‘Climate change angst’ is a global anxiety, and borderless

When New York Magazine writer David Wallace-Wells penned his now controversial longform article earlier this month, the publication the alarming doomsdayish science article about the future of humankind rang alarm bells around the world. And not only in English-language media.

Articles about the Wallace-Wells 9-part piece also appeared in translation in Germany, France and Italy, among two dozens other countries. Some translated the New York Magazine article verbatim and others assigned staff writers to give an overview of the news in their own native language, be it French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, or Japanese.

All hell broke loose. I am not sure how to say that in other languages, but I am sure the translations found a way to put that idiom into their own idioms. Here’s a look at just some of the articles that appeared around the world in non-English languages.

Vincent Manileve in France, writing for Slate’s French edition, headlined his article: “Rechauffement climatique: la planete sera inhabitable bien plus tôo qu’on ne le pense.” Which translates back into English as something like: “Climate change: Our Planet will Become Inhabitable Sooner than You Think.”

In Germany, a literary journal ran this article, titled “Nach der Science-Fiction kommt die Climate-Fiction” which in English might be rendered as “After Science Fiction Comes Cli-Fi.”

And reporter Von Mario Lips in Germany’s Welt website put it this way, in writing about the New York Magazine pick-up: ”Die dramatischen Folgen des Temperaturanstiegs.”

An Italian news website put it this way: ”L’apocalisse che ci siamo creati da soli: Cosa succedera tra non molto al nostro pianeta se non ci occupiamo del fatto che fa sempre piùucaldo: e sempre che non sia troppo tardi, secondo il New York Magazine.”

So yes, global warming angst is global and borderless, and runaway global warming will impact humans in all four corners of the globe. Writers of cli-fi novels and producers of cli-fi movies like the upcoming “Geostorm” from director Dean Devlin are also borderless and creating works in over 25 languages in books and in the cinema. There is no time to waste. This is the battle of our species.