Let’s face it, argues Jonathan Franzen: the climate apocalypse is coming. We’ve already messed up the planet. The polar bears are running out of ice to stand on. Australia and California will burn again. Temperatures keep rising. Our chance to prevent the radical destabilisation of life on earth has already come and gone. According to Franzen, one of America’s most celebrated writers, there are two ways we can think about this. We can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or we can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope. In this episode of Intelligence Squared, Franzen explored what we can do once we accept the idea that it is too late to ‘save the planet’.

—

We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. 

Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices