THE RACE TO SAVE THE PLANET - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE (Nov. 2023)

“The race to save the planet - Can technology help fix the climate crisis? ” is the November 2023 cover story of National Geographic Magazine.

“Getting to zero carbon emissions won’t save the world. We’ll have to also remove carbon from the air—a massive undertaking unlike anything we’ve ever done. Over the past few centuries, we have dug, chopped, burned, drilled, pumped, stripped, forged, flared, lit, launched, driven, and flown our way to adding 2.4 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide to Earth’s atmosphere. That’s as much CO2 as would be emitted annually by 522 billion cars, or 65 cars per person living today. On a lonely, lunar-like valley 20 miles outside of Reykjavík, Iceland, Edda Aradóttir is on a mission to put it back where it came from. She’s returning a tiny bit of it today but much, much more of it in the years ahead. In sending CO2 deep beneath the surface of the planet, she’s aiming to reverse one of the most consequential acts of human history: the unearthing of massive amounts of subterranean carbon as fossil fuels, the lifeblood of modern civilization but now its bane as well. She doesn’t have much time. Nor do the rest of us. The extreme weather and record-hot temperatures from climate change are already here—and virtually certain to get worse.” Read more.

Sam Howe Verhovek

Editor: Anne Farrar

Writer: Sam Howe Verhovek

Assistants/Production: Samantha Azzani, Manuel Montesano