| The climate crisis is full of interconnected problems—but some are more connected than others.  Illustration by Jose Berrio Today, the editor Daniel A. Gross takes us inside Bottlenecks, this week’s special digital issue. Not so long ago, coverage of the climate focussed on small signs that big changes were coming. The trees were blooming a few weeks early. The butterflies had moved north. The sand on the beach was washing away. These stories were necessary but not sufficient; today, we are more likely to report that the trees are burning and the butterflies are dead. When the crisis is in the present tense, as it is now, and the window for halting it is slamming shut, all we can aim for is action. If this decade is our last best chance to avert the worst consequences of climate change, how should we spend it? In this week’s digital issue, inventive and passionate people try to solve a hard problem—maybe the hardest problem—in surprising ways. They look for bottlenecks and try to alleviate them. Because the fight against climate pollution is hamstrung by the difficulty of detecting emissions, they set out to launch a satellite that can essentially catch polluters red-handed. Because enormous solar farms often can’t be constructed without the buy-in of local people, they imagine new models that can win community support. Because the melting of certain ice sheets will have outsized consequences, they try to figure out if it’s possible to save some. We’ll be publishing stories about these efforts, and more, online each day this week. These stories don’t aim to bear witness or raise awareness. They start from the premise that the planet does not care whether we care—only whether we act, and act quickly, in useful places. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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