Rising Temperatures and Rising Tempers:

Race, Climatic Determinism, and the Political Physiology of Heat-Induced Violence

This research project examines the widely accepted link between rising temperatures and increased violence, not by testing whether the relationship exists, but by investigating how and why it came to be understood as true. Jayram Venkat and his team argue that the idea of heat causing violence is not neutral or purely scientific; rather, it has deep historical roots in racialized thinking, colonial science, and political responses to social unrest. While earlier forms of climatic determinism framed people in hotter regions—often non-white populations—as lazy or inactive, this shifted in the mid-20th century, particularly during anti-colonial movements and the U.S. Civil Rights era, when heat began to be associated with aggression and criminality. The project suggests that this shift helped depoliticize acts of resistance by framing them as biological reactions to temperature rather than responses to systemic injustice.

Through historical analysis, literature review, and policy research, the project traces how the “heat-violence” thesis developed and became embedded in scientific discourse and governance. It pays particular attention to key moments like the 1967 uprisings and subsequent scholarship that framed heat as a causal factor in unrest. Ultimately, the researchers aim to challenge simplistic or deterministic interpretations of climate and behavior, warning that such frameworks can justify increased surveillance and policing of marginalized communities. Instead, they advocate for more historically informed and socially just climate policies that address structural inequalities without reinforcing racialized assumptions about violence.