In his new book ‘The Weight of Nature’ award-winning journalist and neuroscientist, Clayton Page Aldern, argues that the warming climate is not just affecting our planet – it is changing our minds, brains and bodies, too.
An impassioned work of research and storytelling, Clayton’s book is the first on a burgeoning public health crisis that is largely going unreported – how the climate is changing our biology.
The moment Clayton Aldern understood this was reading a 2015 Pentagon report for the Dept of Defense, who worried about the global climate’s ability to ‘aggravate existing problems’ like poverty and social tensions. But the conflict and crime spikes detailed by contemporary researchers couldn’t be pinned to income or food security; There was something else going on.
The Weight of Nature is the product of seven years of ground-breaking research. Clayton travelled the world to meet the scientists and doctors working at the intersections of environmental science, psychology and neuroscience to synthesize a new, interdisciplinary approach to a novel field — the neuroscience of climate change.
Clayton Page Aldern will be ‘In Conversation’ with Dr Charlotte Rae.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Clayton Page Aldern is a data scientist and neuroscientist, turned environmental journalist who is currently working at the intersection of climate change, environmental degradation, neuroscience, and mental health. His award-winning 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.
CHAIR BIOGRAPHY
Charlotte Rae is a senior lecturer in psychology at Sussex University . She studied Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience at Oxford University , and for a PhD at Cambridge University using MRI brain scanning to understand the human mind.
Charlotte is particularly interested in the environmental impacts of academic activities and is the Founding Chair of the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping's Sustainability and Environment Action Special Interest Group, and as Faculty Green Officer for the School of Psychology, leads the Psychology Green Impact team in tackling sustainability activities.