FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WITH HOPE

AS YOUNG PEOPLE SINK INTO A PARALYZING DESPAIR OVER EXTREME WEATHER AND IMPENDING CATASTROPHE, SCIENTISTS AND ACTIVISTS TRY A NEW MESSAGE

- DAN HURLEY

JOSH SPECTOR GOT THE MESSAGE ABOUT climate change early on. At age six, he was already passionate about the need to meet humanity's existential challenge. In college, he majored in geographic data analysis at the University of Oregon and interned at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Upon graduating in 2020, he joined Planet Labs, a maker of tiny Earth-imaging satellites.

But as the pandemic dragged on, and heatwaves and wildfires ravaged the western United States, his life began to unravel. Disillusioned with the values of his company's corporate clients, he quit his job, moved back to his parent's home in Portland and volunteered for a non-profit.

"I was hyper-focused on the climate crises that were happening all around me," he says. "Many days I would wake up, go on Twitter and see the suffering from acute events around the world. Sometimes that would cripple me for hours with feelings of immense depression, anxiety, sadness and helplessness."

Similar feelings are now afflicting many people during this summer of climate hell. Apocalyptic forest fires in Canada sent a pall of smokey haze over much of the Northeast and Midwest, and a blaze swept Maui, killing more than 100 people. Heatwaves have broken temperature records across California, Arizona and much of the south. Ocean waters around southern Florida have nearly reached hot-tub temperatures, exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Torrential rainstorms powered by heat have destroyed roads, flooded homes and left at least six dead in Philadelphia and New York state.