Imagine a world in which nearly 90% of the population earns twice as much, while working half as many hours as they do today. One in which the poorest half's share of global wealth increases, while billionaires' share decreases. All while capping global warming at 1.8 'C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. That's the vision laid out by researchers at the Paris-based World Inequality Lab in their Global Justice Report, a modelling study released last month1. The report proposes financing the plan through global taxes on the very rich, with revenues going into a fund to support health, education and the shift to sustainable development, including transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy. It also proposes the creation of a new international currency to end some of the financial advantages that wealthy countries enjoy at the expense of poor ones. Another report, presented to the United Nations last month, goes further. The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth2 calls for escaping the 'trap of growthism', the idea that progress depends on continuously increasing gross domestic product (GDP). It has been endorsed by more than 1,000 signatories, including the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia University in New York City....

Scientists who spoke to Nature say that a European heatwave lasting four or five days, with London approaching 40 'C, is an anomaly. 'It's nothing short of phenomenal,' notes Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. But researchers also say that Europeans can expect to see more of these events in the future as global warming continues. 'Heatwaves are here to stay, until we turn the tap off to global emissions,' says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK. 'They're more frequent, they're more intense and they're lasting longer.' The risks are severe. In France ' which recorded its hottest day ever this week, reaching 44.3 'C in the town of Pissos ' at least 54 people have died from the heat or from drowning in waterways while trying to cool off. What researchers don't necessarily agree on is how quickly Europe's climate shifted from one of cool, pleasant summers, during which residents could leave their windows open, to one dominated by extreme heat and questions about whether to buy an air conditioner....

Summer has begun'which is to say, wildfires in the West are chasing residents from their homes, the snowpack has dwindled to near-record lows in several states, drought is spreading, and temperatures are regularly exploring new heights. Yet America does not seem to be sweating climate change. You could call it 'climate hushing,' as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and others do, or a 'worry gap,' as one study has. Whatever you call it, America's interest in talking about climate change is at an ebb. Certainly, the Trump administration has made a point of disregarding climate change. Yet when President Trump made similar moves in his first term, he was met with a surge of resistance. Environmentalists and Democratic politicians formed their own climate alliances and pushed through state and local laws designed to take carbon out of the American economies. At the time, Jay Inslee, then the Washington governor, said, 'We governors are going to step into this cockpit and fly the plane.' These days, Democrats and even climate activists are acting as if fighting to slow global warming, let alone campaigning on it, is passe. As gas prices soared during the Iran war, blue-state governors have given fossil fuels another look, pushing the message of affordability, debating new gas pipelines, and putting off, in some cases, commitments to cut emissions. California's frontrunner for governor, Xavier Becerra, who took campaign donations from oil companies, has not committed to phasing out gas cars as the state has planned; New York Governor Kathy Hochul rolled back the state's landmark 2019 climate law. Congressional Democrats, who need to win seats during the midterms, are focused on economic issues. 'Look at the Senate map,' Jane Flegal, a senior fellow at the Searchlight Institute, a moderate Democratic think tank, told me. 'I mean, Alaska, Texas, Iowa. These are not places where anyone with brain cells would say: Run on blocking fossil fuels and addressing the climate crisis.'...

Aiming to transition away from fossil fuels and avert the worst consequences of climate change, world leaders aspire to achieve net zero global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. But actions to meet such targets and minimize adverse impacts on lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure are not one-size-fits-all; they will require different approaches in different places. To better understand the patchwork causes and effects of the climate crisis and elements of viable solutions to it, researchers in MIT's Living Climate Futures (LCF) initiative ' 20 MIT faculty and affiliates from across the Institute ' collaborate with frontline communities in diverse physical and socioeconomic landscapes around the world. Funded by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) and based at the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS), LCF is a multi-disciplinary research hub and community of practice; focuses on how climate change impacts people's everyday lives; and creates knowledge and research collaborations with community organizations....