New York magazine, July 10–23, 2017 “The Doomed Earth Catalog”
In New York Magazine’s July 10–23, 2017, issue cover story, deputy editor David Wallace-Wells presents a landmark bird’s-eye-view survey outlining our terrifying best understanding of where our planet is headed, absent aggressive action. The lesson is clear: The planet is simply not prepared to reckon with the scale of the climate threat, or even really to comprehend it. Though it’s relatively easy for us to imagine rising seas, we can’t bring ourselves to consider all the ways in which climate change will imperil human life globally, including the fact that the equator and tropics could become literally too hot for human activity by 2100; that we could lose as much as half our food production to feed a world with twice as many people; that we may come into contact with diseases trapped in arctic ice that haven’t circulated since before humans were around to contract them; and many more.
The article (avalible online here) cased big debate and responses from most sides of the tables. The cover of course references The Whole Earth Catalog, the often riffed on seminal publication which sparked what some like to call “hippie modernism”.
Illustration: Justin Metz
