Review of Climate, affluence, and culture.

Reviews the book, Climate, affluence, and culture by Evert Van de Vliert (see record 2009-01826-000). The book provides an interesting analysis of the intersection between climate, culture, and economic factors. Van de Vliert observes that most scholars move from cultures toward climate and economies, whereas his interest is in the opposite direction—from climates and economies toward cultures. He contends that, since we have created global warming and local poverty, world cultures can also work to solve these threats to humanity, if we address them together rather than separately. Both poverty and climate must be addressed together since their interrelatedness means that focusing on one at the expense of the other would only lead to further problems down the road. Van de Vliert asserts that we have the opportunity to prove that regions lacking water, food, and money need not become “hot spots for conflicts and other malice” and declares that we need to make these ethical choices soon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)