Why Warm Countries Are Poorer
Importance: 7 | # |
Humans evolved in the African highlands, where temperatures are stable throughout the year, and close to that of spring & fall in temperate regions. This is why we feel most comfortable there.
Close to the equator, if we’re not in the mountains, the temperatures are too high for us. We can’t think or work properly because we overheat, and our sweat can’t cool us off because humidity is too high.
We also suffer from many more diseases, more common in hot moist climates, but also because we didn’t evolve there.
A very interesting read. I also found out some things that I wasn't aware of: Opus-5.5:
Exams: Park (2022) used New York City high school exit exams, where students take tests on different days with different temperatures. Taking the exam on a hot day (around 32°C, 90°F) instead of a mild one lowered scores measurably and cut the chance of graduating. Teachers partly made up for it by bumping grades on hot exams. Pueyo's footnote 3 quotes this study.
...it's well established that heat, especially humid heat, lowers thinking and learning while you're exposed to it, and that cooling fixes most of this.
It seems likely that productivity peaks at 21-24 deg C. This sorta breaks my mental models of warmer places being better for work. I have always implicitly assumed that colder places are worse to work because you don't want to do anything - you are just content to being in bed and staying warm. I had not considered the detrimental effects of being too hot and not having a way to cool down.