Climate change is rewiring fish brains — and probably ours, too

This excerpt is taken from THE WEIGHT OF NATURE: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, set to be released on April 9, 2024, by Dutton, a part of Penguin Publishing Group. Picture yourself as a juvenile clown fish in the year 2100, living by a coral reef. Your orange and white colors don’t matter much, but what does matter are the otoliths in your inner ear. These calcium carbonate ear stones are affected by ocean acidification due to increased carbon dioxide levels. As a result, your otoliths grow larger, causing distortions in the sound waves you hear. This impacts your ability to recognize danger and navigate your surroundings. Research has shown that high levels of acidification can disrupt fishes’ sensory organs and nervous systems, affecting their basic functions like hearing and smell. This raises concerns about the potential impacts on other species, including humans, as we face the consequences of climate change. From Clayton Page Aldern’s book, THE WEIGHT OF NATURE: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, published by Dutton, a division of Penguin Publishing Group.