NYTimes | 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 — it is unnatural for us to think that this way of life,
this present moment, this order of things is not stable and permanent.
Across the world today, our actions testify to our belief that we can go
on like this forever, burning oil, poisoning the seas, killing off
other species, pumping carbon into the air, ignoring the ominous silence
of our coal mine canaries in favor of the unending robotic tweets of
our new digital imaginarium. Yet the reality of global climate change is
going to keep intruding on our fantasies of perpetual growth, permanent
innovation and endless energy, just as the reality of mortality shocks
our casual faith in permanence.
The biggest problem climate change poses isn’t how the Department of
Defense should plan for resource wars, or how we should put up sea walls
to protect Alphabet City, or when we should evacuate Hoboken. It won’t
be addressed by buying a Prius, signing a treaty, or turning off the
air-conditioning. The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one:
understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner
we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we
can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of
adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.
The choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will
be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new
disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life
we can’t sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what
came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the
present offers without attachment or fear.
If we want to learn to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die. Fist tap Arnach.
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