What Have We Learned From a Summer of Climate Reckoning?
About this episode
Guest host David Wallace-Wells talks with climate scientist Kate Marvel about a record-shattering summer — the hottest June and July ever recorded — and what the latest science reveals. Marvel explains the interplay of El Niño and human-caused warming, why cleaning up air pollution may temporarily accelerate heating, and how to read climate models' high-end outcomes without fatalism. They discuss tipping points in ocean circulation and the carbon cycle, why warming would halt but not reverse at net zero, and how human responses — from witch burnings during the Little Ice Age to today's conflicts — can be more unpredictable than the climate itself. Marvel argues the immediate health benefits of decarbonization justify acting now.