In the 1970s, Gerard O’Neill drew up detailed plans for large space colonies. The Princeton physicist claimed that these colonies could beam limitless energy back down to Earth, solving all our environmental problems. As climate change accelerates, O’Neill’s once-forgotten green dream has become influential again; many of today’s corporate space evangelists refer to themselves as “Jerry’s Kids.” For solutions to Earth’s problems, should we look to the stars?

The Green Wonks: Our Common Future and the Birth of Liberal Environmentalism

Experts shape our world. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. In every big story, you’ll find one; you’ll find a researcher, scientist, engineer, planner, policy wonk, data nerd, bureaucrat, regulator, intellectual, or pseudo-intellectual. Their ideas are often opaque, unrecognized, and difficult to understand. Some of them like it that way. On Cited, we reveal their hidden stories.