, where you can become a member and actively contribute to shaping a brighter future.
