climate change

Welcome to the State of the World

A series about climate change.

Photo: by Stevie Remsberg
Photo: by Stevie Remsberg

On September 23, the United Nations will open its Climate Action Summit here in New York, three days after the Global Climate Strike, led by Greta Thunberg, will sweep through thousands of cities worldwide. To mark the occasion, Intelligencer will be publishing “State of the World,” a series of in-depth interviews with climate leaders from Bill Gates to Naomi Klein and Rhiana Gunn-Wright to William Nordhaus, interrogating just how they see the precarious climate future of the planet — and just how hopeful they think we should all be about avoiding catastrophic warming. (Unfortunately, very few are hopeful.)

James Lovelock: ‘Any Further Interference Is Likely to Be Disastrous’

Amitav Ghosh: ‘We Are Living in a Reality That Is Fundamentally Uncanny’

Naomi Oreskes: ‘The House Is Burning Down and We’re Just Sitting Around Discussing It’

Vaclav Smil: We Must Leave Growth Behind

Excerpt: ‘The Long-Term Survival of Our Civilization Cannot Be Assured’

Former U.N. Secretary Christiana Figueres: ‘Optimism Is the Only Choice We Have’

Gallery: City by City, the World Turns Out for the Climate Strike

Green New Deal’s Rhiana Gunn-Wright: ‘You Just Don’t See This Sort of Change This Rapidly’

Chris Hayes and Ali Velshi Talk the State of Climate Journalism (and State of the Planet)

Naomi Klein: ‘Our Future Is Radical. The Present Is Pretty Radical Too.’

Bill Gates: ‘I Don’t See Anything Worthy of the Word Plan’ to Fight Climate Change

The Extraordinary Rise of Greta Thunberg and Her Hail Mary Climate Movement

Welcome to the State of the World