Our cultural thermostat

Hot slums: Rather than the weather, it is cities’ poor design and inequitable conditions that cause unbearable conditions. — Filepic

FOR millennia, people have looked at climatic differences to explain cultural variations around the world. The Greek philosopher Hippocrates, for instance, suggested in his influential Airs, Waters, Places that equatorial civilisations were inferior, citing the tropical climate as detrimental to creativity and conducive to laziness. Many centuries later, Filipino nationalist and polymath Jose Rizal would confront these ideas, also citing the heat as a factor for laziness but laying the blame squarely on an exploitative colonial system that did not incentivise productivity.

Today, most anthropologists reject “environmental determinism”, but acknowledge that the climate can influence human societies, just as human societies can influence the climate.