Welcome to our third annual celebration of the innovators, thinkers & changemakers working to make the future a better place.
This year’s list arrives at a pivotal moment. We’re witnessing unprecedented advances in artificial intelligence, breakthroughs in medicine and biotechnology, and growing movements to address existential challenges from climate change to threatening new diseases to, yes, artificial intelligence. Yet we’re also facing deep uncertainties about democracy, economic stability, and the very future of human agency in an increasingly automated world.
It’s precisely in these times of upheaval that we need clear-eyed optimists — people who can both imagine a better future and do the hard work of building it. The 50 individuals on this year’s list embody that spirit. They’re not just dreamers; they’re doers. AI safety researchers working to ensure technological advances benefit humanity, climate scientists developing planetary solutions, animal welfare activists fighting one of the great moral crimes of our time — each honoree is tackling crucial challenges with both vision and pragmatism.
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HONOREE CATEGORY 05: Combating climate change
From devastating hurricanes in mountain towns to the greening gardens of Antarctica, 2024 saw some of the clearest proof that yes, climate change is here and we need to do something about it. But climate change is also the original wicked problem, and solutions that can actually be effective aren’t simple. How do we find them?
“We aimed to represent people who all have different ways of thinking about climate change and who each add something distinct to the conversation, and who are making path-breaking contributions on different pieces of the problem, including renewable energy, animal agriculture, the fashion industry, and, of course, fossil fuels themselves,” said Marina Bolotnikova, deputy editor and co-writer of the Processing Meat newsletter.
Isaias Hernandez, Climate Educator & Content Creator, @QueerBrownVegan
Vaclav Smil, Interdisciplinary Researcher, University of Manitoba
Emma Hakansson, Founding Director, Collective Fashion Justice
David Keith, Geophysicist, University of Chicago
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Botanist and Writer, Author of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry
Matthew Hayek, Environmental Scientist, New York University
Daniel Swain, Climate Scientist, UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability