Have you ever felt angry and hungry, also called hangry? If so, is your increase in temperature a consequence of climate change? It could be and may have led you to dislike people, and even talk about it.
That's the opinion from a faculty member from Columbia University.
As an Adjunct Scientist, Dr. Anders Levermann recently participated in a hate-protesting study in the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. In the paper, Anders asserts climate change can be linked to hate speech.
It's clear that unless you're at a very comfortable temperature, you could use language that a growing amount of Americans think isn't covered by Constitutional protections.
Be sure to trust the science as well as the research paper.
Temperatures of 12-21 degrees Celsius (54-70 degree Fahrenheit) are associated with an increase in online violence across the USA, a new study shows. Examining billions of tweets that are posted on social media site Twitter across the USA, researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research discovered that hate speech was growing across different climate zones, income levels, and beliefs where temperatures are too hot or cold.
“This highlights the limitations of adaptation to extreme temperatures. This illuminates an undiscovered societal impact of climate change. Conflict in the digital world that has implications for societal cohesion as well as mental health.”
Here's how Potsdam Institute scientist and doctoral researcher Annika Stechemesser describes it:
“Detecting hate tweets from more than four billion tweets sent by U.S. users with our AI algorithm, and then using weather data, we discovered that both the total quantity and percentage of hate tweets are higher when a climate isn't in a comfort zone. People tend to display more aggressive online behavior when it's too cold or hot outside. … It is interesting to see that outside the “feel-good-weather” zone of 12-21 degrees Celsius (54-70degF) online hatred rises by up to 12 percent in temperatures that are colder, and up to 22 percent in hot temperatures all across the USA.”
What's “hate speech”? There's certainly some room for interpretation. However, as per the paper, the term “hate speech” is “discriminatory language”:
In defining hate speech, researchers relied on an official UN definition of discriminatory language that refers to an individual or a group of people based on their religious beliefs or ethnicity, nationality race, color descent, gender, or any another identity element.
The bottom line is presented by Anders:
“Even in areas with high incomes that have the means to afford air conditioning as well as other ways to combat heat, we see a rise in hate speech during very hot days. Also, there is a limit to the quantity of water individuals can tolerate. Therefore, there will be limitations to adaptation to extreme temperatures, and these are less than the limits established by our own biological limits.”
Of course, this extreme is created by humans.
In the case of “hate speech,” the term has been thrown around like snowballs -which we were told previously that we shouldn't need for very long due to global warming. The sultry term is being changed into “climate change” in order to cover cooling and heating because of man-made climate calamities. Prior to that, naturally we were warned of the approaching glaciers.
Like an asteroid that has gone extinct, we seem to be heading towards a world in which environmental atrocities, hate, and racism are all rolled into one. Take a look at the book published by British writer Jeremy Williams, Climate Change is Racist. In July, a University Melbourne professor announced in an article “Climate change is white colonization of the atmosphere.” In the year 2019, the Ecologist declared that “Climate change is environmental racism.” A couple of years ago Democratic Presidential hopeful Julian Castro declared the racist weather of whites. In April last year, Nickelodeon taught youngsters on how to deal with the “environmental racism” of pig farming. Even within the climate movement, there's a problem: An article for Climate Change News states, “As a non-white activist I was ostracized from Greenpeace public relations. This wasn't an isolated event, and the movement has to be changed.”
We've seen so much discrimination and hatred and phobia. Perhaps we are entitled to the right to shine. Or be cold — choose your pick, hateful people.
Positively, at the very least, our non-sorry weather-related warriors are working towards solutions.
