Eric Holthaus (born 1981) is an American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

and climate journalist. He is the founder of a weather service called Currently and started a publication called The Phoenix on

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

. He was formerly a writer for ''The Correspondent'', ''Grist'', ''Slate'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' and is known for his mentions of

global climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

Biography

Eric Holthaus grew up in Kansas. His writing during

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

resulted in a substantial following. During his career, he has advised numerous groups and individuals on coping with changing weather, including, for example,

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

n subsistence farmers. In 2013, feeling that his extensive air travel was contributing to the climate problem, Holthaus vowed to stop flying. Holthaus is a co-founder of the podcast "Warm Regards" with paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill and journalist Andy Revkin of ''The New York Times''. Holthaus left ''The Correspondent'' in November 2020 and started ''The Phoenix''; ''The Correspondent'' itself ceased publication on January 1, 2021. He is a proponent of the

Green New Deal The Green New Deal (GND) calls for public policy to address climate change, along with achieving other social aims like job creation, economic growth, and reducing economic inequality. The name refers to the New Deal, a set of changes and ...

and identifies as an

eco-socialist Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism, socialist ecology, ecological materialism, or revolutionary ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. ...

Projects

On November 6, 2022, Abbie Veitch and Eric Holthaus announced Project Mushroom, an initiative to create a safe social media service centered on climate protection. The proposed service was to be run by users and its formation was in response to the harmful effects and biases embedded in established platforms like

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. The

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign for the project raised $201,989. In April 2023, Holthaus turned over ownership of the service to volunteers from its community.

''The Future Earth''

Holthaus's book ''The Future Earth'', about imagining a future where society has reversed the

effects of climate change Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an Instrumental temperature record, overall warming trend, Effects of climate change on the ...

, was released on June 30, 2020. Paperback edition. The book employs a "speculative journalism" approach to imagine how communities and society will respond, while interviewing and using sources from contemporary thinkers and scientists. Holthaus focuses on the large scale organizing and social change needed to address the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term ''climate emergency'' have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment an ...

rather than relying solely on technological solutions. Reception of the book was generally positive. Kirkus reviews called the book "an encouraging and diligently researched call to action" Undark Magazine called the book "a welcome antidote to more dystopian climate writers such as

David Wallace-Wells David Wallace-Wells (born 1982) is an American journalist known for his writings on climate change. He wrote the 2017 essay "The Uninhabitable Earth"; the essay was published in ''New York (magazine), New York'' as a Long-form journalism, long-fo ...

". The podcast Warm Regards highlighted the book in comparison with

Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has ...

's ''

The Ministry for the Future ''The Ministry for the Future'' is a climate fiction ("cli-fi") novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, ...

''—noting that they both share a similarly optimistic and future forward approach to the climate crisis.

References

External links

Eric Holthaus
at ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Holthaus, Eric American meteorologists Slate (magazine) people 1981 births Living people