The New York Times Magazine’s new special issue covers climate change in a gripping long read by Nathaniel Rich – a resounding call for action to be taken today, by revealing the failure to address climate change in the past. Rich takes his readers into an era from 1979 to 1989, when climate change was a concept still in its infancy, when the idea that excess carbon dioxide in the air could mean catastrophe was as new as shocking. Rich manages to make the piece expository enough whilst set the story of climate change in a different context than the one of today. Also a stunningly visual piece, it is accompanied by brilliant photography by George Stienmetz and supported by the Pulitzer Centre, the writing comes to life.
A novelist by calling, Rich’s writing inherently reflects it, as climate change sets the background in a plot with government officials, astrophysicists, fossil fuel and gas companies, meteorologists, and so on – all of whom watched and are watching a manmade tragedy unfold. He ends the piece by assigning the malfeasance of not addressing climate change resolutely enough, to the traits of human nature with a tacit call for action now.
Click here for the long read.