This is Your Brain Affected by Climate Change |

I have always loved temperatures that breached the lower end of what most would consider comfortable. It’s one of the reasons why living in Cambridge (MA) and Ann Arbor (MI) was a pleasure for me. And, maybe this would be a great time to remind you (in case you forgot) that I don’t own a winter coat. Oh, wait. I don’t own any coats. I simply don’t wear any. Because it’s really never been too cold to need such an outfit.

And, I’ve always known that my most creative efforts have been in my office or car. Where I can maintain an ambient temperature closer to 60 F than to what most folks consider comfortable.

It turns out that this sort of environment works for all of us- not must me!

Jisung Park, a PhD candidate at Harvard has chosen – for his PhD thesis- to study the effect of temperature on our intellectual performance. And, as I alluded above, it will surprise many of you. (The link to his unyet published thesis results.)

His efforts involved studying the performance of a pretty routine event, if you live in the state of New York. Taking a NY State Regents Exam.

(Maybe now is a good time to tell you a funny story. At least, if you weren’t among those taking your Regents exam the first time I had to take one. Way back in 1964, I was required to take a NY State Regents Exam. Back then, it was a 3 hour exam. And, the State of New York decreed that all students taking the exam had to stay for a minimum of 2 hours and 20 minutes. (Which bureaucrat, and of what intelligience, determined such a rule?) Well, this exam was (at least to me) easy peasy. One which I finished in under 20 minutes. And, the proctors had no desire – or permission- to release me. So, I was forced to sit in this most uncomfortable seat, where I had nothing to do, where I was getting more and more bored, where I played with my pencils incessantly and -unfortunately due to the stupid rule that obtained- annoyed the living crap out of every other test taker. But, the next year, when I had to take TWO Regents exams, the proctors announced at the start of the process that everyone was required to stay for 140 minutes- unless their last name was Ackerman. A change for the good.

Oh, and when I had to take the New York State Regent’s Scholarship Exam, there were no such rules. For anyone! )

Now, back to this new thesis. Park found that students – 4.6 million pieces of data- who took the exam (between 1988 and 2011) when the temperature was 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) had better than a 1.8 chance (12%) to fail then when the ambient temperature was 72. (That is a 10 C difference; a standard used in science often.) All of these students took the exams in 947 schools across the City of New York (and not throughout the state of New York), and across various socioeconomic norms and racial profiles. Just one day of 90F lowered the scores by 4.5%

But, it’s not just one day. When student have to endure hotter days at the end of the school year- the time when most schools review the facts and data to ensure their students perform better on these state-wide exams- they also perform significantly worse. Just enduring 5 days in a row where the temperature was 80 degrees was all it took to lower the performance significantly.

We already know that a 1.8F degree rise in temperature (1 C) is asdociayed with a 10% increase in mortality rate. (This data was determined by examining residents in India.) In America, a single event- one day where the temperature exceeds 90 F (32C) will raise the mortality rate by 1%. Rising temperatures also leads to more violent behavior. (What? You thought the fact that riots prevail in the summer months was due to the specific causes? No way!)

So, it shouldn’t surprise you that this is another reason why many Blacks and Hispanics do worse in school- where the physical plant is more likely to be below par, and where the air conditioning doesn’t really work to the optimum level.