Weathering the Climate

 

Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions while climate is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time. This is the definition we have learned in our school geography. There is a phrase in the English dictionary:  to weather through something. This means to pass or go safely through a storm, peril, difficulty, etc. P L Deshpande in one of his many hilarious storytelling episodes mentions that one official in Government's Meteorological departments was so inaccurate in his predictions of weather that he mentions in his resignation letter that the Climate of that city doesn’t suit him. The person in the joke here cannot weather the climate which he predicts as means of his livelihood. In the US, it is very common to have climate as a reason to change the geography. But soon the vagaries of climate as we are seeing in Chennai or smog in Delhi, flooding in Mumbai will   be a major factor of relocations in India as well. The impact of climate change will be a more compelling reason for migration in this interconnected world. As winter is setting in this Northeast part of the US, we see a push in migration towards warmer climes in the west or south.

People have lots of reasons to move, whether they want to stay near the family or avoid the high price and maddening traffic of big cities. And then, there’s the weather. Even before the pandemic, 11 percent of Americans reported having moved at least once in their lives to find better weather. Sun and warmth can indeed boost your mood as per research. But actually, moving for the sake of better weather probably isn’t worth the money, time, and personal disruption. There are better strategies to manage happiness, even if you live in a place with dreadful weather.

Sunshine and happiness are undeniably related. Researchers have long noted what they call the “seasonal worsening of psychiatric symptoms”: Mood is worse and anxiety is higher when the weather turns colder and grayer. Some people have an especially strong negative reaction to a lack of sunshine in the form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) especially at higher latitudes and during the winter months. In addition to experiencing serotonin deficits from a lack of sunshine, people with SAD appear to be especially vulnerable to the ways that darkness disturbs their circadian rhythms, interrupting their sleep cycles in ways that lower well-being. Temperature matters for happiness too. One study measured participants’ mood at various temperatures and found that a cool 57 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degC) outdoors is optimal for a positive mood. Temperatures colder and hotter than that were associated with a lower sense of well-being.

But unless you suffer from SAD, moving to get it probably isn’t worth the effort. You’ll miss the seasons if you’re coming from somewhere more temperate, the gains to your well-being will be smaller than you imagine, and that small happiness bump will evaporate all too quickly. Meanwhile, depending on where you choose to go, you could be stuck with chronic happiness drains such as high taxes and house prices.

You’ll be happier if you can find a way to get sun and warmth temporarily, especially during the bleakness of the winter months. Research shows that frequent, short vacations—if you have them—are a good strategy for raising overall well-being because they circumvent the adaptation problem. We already know that people who live in cold places get a mood boost as spring arrives; you can simulate that changeover and over with short vacations to sunny spots.

If all else fails, you can simply give up and decide to stop complaining. On the contrary, a full life is one that has its sun and rain, all of it offering itself to be experienced. So weathering everything is more fulfilling than taking weather equations out of our lives. The idea is to see it off: whatever it is.

Now there is another perspective. Those who complain about bad weather should really be cognizant of reality around them. Migrations done voluntarily toward better climes may sound frivolous and maybe as a problem arising out of plenty of choices of livelihood. But there is another human tragedy unfolding due to climate changes.  

The impacts of climate change are numerous and may both trigger displacement and worsen living conditions or hamper return for those who have already been displaced. Limited natural resources, such as drinking water, are becoming even scarcer in many parts of the world that host refugee. Crops and livestock struggle to survive where conditions become too hot and dry, or too cold and wet, threatening livelihoods. In such conditions, climate change can act as a threat multiplier, exacerbating existing tensions and adding to the potential for conflicts.

Hazards resulting from the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as abnormally heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental degradation, or sea-level rise and cyclones are already causing an average of more than 20 million people to leave their homes and move to other areas in their countries each year.

Some people are forced to cross borders in the context of climate change and disasters and may in some circumstances be in need of international protection. Refugee and human rights laws, therefore, have an important role to play in this area.

The Global Compact on Refugees, affirmed by an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly, directly addresses this growing concern. It recognizes that “climate, environmental degradation, and disasters increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements”.

There is a war going on to minimize the impact of climate change. And all countries have joined it through COP26 and its effectiveness will be tested in the next five years and thereafter. If we weather the climate change and meet the targets we will have our next generations thanking us for that else we won’t inherit a safe place to them and they won’t even have a choice to complain about the weather.