David Wallace-Wells
{{Short description|American journalist (born 1982)}}
{{redirect|Wallace-Wells|the character from the Scott Pilgrim comics|List of Scott Pilgrim characters#Wallace Wells}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David Wallace-Wells
| image = How Will Climate Change Transform American Democracy?, David Wallace-Wells (cropped).jpg
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1982}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| alma_mater = Brown University
| occupation = Journalist
| notable_works = The Uninhabitable Earth
| relatives =
| children = 2
}}
David Wallace-Wells (born 1982){{Cite tweet|user=dwallacewells|number=1262411576579153923|title=But, at least for someone. of my generation (born 1982)|author=David Wallace-Wells}} is an American journalist known for his writings on climate change. He wrote the 2017 essay "The Uninhabitable Earth"; the essay was published in New York as a long-form article and was the most-read article in the history of the magazine.{{cite interview|last1=Mann|first1=Michael|title=The 'Doomed Earth' Controversy|last2=Wallace-Wells|first2=David|url=https://journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/event/2017-fall/the-doomed-earth-controversy/|access-date=March 31, 2018|work=|publisher=Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute|location=|date=November 20, 2017|subject-link1=Michael E. Mann|subject-link2=David Wallace-Wells|interviewer-last=Hotz|interviewer-first=Robert Lee}}{{cite news|last1=Miller|first1=Laura|date=26 July 2017|title=What Kind of Novel Do You Write When You Believe Civilization Is Doomed?|language=en|work=Slate Magazine|url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/the-world-without-us.html|quote="'The Uninhabitable Earth,' the most-read story in New York magazine’s history"|accessdate=23 May 2020}} Wells later expanded the article into a 2019 book of the same title. At the time, he was the Deputy Editor of New York Magazine and covered the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic extensively. He was hired in March 2022 by The New York Times to write a weekly newsletter and contribute to The New York Times Magazine.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-24 |title=David Wallace-Wells Joining Times Opinion and The Times Magazine |url=https://www.nytco.com/press/david-wallace-wells-joining-times-opinion-and-the-times-magazine/ |access-date=2022-04-11 |website=The New York Times Company |language=en-US}}
Early life and education
David Wallace-Wells was born in 1982, in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, and then spent his later childhood and teenage years in Riverdale.{{Cite news|date=2019-11-06|title=Climat : le scénario apocalyptique de David Wallace-Wells|language=fr|work=Le Monde.fr|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2019/11/06/climat-le-scenario-apocalyptique-de-david-wallace-wells_6018205_4500055.html|access-date=2021-12-31}} His maternal grandparents were German Jews who fled Nazi Germany in 1939.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Bronx-born 'climate diviner' David Wallace-Wells explains his hyphenated background|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bronx-born-climate-diviner-david-wallace-wells-explains-his-hyphenated-background/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715120455/http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bronx-born-climate-diviner-david-wallace-wells-explains-his-hyphenated-background/ |archive-date=2017-07-15 |access-date=2021-06-27|website=blogs.timesofisrael.com|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=2005-06-19|title=Paid Notice: Deaths WALLACE, BERT H. (BERTHOLD WALLACH)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/classified/paid-notice-deaths-wallace-bert-h-berthold-wallach.html|access-date=2021-12-30|issn=0362-4331}} His father was an academic and his mother worked as a kindergarten teacher in East Harlem. His brother, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Wallace-Wells attended the University of Chicago for one year and then transferred to, and then graduated from, Brown University in 2004 with a degree in history.{{cn|date=January 2024}} He is married to Risa Needleman.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/couple-that-shares-a-toothbrush.html|title=New York Magazine's Sex Lives Podcast: The Couple That Shares a Toothbrush|last=|first=|date=19 August 2016|website=www.thecut.com|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114002104/https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/couple-that-shares-a-toothbrush.html |archive-date=2018-11-14 |access-date=2019-09-26}} The couple lives in downtown Manhattan and has two daughters.[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/opinion/climate-change-should-you-have-kids.html Wallace-Wells is a father of two]
Career
Wallace-Wells is currently on staff at the New York Times with a weekly opinion newsletter and monthly long-form essays in The New York Times Magazine. His work has appeared in New York magazine, where he was the Deputy Editor for many years.{{cite web|url=http://nymag.com/author/david-wallace-wells/|title=Most recent articles by David Wallace-Wells|website=New York Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-06-23}}{{cite web|url=http://nymag.com/press/2019/05/on-the-cover-of-new-york-magazine-living-with-fire.html|title=On the Cover: What Climate Change Has in Store for Los Angeles|website=New York Magazine|date=13 May 2019 |language=en|access-date=2019-06-23}} He also writes for The Guardian.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/17/david-wallace-wells-uninhabitable-earth-review|title=The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells – review|last=Haskell|first=David George|date=2019-02-17|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-02-19|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} He was a 2019 National Fellow at New America.{{cite web|url=https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/david-wallace-wells/|title=David Wallace-Wells|website=New America|language=en|access-date=2019-05-25}} On July 17, 2019, Wallace-Wells appeared on an episode of The Doctor's Farmacy, a video produced by functional medicine practitioner Mark Hyman.Hyman, Mark, [https://drhyman.com/blog/2019/07/17/ep-63/?mc_cid=e2b02f9c40&mc_eid=83bffe0724 Why Climate Change is Worse Than You Think], The Doctor's Farmacy, Episode 63, July 17, 2019
