‘OK, Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late

This “challenge accepted” attitude, combined with a mounting sense of urgency, an understanding of climate and environmental science, and a yearning to feel connected to a community of like-minded people, can provide renewed hope even to those who have been engaged in the movement for years — or decades. It also is creating a feeling that society h... See more

The human psyche naturally rebels against the idea of its end. Likewise, civilizations have throughout history marched blindly toward disaster, because humans are wired to believe that tomorrow will be much like today. . . . Yet the reality of global climate change is going to keep intruding on our fantasies of perpetual growth, permanent innovatio

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but not in a way that is consonant with an objective understanding of the situation. And by “objective” I don’t mean a cynical, realpolitik, business-as-usual understanding of the situation; I mean the cold scientific facts of even the most optimistic scenarios. So, if you’re hanging your hope on preventing catastrophe, you’re hanging your hope on

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read — and re-read — Scranton’s op-ed the year it was published. It forced my first deep reckoning with the reality that we were not going to be able to “prevent” climate catastrophe, or “undoom” our civilization. It’s taken me years to accept it. In fact, I’m still trying to, because accepting it requires me to murder my hopes, or at least those h

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