Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World

This unconventional debut study from Park, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, examines the less intuitive consequences of the climate crisis. Surveying research on the indirect effects of wildfire smoke, Park points to studies showing that on days with poor air quality, Israeli students performed 15% worse on tests and California farms were 6% less productive. Hotter weather has been correlated with numerous negative outcomes, Park reports, citing evidence that social media users curse more and judges give harsher sentences when the temperature increases. These burdens will not be distributed equally, Park warns, noting that in the U.S., poorer neighborhoods with more residents of color tend to be hotter than “wealthier, whiter areas within the same city” owing to a comparative lack of greenery. Park suggests ameliorative policies might include energy subsidies to help people without air-conditioning install cooling systems and making it easier to access credit for climate change–related investments, which could help lower-income individuals update their homes to deal with climate threats, or move to less affected regions. Discussions sometimes get bogged down in scholarly minutiae, as when Park offers a detailed investigation of the pros and cons of various methods for calculating heat deaths, but the unsettling research makes clear that climate change’s effects will reverberate even further than commonly understood. It’s enough to make readers break out in a sweat. (Apr.)