= Climate writing =
Since 2017, Wallace-Wells has written extensively about climate change in New York magazine. Wallace-Wells has said that he is optimistic about the earth's environmental future but remains cautious. He has said that no matter the degree of environmental damage, "it will always be the case that the next decade could contain more warming, and more suffering, or less warming and less suffering."{{cite web|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/book-excerpt-the-uninhabitable-earth-david-wallace-wells.html|title=The Cautious Case for Climate Optimism (From a Climate Alarmist)|last=Wallace-Wells|first=David|date=2019-02-04|website=Intelligencer|language=en|access-date=2019-05-25}}
His best known work is "The Uninhabitable Earth", an article published July 9, 2017 in New York magazine.{{cite web|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html|title=The Uninhabitable Earth|last=Wallace-Wells|first=David|date=July 10, 2017|website=New York Magazine|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011193555/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html |archive-date=2018-10-11 |access-date=}} Although the essay received mixed to negative criticism from many scientists,{{cite web |first=Emmanuel |last=Vincent |url=https://science.feedback.org/review/scientists-explain-what-new-york-magazine-article-on-the-uninhabitable-earth-gets-wrong-david-wallace-wells/ |title=Scientists explain what New York Magazine article on "The Uninhabitable Earth" gets wrong |date=July 12, 2017 |website=Science Feedback |publisher=Climate Feedback |language=en-US |access-date=September 16, 2024}}{{Cite news|title=Scientists challenge magazine story about 'uninhabitable Earth' |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/12/scientists-challenge-magazine-story-about-uninhabitable-earth/|access-date=2021-12-31|issn=0190-8286}} it was considered an impactful work by some reviewers.{{cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/2/22/18188562/climate-change-david-wallace-wells-the-uninhabitable-earth|title=It is absolutely time to panic about climate change|last=Illing|first=Sean|date=Feb 24, 2019|website=Vox|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222183458/https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/2/22/18188562/climate-change-david-wallace-wells-the-uninhabitable-earth |archive-date=2019-02-22 |access-date=}}{{Cite web|last=Drum|first=Kevin|title=Our approach to climate change isn't working. Let's try something else.|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/07/our-approach-to-climate-change-isnt-working-lets-try-something-else/|access-date=2021-12-31|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US}} Wallace-Wells later turned the work into a full-length book of the same name, published in 2019. Both works are characterized by speculation regarding climate change's potential to dramatically impact human life, which Wallace-Wells describes in "meticulous and terrifying detail".{{Cite news|last=Szalai|first=Jennifer|date=2019-03-06|title=In 'The Uninhabitable Earth,' Apocalypse Is Now|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/books/review-uninhabitable-earth-life-after-warming-david-wallace-wells.html|access-date=2021-12-31|issn=0362-4331}} Writing in The Guardian in 2021, Wallace‑Wells argues that the scale of climate change adaptation required globally is unprecedented, and Wallace‑Wells opines that "the world's vanguard infrastructure is failing in today's climate, which is the most benign we will ever see again".
{{cite news
| last1 = Wallace-Wells | first1 = David
| title = Adapt or die. That is the stark challenge to living in the new world we have made
| date = 1 August 2021
| work = The Guardian
| location = London, United Kingdom
| issn = 0261-3077
| url = http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/01/adapt-or-die-that-is-the-stark-challenge-to-living-in-the-new-world-we-have-made
| access-date = 2021-08-01
}}
Works
- The Uninhabitable Earth. New York: Tim Duggan, 2019. {{ISBN|9781984826589}}.{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/culture/2019/02/uninhabitable-earth-review-david-wallace-wells-climate-change.html|title=Can David Wallace-Wells Scare Us Into Addressing Climate Change?|date=2019-02-15|website=Slate Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-02-19}}{{Cite journal|last=Kiser|first=Barbara|date=2019-02-13|title=The shadow side of sport, cosmic cataclysms, and human culture underground: Books in brief|journal=Nature|language=EN|volume=566|issue=7743|page=179|doi=10.1038/d41586-019-00520-3|bibcode=2019Natur.566..179K|s2cid=61156470|doi-access=free}}{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/02/19/695874069/-uninhabitable-earth-draws-attention-to-3-major-misunderstandings-about-climate|title='Uninhabitable Earth' Spotlights 3 Climate Change Misunderstandings|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=2019-02-19}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{YouTube|17aE91SBMoY|Earth at 2° hotter will be horrific. Now here's what 4° will look like. by David Wallace-Wells}} March 14, 2019
- {{YouTube|yObCpYLLJSk|Why the ocean you know and love won't exist in 50 years by David Wallace-Wells}} March 25, 2019
- [https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/david-wallace-wells Opinion newsletter by David Wallace-Wells at The New York Times]
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Category:Journalists from New York City
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:New York (magazine) people
Category:American male journalists