THE WEIGHT OF NATURE is a deeply reported, eye-opening book about climate change, our brains, and the weight of nature on us all.
LISTEN to today's show
Aldern discusses:
· The Unseen Impact of Climate on the Brain: Climate change’s invisible stressors, like heat and atmospheric carbon dioxide, are silently exacerbating neurological diseases, including cognitive impairments and neurodegenerative conditions, amidst a worrying lack of public awareness.
· Immediate Stories: The time to address climate change is now. Its effects are already inside us, altering our physical and mental landscapes in profound manners. Students lose points on tests on hotter days and at higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide; higher temperatures are associated with higher incidence of domestic abuse, riots, and online hate speech.
· From Global Crisis to Personal Struggle: Aldern can highlight concrete examples such as the link between extreme weather and increased risks of developmental disorders in children, and how climate-strengthened phenomena like harmful algal blooms are posing direct threats to brain health.
· Generational Ripple Effects: Post-traumatic stress from extreme weather events can impact not only the mental (and physical) health of those living through the events—but via epigenetic routes, also the generations that follow.
· Policy and Innovation for Brain Health: We must consider neuroprotective technologies and the importance of integrating environmental health considerations into urban planning.
· Community-Led Adaptation and Education: We have to think about solution strategies beyond the realm of climate anxiety as we navigate the new normal. Community initiatives (from green space development to those that reduce neurotoxin exposure) and educational programs can enhance brain health resilience against climate change.
· And more.
Press kit here.
The march of climate change is stunning and vicious, with rising seas, extreme weather, and oppressive heat blanketing the globe. But its effects on our very brains constitute a public-health crisis that has gone largely unreported. Based on seven years of research, this book by the award-winning journalist and trained neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern, synthesizes the emerging neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics of global warming and brain health. A masterpiece of literary journalism, this book shows readers how a changing environment is changing us today, from the inside out.
Aldern calls it the weight of nature.
Hotter temperatures make it harder to think clearly and problem-solve. They increase the chance of impulsive violence. Immigration judges are more likely to reject asylum applications on hotter days. Umpires, to miss calls. Air pollution, heatwaves, and hurricanes can warp and wear on memory, language, and sensory systems; wildfires seed PTSD. And climate-fueled ecosystem changes extend the reach of brain-disease carriers like mosquitos, brain-eating amoebas, and the bats that brought us the mental fog of long COVID.
How we feel about climate change matters deeply; but this is a book about much more than climate anxiety. As Aldern richly details, it is about the profound, direct action of global warming on our brains and behavior—and the most startling portrait yet of unforeseen environmental influences on our minds. From farms in the San Joaquin Valley and public schools across the United States to communities in Norway’s Arctic, the Micronesian islands, and the French Alps, this book is an unprecedented portrait of a global crisis we thought we understood.
· The Unseen Impact of Climate on the Brain: Climate change’s invisible stressors, like heat and atmospheric carbon dioxide, are silently exacerbating neurological diseases, including cognitive impairments and neurodegenerative conditions, amidst a worrying lack of public awareness.
· Immediate Stories: The time to address climate change is now. Its effects are already inside us, altering our physical and mental landscapes in profound manners. Students lose points on tests on hotter days and at higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide; higher temperatures are associated with higher incidence of domestic abuse, riots, and online hate speech.
· From Global Crisis to Personal Struggle: Aldern can highlight concrete examples such as the link between extreme weather and increased risks of developmental disorders in children, and how climate-strengthened phenomena like harmful algal blooms are posing direct threats to brain health.
· Generational Ripple Effects: Post-traumatic stress from extreme weather events can impact not only the mental (and physical) health of those living through the events—but via epigenetic routes, also the generations that follow.
· Policy and Innovation for Brain Health: We must consider neuroprotective technologies and the importance of integrating environmental health considerations into urban planning.
· Community-Led Adaptation and Education: We have to think about solution strategies beyond the realm of climate anxiety as we navigate the new normal. Community initiatives (from green space development to those that reduce neurotoxin exposure) and educational programs can enhance brain health resilience against climate change.
· And more.
Press kit here.
The march of climate change is stunning and vicious, with rising seas, extreme weather, and oppressive heat blanketing the globe. But its effects on our very brains constitute a public-health crisis that has gone largely unreported. Based on seven years of research, this book by the award-winning journalist and trained neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern, synthesizes the emerging neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics of global warming and brain health. A masterpiece of literary journalism, this book shows readers how a changing environment is changing us today, from the inside out.
Aldern calls it the weight of nature.
Hotter temperatures make it harder to think clearly and problem-solve. They increase the chance of impulsive violence. Immigration judges are more likely to reject asylum applications on hotter days. Umpires, to miss calls. Air pollution, heatwaves, and hurricanes can warp and wear on memory, language, and sensory systems; wildfires seed PTSD. And climate-fueled ecosystem changes extend the reach of brain-disease carriers like mosquitos, brain-eating amoebas, and the bats that brought us the mental fog of long COVID.
How we feel about climate change matters deeply; but this is a book about much more than climate anxiety. As Aldern richly details, it is about the profound, direct action of global warming on our brains and behavior—and the most startling portrait yet of unforeseen environmental influences on our minds. From farms in the San Joaquin Valley and public schools across the United States to communities in Norway’s Arctic, the Micronesian islands, and the French Alps, this book is an unprecedented portrait of a global crisis we thought we understood.
