NPR

Lessons From The Stars: How To Live On A Climate-Changed World

Classification of planets offers a way to see how Anthropocenes — and a successful route through them — might be part of a continuum of planetary evolution, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
An artist's rendering of what a Class V planet might look like under this new planetary classification system.

The non-stop, "never-seen-before" hurricanes of the last few weeks have given us a glimpse of what a climate-changed world will look like for humanity.

If it seems like a scary vision, you should know that we're only at the very beginning of this wild ride. Things are likely going to get harder.

But what would it mean for us to deal effectively with the long-term planetary changes we've initiated? What would it look like if we could marshal our creativity to find a smooth landing for our cherished project of civilization?

That's the question I, and my collaborators, explored in a new paper we just published in the journal . To answer it, we took a new view of our

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