It's a strange feature of liberal climate thinking that there is a kind of enthusiasm for the authoritarianism of Xi Jinping because there are, he faces fewer obstacles than an American president does in making action.

What a Faustian bargain.

Hi, I'm Ian Bremmer, and welcome to the GZero World Podcast.

An audio version of what you can find on public television,

where I analyze global topics, sit down with big guests, and make use of small puppets.

This week I sit down with New York Magazine writer David Wallace Wells, whose new book

explores how climate change will alter the way humans live on Earth or not.

Spoiler alert, not. Let's get to it.

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David Walswells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, good to be with you.

Thanks for having me.

I'm not sure I should say good to be with you.

I mean, you say you're an optimist, but this book is a challenging read, right?

A lot more urgency and a lot more disturbance about where we are heading than certainly

anything mainstream I've seen in the past

couple of years. Where are you on, why are you an optimist? To me, it's a matter of perspective.

So if you look at the world today, you look at the window outside, the way that life is going on,

and you define that as your

baseline, I think there's no way to be scientifically responsible and optimistic, because the world

is certainly going to get hotter, and as it gets hotter, it's going to get more dangerous,

...