this feels like a rude question but i really do wanna know: past a certain ambient temperature does it get too hot for people to accomplish anything interesting? does the historical dominance of great britain over the rest of the world suggest this?
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GDP inversely correlated with distance from equator suggests yes
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it seems like more specifically there’s an optimal temperature band in the northern hemisphere, idk if the southernmost tips of south america or australia are especially productive? missing other resources maybe?
it's true! i moved to the northernmost major city i could find and everyone here is an embittered genius. no but really it's exceptionally well designed and even the average person on the street is just remarkably sharp compared to places i've lived previously
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guns, germs, and steel. (Jared Diamond). Even this isn't enough to explain it. History's a lot more complicated than how warm it was
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Some of the wealthiest south American countries are the ones in the southern cone, and I know Punta Arenas (on Magellan strait) particularly tends to be wealthier than other cities in Chile
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Brazil is an interesting case, being so big. In general, but also latitude wise, from above equator to south of tropic of capricorn
And yeah, it generally gets richer the more South you go
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There's a loooot to unpack as for why that's the case, of course. History, slavery, racism, all that "good" stuff.
But I don't doubt that weather may be one extra factor on top of all of that
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it's super fun, I've been pondering this for years, casually.
If I take it back to "ice age functionality" it appears to be a very big deal.
