At the time, he was the Deputy Editor of New York Magazine and covered the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic extensively.

[4] David Wallace-Wells was born in 1982,[1] in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, and then spent his later childhood and teenage years in Riverdale.

[13] On July 17, 2019, Wallace-Wells appeared on an episode of The Doctor's Farmacy, a video produced by functional medicine practitioner Mark Hyman.

[16] Although the essay received mixed to negative criticism from many scientists,[17][18] it was considered an impactful work by some reviewers.

Both works are characterized by speculation regarding climate change's potential to dramatically impact human life, which Wallace-Wells describes in "meticulous and terrifying detail".