Happy Doomsday!
The idea that everything we know will be swept away has a strange and long-standing tradition.
In the Bible, you see it in the story of Noa, where all of creation (in the limited cosmology of the time) was swept away by a huge flood. We see it again in The Revelation of John, a version of a story that was very popular at the time. The vision is still popular among fundamentalist Christians. It is central to Islam, in particular to the world view of ISIS.
A particularly alarming version of "Happy Doomsday" is emerging surrounding climate change. Essentially, the doomsayers cherry pick and interpret more or less "Scientific" evidence to show that not only will the world experience catastrophe as a result of climate change, but that climate change spells the end of civilization or possibly the human species. At the extreme end, claims are made that climate change will wipe out all life on Earth.
The facts of climate change are indisputable. The claims of the doomsayers that the danger is being ignored are disputable. Even the famously ignorant, apathetic and mis-informed American public is waking up to the danger. It's hard to find a clearer overview of the issue that you will find in Obama's speech here. (Remember Obama is addressing a population that is still skeptical about evolution -- there are dozens of ways to quibble about what he's proposing here - the point is that he's not ignoring the issue as claimed by many doomsayers.).
What all doomsayers seem to have in common is the way they weave a few strands of "evidence" with rants against the evils of humanity. God destroyed the world in Noa's time because "all humanity" had turned their back on the religion of the Israelites. According to Chris Hedges (a leading doomsayer), we are doomed because we are evil. We deserve it. Hedges is an ordained priest. His language is secular but his message is unmistakably one of the Biblical prophets. He's a 21st century Noa.
Bill McKibben, who thinks that all life on Earth is doomed, has ruined his own life by trying and failing to abandon the evils of civilization. McKibbens writings are almost entirely a chronicle of his own disastrous life and crushing despair. It his not surprising that he somehow finds comfort in the belief that not just the meaning of his life, but all meaning is soon to be wiped away by a massive extinction event.
Readers of the doom genre are often finding out about world affairs and scientific evidence of anything for the first time. They are surprised to find out that the world is an oligarchy, that democracy is a farce, that big business and the banks overrule the independence of Nations, that the US is the leading terrorist state and so on. All of this is at least arguably true. But it's not new. Blaming it on the world order (which has existed for ten thousand years or more) is just a way to whip up an angry backlash at the "evil" people who are responsible for this and virtually everything else that happens on the planet. It's just the latest version of the Noa story.
In the face of this catastrophe, job number one is to hang on to your own personal sanity. Put aside the stories of immanent doom and ask about your own immediate situation. Anger about the government will not help you. Without acceptance and inner peace, your faculties of reason and compassion will abandon you.
If you think that the human race and all life on this planet is worth saving, ask yourself why you feel this way personally. What is it in your own life that leads you to feel this way? Do you feel that your own sense of meaninglessness and failure gives you the right to preach despair and panic to others?
We need to approach your fellow travellers on this road with kindness and compassion. Before you go around spreading the gospel of doom, take time to learn the facts. Be a student before you become a teacher. Aggressively question your own assumptions. Don't spend your time seeking out people who agree with you. Find out why others disagree. Look for solutions, not just problems. Avoid the easy road of ignorance, panic, blame and anger.
Don't forget to find joy and meaning in today. This is good advice no matter what we think the future holds.
Finally, we need to work together to support realistic strategies to slow down and eventually reverse climate change. This will involve working with the world as it is. Any strategy that says we must first overturn the world order and totally change the way we live is a dangerous distraction. Such changes (if possible at all) take centuries. We don't have centuries.
We must also remember that that climate change is not the only disaster threatening us and our planet. The good news is that the climate change problem is forcing millions of people to look into the big issues for the first time. These include endless war, nuclear proliferation, over-population, pollution, food supplies and water management. It's all related. Climate change is just making all the other problems worse. So it's a good time to start paying attention.
We are all in this together.
In the Bible, you see it in the story of Noa, where all of creation (in the limited cosmology of the time) was swept away by a huge flood. We see it again in The Revelation of John, a version of a story that was very popular at the time. The vision is still popular among fundamentalist Christians. It is central to Islam, in particular to the world view of ISIS.
A particularly alarming version of "Happy Doomsday" is emerging surrounding climate change. Essentially, the doomsayers cherry pick and interpret more or less "Scientific" evidence to show that not only will the world experience catastrophe as a result of climate change, but that climate change spells the end of civilization or possibly the human species. At the extreme end, claims are made that climate change will wipe out all life on Earth.
The facts of climate change are indisputable. The claims of the doomsayers that the danger is being ignored are disputable. Even the famously ignorant, apathetic and mis-informed American public is waking up to the danger. It's hard to find a clearer overview of the issue that you will find in Obama's speech here. (Remember Obama is addressing a population that is still skeptical about evolution -- there are dozens of ways to quibble about what he's proposing here - the point is that he's not ignoring the issue as claimed by many doomsayers.).
What all doomsayers seem to have in common is the way they weave a few strands of "evidence" with rants against the evils of humanity. God destroyed the world in Noa's time because "all humanity" had turned their back on the religion of the Israelites. According to Chris Hedges (a leading doomsayer), we are doomed because we are evil. We deserve it. Hedges is an ordained priest. His language is secular but his message is unmistakably one of the Biblical prophets. He's a 21st century Noa.
Bill McKibben, who thinks that all life on Earth is doomed, has ruined his own life by trying and failing to abandon the evils of civilization. McKibbens writings are almost entirely a chronicle of his own disastrous life and crushing despair. It his not surprising that he somehow finds comfort in the belief that not just the meaning of his life, but all meaning is soon to be wiped away by a massive extinction event.
Readers of the doom genre are often finding out about world affairs and scientific evidence of anything for the first time. They are surprised to find out that the world is an oligarchy, that democracy is a farce, that big business and the banks overrule the independence of Nations, that the US is the leading terrorist state and so on. All of this is at least arguably true. But it's not new. Blaming it on the world order (which has existed for ten thousand years or more) is just a way to whip up an angry backlash at the "evil" people who are responsible for this and virtually everything else that happens on the planet. It's just the latest version of the Noa story.
In the face of this catastrophe, job number one is to hang on to your own personal sanity. Put aside the stories of immanent doom and ask about your own immediate situation. Anger about the government will not help you. Without acceptance and inner peace, your faculties of reason and compassion will abandon you.
If you think that the human race and all life on this planet is worth saving, ask yourself why you feel this way personally. What is it in your own life that leads you to feel this way? Do you feel that your own sense of meaninglessness and failure gives you the right to preach despair and panic to others?
We need to approach your fellow travellers on this road with kindness and compassion. Before you go around spreading the gospel of doom, take time to learn the facts. Be a student before you become a teacher. Aggressively question your own assumptions. Don't spend your time seeking out people who agree with you. Find out why others disagree. Look for solutions, not just problems. Avoid the easy road of ignorance, panic, blame and anger.
Don't forget to find joy and meaning in today. This is good advice no matter what we think the future holds.
Finally, we need to work together to support realistic strategies to slow down and eventually reverse climate change. This will involve working with the world as it is. Any strategy that says we must first overturn the world order and totally change the way we live is a dangerous distraction. Such changes (if possible at all) take centuries. We don't have centuries.
We must also remember that that climate change is not the only disaster threatening us and our planet. The good news is that the climate change problem is forcing millions of people to look into the big issues for the first time. These include endless war, nuclear proliferation, over-population, pollution, food supplies and water management. It's all related. Climate change is just making all the other problems worse. So it's a good time to start paying attention.
We are all in this together.
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