Clamor: How Noise Took Over the World–and How We Can Take It Back with Chris Berdik

Description

We are surrounded by noise, but it is a problem many of us shrug off once the immediate annoyance passes. Yet as gifted science journalist Chris Berdik explains in Clamor, noise can have serious health effects, disrupting our sleep, ratcheting up our stress, and destroying our concentration. As he argues, it is one of the most pervasive, yet underacknowledged, pollutants in our daily lives—one that we neglect, both individually and systemically, at our peril. Drawing on extensive research and original reporting, Berdik shows how a too-limited understanding of noise, focused on loud sounds and decibel counts, has undermined a century of noise-control efforts and obscured the full toll noise exacts on us and the environment. Chronic exposure to noise that falls below decibel-based thresholds—sometimes even below our conscious awareness—is linked to spikes in the risk of heart disease and other serious health ailments that contribute to premature death. Noisy classrooms hinder developing minds and delay cognitive milestones. In forests and in the depths of the ocean, a cacophony of man-made sound disrupts the natural soundscape, threatening animals’ capacity to communicate, hunt, and flee predators. Yet in the battle against noise, sound doesn’t have to be our enemy: Berdik introduces us to the researchers, rock stars, architects, and many others who are finding surprising ways to make our world sound not only less bad, but better. Rising above the ever-increasing racket, Clamor is an urgent—and ultimately inspiring—call to finally take noise seriously and harness sound’s

Chris Berdik is the author of Mind Over Mind. His work has appeared in Popular Science, Wired, Politico, and elsewhere, and he has been awarded reporting grants from the Pulitzer Center and the Society of Environmental Journalists.