The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh Embracing ‘Cathedral Thinking’ with Elizabeth Kolbert
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Feb 3, 2026 Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Sixth Extinction, reflects on field reporting from Greenland to species cataloging. She discusses the emotional weight of documenting biodiversity loss. The conversation explores long-term thinking, the scale of climate challenges, community solutions like Samso, and why paying attention to the natural world matters.
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Climate Change Is A Cumulative, Long-Term Problem
- Climate change is cumulative and largely irreversible on human timescales, making "solving" it misleading.
- Actions now determine how much worse or more manageable the future becomes.
Short-Term Minds Need Cathedral Thinking
- Humans evolved to prioritize short-term threats, making long-term issues like climate change psychologically hard to address.
- "Cathedral thinking"—acting for centuries beyond your lifetime—is needed but culturally uncommon.
Greenland Trip That Changed A Career
- Elizabeth Kolbert's first trip to Greenland in 2001 transformed her worldview about climate change.
- Standing on two miles of ice showed how rapid and immense planetary changes can be.
