David Wallace Wells Discusses His Just-Published "The Uninhabitable Earth, Life After Warming" (February 28th)

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For this, my 168th interview, David Wallace Wells discusses his just-published book, "The Uninhabitable Earth, Life After Warming."  Listeners may recall I interviewed Mr. Wallace Wells on August 2, 2017 shortly after his published his July 2017 New York Magazine article by the same title, "The Uninhabitable Earth."  (At: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html.)   (In the recent past, or since last October, I've also interviewed Jessica Wolff, Kris Ebi and Jeremy Hess all on climate change.)   Currently, the earth has warmed to approximately 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F).  Our atmosphere presently contains over 400 parts per million of CO2, more than anytime over upwards of the past 15 million years.  According to the United Nations we are on course to pass 1.5C by 2040.  We learned last October the difference between 1.5C and 2.0C, per the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is cataclysmic.  (We are after all the Goldilocks planet.)  As one commenter of Wallace's Wells work has noted, "the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize and he is right." Another stated, Wallace Wells " doesn't sugarcoat the horror."  As I note in the introduction to this interview, younger listeners (say under 40) are particularly encouraged to listen since you will inherit the full consequences of climate change.     

During this 35-minute conversation Mr. Wallace Wells begins by describing what explains the planet's five great extinctions and what effect they had on species survival.  (Scientists believe we are presently experiencing our sixth great extinction.)  Based on his intensive study he offers the most likely scenario relative to the current and near-term emissions of global warming greenhouse gas emissions.  He discusses current science on global warming feedback loops, e.g., the albedo effect, James Hansen's "scientific reticence" critique, the value of exploiting hope versus fear in addressing global warming, the promise of carbon capture technology or negative emissions technology and creating hydrocarbon fuels from carbon capture and a general assessment of current US politics, including the recent "Green New Deal," in re: remedying climate change/global warming.       

David Wallace-Wells is deputy editor at New York Magazine, where he also writes about science and his  recurring “Tomorrow” column on the future of science and technology, e.g., his 2015 cover story about the epidemic of honey-bee deaths (the first magazine story to put the blame on neonicitinoid pesticides, which is now accepted science).  He joined the magazine as literary editor in 2011, became features director in 2016, and has overseen the magazine’s family of podcasts in addition to his writing and editing.   Before joining New York magazine, David was deputy editor at The Paris Review, where he edited and published writers such as Ann Beattie, Werner Herzog, Jonathan Franzen, Janet Malcolm, among others, and interviewed William Gibson as part of the magazine’s “Writers at Work” series.  He previously served as "The New York Sun’s" book editor.  Mr. Wallace Wells was graduated from Brown University.

Listeners are again encouraged to read the IPCC's recent, "Global Warming of 1.5C," a 32-page summary of the report is at: https://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf. 

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