David Wallace-Wells is the deputy editor of New York and the author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.
“Between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees of warming, just that extra half degree of warming, is going to kill 150 million people from air pollution alone. That’s 25 times the death toll of the Holocaust. And when I say that to people, their eyes open. They’re like oh my god, this is suffering on such an unconscionable scale. And it is. But 9 million people are dying already every year from air pollution. That’s a Holocaust every year, right now. And our lives aren’t meaningfully oriented around those people and those deaths. And very few people we know have their lives meaningfully oriented around those people and those deaths. And I think it’s quite likely that, going forward, those impulses of compartmentalization and denial and narcissism will continue to govern our response to this crisis. Which is tragic.”
Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, The Primary Ride Home Podcast, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
@dwallacewells
Wallace-Wells on Longform
[3:45] "When Will the Planet Be Too Hot for Humans? Much, Much Sooner Than You Imagine." (New York • Jul 2017)
[4:00] Wallace-Wells's New York archive
[13:00] "Are We as Doomed as That New York Magazine Article Says?" (Robinson Meyer • The Atlantic • Jul 2017)
[13:30] "Scientific Reticence: a DRAFT Discussion" (James Hansen • Earth Institute • Oct 2017)
[15:55] Silent Spring (Rachel Carson • Houghton Mifflin • 1962)
[26:45] "The Doomed Earth Controversy: David Wallace-Wells and Michael Mann" (YouTube • Nov 2017)
[27:30] "Stop Scaring People About Climate Change. It Doesn’t Work." (Eric Holthaus • Grist • Jul 2017)
[27:30] "Scientists Challenge Magazine Story About 'Uninhabitable Earth'" (Chris Mooney • Washington Post • Jul 2017)
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