Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Elizabeth Kolbert is classifying climate crisis – The State of the Earth

Elizabeth Kolbert has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1999 and has spent decades telling the public about our ever-changing planet. Science, humanity plays a complex role in climate change and possible solutions to our future.

Kolbert traveled the world in pursuit of these stories, countless articles and articles, and published several famous books, including the Sixth Extinction, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Ordinary Nonfiction . The Washington Post named her 2021 “Under the White Sky” and is one of the top 10 best books this year. Colbert also won two National Magazine Awards, one National Academy Award and the BBVA Biological Environmental Communication Award.

Monday, February 24 Kolbert Future Columbia Climate School, a series of speeches for the signature speakers, “Under the White Sky: Solar Geoengineering and Other Bright Ideas.” The Earth’s State talks with Kolbert about her upcoming speech, she How to view your role as a science journalist and the shift in public awareness of climate science since Kolbert’s career.

How did you start with a science writer and journalist?

This is a long and winding story. I started out as a news clerk at The New York Times. Then, for about a decade, I was a political journalist for The Times,,,,, Covering state and local governments. In 1999, I went to work at the New Yorker and began to think about stories of longer shelf life than the latest political quarrels. In 2001, I went to Greenland with the New York Air National Guard. That trip impressed me and took me on the path to becoming a science writer.

You recently returned to Greenland with climate scientist Marco Tedesco and wrote about it travel In a poignant essay New Yorker. What is this experience like and has it changed your understanding of climate change we see globally?

It’s always a great experience to visit Greenland. As Marco said, it played a spell. It’s one thing to read about changes in the Arctic, another one to see them in person and talk to people in life. Marco and I visited the Russell Glacier, one of the easiest glaciers to be found in Greenland. It’s obvious that even for non-experts like me, it’s backed a little in recent years. You can see where there used to be ice, but now there is only silt.

In “Under the White Sky” you discuss human efforts to address the environmental crisis they helped create. What are some key information about this book and what participants expect in your upcoming Climate School Talk about the complex opportunities and obstacles of geoengineering gifts?

“Under the White Sky” is not a message book. I would say it is a “What is information?” book. It focuses on human interventions in nature, which often leads to problems requiring new interventions. An example I wrote was the reversal of the Chicago River, designed to address the city’s sewage problem. The reversal has produced various unexpected effects. For example, it allows for species exchange between Mississippi and the Great Lakes watershed. These unexpected consequences have led to a new generation of commemorative projects designed to offset the impact of the first one.

This pattern raises many questions, and on the surface, it seems difficult to maintain. How many interventions can we do between one another? At the same time, it is not clear that there are practical options.

Geoengineering is the final example of intervening in the natural world to offset previous interventions. It illustrates the pattern I just mentioned, and I think it shows where things are going, for better or worse.

You won Pulitzer for your book The Sixth Extinction, which is about the current mass extinction incident that has been caused by humans – do you think such awards will improve critical climate research and help offset climate errors Information?

I think prizes like Pulitzer have people reading something they might not have otherwise. So, in this sense, they oppose misinformation. But, as we have seen, the effects are limited.

Where do you think the media lacks climate science? What is the biggest shift in the public’s perception of science writing and journalism since you started your career?

I want to say that media reports on climate science are comparable to reports on vaccine science. If the reader/viewer wants good information, there are a lot there. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of misinformation, which seems to be more attractive to many people.

Attitudes toward science and nearly everything else have definitely become more polarized. I regret to say that I was overwhelmed by how to fight. I think all I can do is try to keep getting information.

Elizabeth Kolbert will hold his next signature speaker series at the Columbia Climate School forum on Monday, February 24. The event is free and open to the public.