Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
USA, Jan 15 - In a period in which extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, pathologies, the spread of diseases and our ability to cope with them are also changing.
This is what an essay by neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern reveals: "If the weather is crazy.
How climate change changes our minds and bodies" (Aboca Edizioni)".
The result of seven years of research, it is the first to systematically explore how climate change profoundly affects our physical and mental health.
Through stories collected in different parts of the world, from the farms of the San Joaquin Valley in California to the communities of the Norwegian Arctic, Aldern tells the experiences of those who are already experiencing the effects of climate change on their own skin.
For the author, as the climate changes, we also change and a rapidly changing environment directly affects our mental health, behavior and decision-making.
"The effects of climate change on our brain constitute a public health crisis that is mostly ignored.
Increasingly high temperatures and elevated levels of carbon dioxide - he explains - are linked to an increase in phenomena such as aggression, domestic violence and online hate, as well as reducing cognitive and learning capacities.
"From anxiety to productivity, through fear, memory, language, identity formation and even the structure of the brain - he continues - the forces of the natural world are there, exerting an invisible push."
According to the researcher, In addition, extreme events such as wildfires and hurricanes can cause post-traumatic stress, exacerbated by exposure to neurotoxins and climate-related brain diseases, affecting even unborn individuals through epigenetic inheritance.
The solution? For Aldern, "human beings have caused the climate crisis and the resulting neurological effects, and it will be they who, with solidarity, will push it back. It will be human beings who will promote the resilience of their fellow human beings." (Text and Photo: Cubasí)
