In January of 1938, TIME’s editors considered how the sun might become a future energy source. A year later, TIME observed that scientists were seeing evidence of a warming planet. In 1953, TIME cautioned that an “invisible blanket” of greenhouse gases, at its present rate of increase, would “raise the earth’s average temperature 1.5°\u202fFahrenheit every 100 years.” The term \xadclimate change, as we currently understand it, was first used byTIMEwhen the editors named the “Endangered Planet” the Person of the Year for 1988. Much great workengaging with the climate storyhas been created by TIME journalists in the years since, and this year is no exception. It’s fair to sayclimateleadership is \xadembedded across all of our coverage today. But we believe more could be done to draw attention to the people who are shaping and leading climate action. That is why we’ve created the inauguralTIME100 Climate list. The TIME100 Climate is not only a community, it is an argument for how we see the future: we are recognizing those who are connecting climate action and business value, because we believe progress for the planet will come from the engagement with andleadership by the business world. To assemble this list, we tried to capture the latest economic and scientific thinking by selecting individuals who are leading change across five critical areas: energy, nature, finance, culture, and health. Our reporters, editors, and colleagues atTIMECO2sought out measurable, scalable achievements and prioritized recent action. Our hope is that decades from now, the creation of the TIME100 Climate will be seen as another watershed moment for TIME andour coverage of the planet. Please read and let us know what you think atSam@time.com. Sam | \t\t\t\t\t\t
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