• Coral reefs may not be able to survive another human decade because of the environmental stress we have placed on them, says author David Wallace-Wells. He posits that without meaningful changes

• Coral reefs may not be able to survive another human decade because of the environmental stress we have placed on them, says author David Wallace-Wells. He posits that without meaningful changes to policies, the trend of them dying out, even in light of recent advances, will continue. • The World Wildlife Fund says that 60 percent of all vertebrate mammals have died since just 1970. On top of this, recent studies suggest that insect populations may have fallen by as much as 75 percent over the last few decades. • If it were not for our oceans, the planet would probably be already several degrees warmer than it is today due to the emissions we've expelled into the atmosphere. David Wallace-Wells is the author of "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" (https://amzn.to/2Of5N3y). Wallace-Wells is a national fellow at the New America foundation and a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City. Read more at BigThink.com: https://bigthink.com/videos/climate-change-ocean Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink TRANSCRIPT DAVID WALLACE-WELLS: I think there's basically no chance that coral reefs survive another generation. I think that we're looking at the total extinction of those biospheres by 2050 or so. There are some scientists who think there's some hope, and there have been some coral reefs that have recovered. But the impacts are so fast and so catastrophic, and we're so far from really changing course on carbon, it's hard for me to imagine that they endure, which means that the trips that we're now taking now to view those, we'll be taking really on the brink of mass extinctions. And it's important to keep in mind that globally, we are living already through mass extinction. The World Wildlife Fund says that 60 percent of all vertebrate mammals have died since just 1970. There have been studies that say that insect populations may have fallen by as much as 75 percent over the last few decades. Animals are dying globally at rates never before seen in planetary history, and we are living through that and imposing those costs on the planet ourselves. The ocean is a particularly vulnerable system. It's not just the coral reefs. It's also the circulation patterns. It's the fish populations. And it happens we're also polluting the oceans with enormous amounts of plastic, which are really damaging. I think those people who really love the oceans should be quite terrified... Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/climate-change-ocean

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- Climate change is no longer a financial problem, just a political one. - Mitigating climate change by decarbonizing our economy would add trillions of dollars in new investments. - Public

- Climate change is no longer a financial problem, just a political one. - Mitigating climate change by decarbonizing our economy would add trillions of dollars in new investments. - Public attitudes toward climate change have shifted steadily in favor of action. Now it's up to elected leaders. David Wallace-Wells is a national fellow at the New America foundation and a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City. His latest book is The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (https://goo.gl/ih35YX) Read more at BigThink.com: https://bigthink.com/videos/climate-change-economy Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink

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In this talk, David Wallace discusses the background of his book "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming", how to talk about this subject without spiraling into despair, and what role technology

In this talk, David Wallace discusses the background of his book "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming", how to talk about this subject without spiraling into despair, and what role technology may be able to play for both mitigation and adaptation solutions. David Wallace-Wells is the deputy editor of New York Magazine. His article, The Uninhabitable Earth, appeared in the magazine in 2017, he then later published a longer work as a full length book titled "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming". David distills a lot of the dry scientific information about the impacts of climate change into descriptions on a human scale. The book starts with a description of effects from various aspects of climate: water, food, oceans, heat, disease, etc. He then describes impacts to society and how we can use this understanding to take action as a civilization to prevent the worst case scenarios. Get the book: https://goo.gle/2n9kUSZ

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• Saving the world from the apocalyptic impact of climate change should be a dream for many Silicon Valley titans concerned about legacy, says David Wallace-Wells, and yet few are dedicating

• Saving the world from the apocalyptic impact of climate change should be a dream for many Silicon Valley titans concerned about legacy, says David Wallace-Wells, and yet few are dedicating themselves to addressing the catastrophe. • Negative emissions technology funded by Bill Gates exists. It would cost $3 trillion per year to operate globally and would mean human industry could continue at current levels without global warming. • That figure sounds astronomical, however global subsidies to fossil fuel industries cost $5 trillion per year. David Wallace-Wells is the author of "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" (https://amzn.to/2Of5N3y). He is a national fellow at the New America foundation and a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City. Read more at BigThink.com: Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink

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David Wallace-Wells' RSA Minimate, "Climate Change and the Future of Humanity," confronts global warming as our age's existential challenge. He warns of grave dangers if we continue our current path, urging immediate commitment and collective action for humanity's future.

RSA Minimates are super-short, information-packed animations. Watch Wallace-Wells' full talk on "The Uninhabitable Earth" here.

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A global solution to climate change requires "radical empathy," says New York Magazine deputy editor David Wallace-Wells, who maintains that we need global stories to help develop as much empathy for

A global solution to climate change requires "radical empathy," says New York Magazine deputy editor David Wallace-Wells, who maintains that we need global stories to help develop as much empathy for someone from Bangladesh as we have for someone from Paradise, California,

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