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  2020 Was a Year of Climate Extremes. What is  Expectation in 2021? 2020 was a year of extreme weather around the world. Hot and dry conditions drove record-setting wildfires through vast areas of Australia , California and Brazil and Siberia . A record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season landed a double blow of two hugely destructive storms in Central America . Long-running droughts have destroyed agricultural output and helped to push millions into hunger in Zimbabwe and Madagascar . A super-cyclone unleashed massive floods on India and Bangladesh. And overall, 2020 may end up the hottest year on record —despite a La Niña event, the ocean-atmospheric phenomenon which normally temporarily cools things down. Though it’s historically been difficult to say if single weather events were directly caused by climate change , scientists have proven that many of the events that took place in 2020 would have been far less likely, or even impos...

1. Be kind and helpful Kindness, altruism and empathy can affect the brain. One study showed that making a charitable donation activated the brain’s reward system in a similar way to actually receiving money. This also applies to helping others who have been wronged . Volunteering can also give a sense of meaning in life, promoting happiness , health and wellbeing. Older adults who volunteer regularly also exhibit greater life satisfaction and reduced depression and anxiety. In short, making others happy is a great way to make yourself happy. 2. Exercise Exercise has been linked with both better physical and mental health, including improved cardiovascular health and reduced depression. In childhood, exercise is associated with better school performance, while it promotes better cognition and job performance in young adults. In older adults, exercise maintains cognitive performance and provides resilience against neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia. Exercise can...

  The workplace is changing. Your introverted colleagues have some ideas on how you can keep up   Historically, the workplace has been set up in a way for extroverts to thrive. Now, with record numbers of office workers punching in from home, often on their own, there’s an opportunity to find success in new ways and tap into different aspects of our personalities.  Jill Chang identifies as an “extreme introvert”, and her new book,   Quiet Is a Superpower: The Secret Strengths of Introverts in the Workplace  challenged many of the preconceptions about the more introverted among us. (To wit, she’s delivered more than 200 speeches and training sessions around the world. ) “People have stereotypes of introverts being lone wolves, passive in contributing, even anti-social. But the fact is, introverts are oftentimes the ones who get things done without asking for credit, find solutions for their teammates, and are willing to do the work that nobody else want...

  “ Cleanness ,” by Garth Greenwell              The casual grandeur of Garth Greenwell’s prose, unfurling in page-long paragraphs and elegantly garrulous sentences, tempts the vulnerable reader into danger zones: traumatic memories, extreme sexual scenarios, states of paralyzing heartbreak and loss. In the case of “Cleanness,” Greenwell’s third work of fiction, I initially curled up with the book, savoring the sensuous richness of the writing, and then I found myself sweating a little, uncomfortably invested in the rawness of the scene. The cause was a story titled “Gospodar,” in which the narrator, an American teacher living in Bulgaria, hooks up with a man who begins by play-acting violence and then veers toward the real thing. The transition from fantasy to horror is accomplished with the deftness of a literary magician, and Greenwell repeats the feat even more unnervingly in a later story, “The Little Saint,” in which his likable narrator t...