Earth Day Speaker David Wallace-Wells Discusses the Progress and Challenges in Addressing Climate Change

Author and New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells spoke in Chapel on Earth Day, reflecting on the progress the world has made in addressing climate change and the challenges that still exist. Mr. Wallace-Wells was previously the deputy editor of New York magazine, where he wrote a column on climate change and where his viral cover story “The Uninhabitable Earth” was met with widespread acclaim, paving the way for his book of the same title. 

“I do think the progress [we’ve made] is worth [mentioning],” Mr. Wallace-Wells told the boys. “Not just because it's true, and not just because it's a kind of an antidote to feelings of despair, it may actually fill you with some hope for the future and our climate future.” He stressed that the progress made reminds us simply how much can change and that what seemed impossible 10 years ago to a climate activist, is now fairly normal. “What seems impossible now, may be normal 10 years from now. And that's a lesson well beyond climate, that the systems we see as permanent and unchanging end up changing only when we choose to change them and only when we try to take control and force the hand of those in charge. But they can be changed.” 

Mr. Wallace-Wells impressed upon the boys that we've made the progress we've made because millions of people, many of them teenagers, decided to make it happen, to listen to their conscience and refuse to be silenced in taking the action that they knew was right. “So what action should you take…at the school and your lives going forward?” he asked the boys. “Of course, that's up to you…Everyone has a role, though, whether it's through politics, or social justice, or entrepreneurship, or engineering. The future will be transformed by all of these forces.”