The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Minds, Brains and Bodies

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A riveting, revelatory account of how the climate emergency is changing us from the inside out It is now inarguable that climate change threatens the future of life on Earth. But in The Weight of Nature, award-winning journalist and neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern shows that the warming climate is not just affecting our planet - it is affecting our brains and bodies too. Drawing on six years of ground-breaking research, Aldern documents a burgeoning public health crisis that has gone largely unreported. Eco-anxiety, he shows us, is just the tip of the iceberg. The rapidly changing environment is directly intervening in our brain health, behaviour, decision-making and cognition in real time, affecting everything from spikes in aggravated assault to lower levels of productivity and concentration, to the global dementia epidemic. Travelling the world to meet the scientists and doctors unravelling the tangled connections between us and our environment, and reporting the stories of those who are already feeling these shifts most keenly, Aldern shows how a weary world is wearing on us. Written in urgent and deeply moving prose, The Weight of Nature is a revelation, bringing to light the myriad ways the changing environment is changing our very humanity from the inside out.

Reviews

It's hard, at this late date, to write something profound and new about the overarching crisis of our times. But Clayton Aldern has succeeded - this book is a triumph, rigorous in its reporting but also in its thinking and feeling. I learned an awful lot -- Bill McKibben, author of THE END OF NATURE
What a book! Profound, revelatory, exquisitely written the Weight of Nature is an unnerving insight into the effects climate change is having on us, as human beings, right now. This is vital, urgent reading, a lifeline to lead us out of the labyrinth. -- Isabella Tree
Clayton Page Alderns writing is so engaging, his research so novel, and his inquiry into our brains and bodies so timely and revealing that this is a rare climate change book youll actually savor -- Alan Weisman, author of THE WORLD WITHOUT US and COUNTDOWN

Author Bio

Clayton Page Aldern is a neuroscientist turned environmental journalist whose work has appeared in the Atlantic, the Guardian, the Economist and Grist, where he is a senior data reporter. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds a master's in neuroscience and a master's in public policy from the University of Oxford. He is also a research affiliate at the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington.