The Uninhabitable Earth

The existential moment of our lifetime is a climate catastrophe of our own making. It is a life-altering event that will impact every person on the planet and jeopardizes the existence of humanity.

One bearer of this news is David Wallace-Wells and he is an alarmist. In his book “The Uninhabitable Earth” he breaks down in extreme detail the state of our planet and the future impact of our actions and most importantly what we need to do to stave off the worst effects. 

He is an alarmist, but at this moment, we need people to be alarmed. A generation of inaction has left us careening even closer to a catastrophe that, could have, and to a degree, still be avoided. 

In the early 1980s, when global warming was widely discussed by presidential candidates and action was deemed necessary, we took essentially no collective action to change course. The potential outcomes of a carbon centric energy economy were known and the impacts were not just ignored but instead buried from public view. 

Anyone speaking to the critical impact of our carbon economy was labeled at that time an alarmist. We needed more alarmists like Wallace-Wells then and we need them now. 

The Uninhabitable Earth explains how alarmism is our last chance to create a better future.