Writing the future
Last month, I was in Boston for the presentation of the Earthshot Prize, the annual awards started by Prince William designed to help accelerate creative solutions to the climate crisis. The roughly $6 million in grants—supported by donors including TIME’s owners Marc and Lynne Benioff—went to five remarkable projects, from a technology that turns carbon into rock to biodegradable seaweed-based packaging for consumer goods (called Notpla for “not plastics”). At a gathering after the ceremony, I was struck by the remarks of Earthshot board chair Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate chief, who framed this moment in the planet’s 4.5 billion years (no small task!) as one in which “the pen of history has been passed from nature to humanity.” I asked Figueres if she would adapt those comments for TIME’s…