What wizards and prophets have to do with climate change


“Outbreaks in nature don’t end well,” said Charles C. Mann, an American journalist and author.

In biology, outbreaks occur when a species reaches a population that requires more resources than are naturally available.

“We’re reaching the end of the petri dish,” Mann said. For microorganisms, the edges of a petri dish are physical limits to growth. For humans – the natural limit isn’t as clear or tangible.

Mann spoke at Utah State University on Thursday to discuss his book, “The Wizard and the Prophet,” a biography of two scientists who Mann said embody competing approaches toward mitigating harmful impacts from population outbreak and climate change.

The ideologies of the wizard and the prophet “are less about technology than they are about values,” Mann said. “These are different ideas about what kind of world we want to live in.”

In Mann’s example, the wizard tackles challenges with industrial-scale science. Geoengineering, genetically modified agriculture, and centralized nuclear power plants are adaptation techniques promoted by the wizard’s ideology.

“Be smart,” Mann said, playing the role of the wizard. “Make more and everyone can win.”

Conversely, the prophet is an advocate for small-scale approaches toward adaptation that result from individual action and behavior changes. The prophet’s world would be adorned with community farms, residential renewable energy production, and an emphasis on the impact of personal decisions on the environment.

As the Senate voted against the Green New Deal on March 26, Mann said we are wrestling with the different philosophies of the wizard and the prophet.

Emily Skill, a graduate student in the Natural Resources Department at USU, said that both the wizard and prophet approaches are useful for combating climate change. She said that alone, these philosophies have shortcomings. Together, they are useful because they highlight two opposing responses, calling us to “recognize how these approaches aren’t able to provide full solutions.”

“Technology has to go in line with behavior changes,” Skill said. “If people don’t value or care for the environment, we’re not going to change.”

No other species has escaped the fate of outbreak in biology, leading Mann to ask, “are we special?”

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