Dangerous Years

October 1, 2016
Farewell, beloved planet.In this laundry list of the worlds many maladies, Orr (Emeritus, Environmental Studies and Politics/Oberlin Coll.; Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse, 2009, etc.) observes that were almost certainly heading for a time of woe thanks to climate destabilization, projecting 50-50 odds that well somehow figure out a way around the worst of the physical and social effects. For perspective, he writes, no sane person would get in a car with those odds of a fatal accident. Yet were all riding on the same planet, and theres work to do. The authors prescriptions are seemingly scattershot, but its perfectly in keeping for a professor at a small liberal arts college to wish for a curriculum more oriented toward describing the world as a system and that prepares the rising generation for a rapidly destabilizing ecosphere for which we have no precedent. Talk about a trigger warning. A little Consciousness III stuff goes a long way, and theres a lot of it here. Occasionally, it works, as when Orr ponders why we might feel some duty to coming generations on the unverifiable grounds of my own feelings and experiences such as they arei.e., we know that we enjoy the feel of a cool breeze and the sight of flowing water, so why should we not protect them on the off chance that future people will enjoy them, too? Alas, thats not the way of our time. As the author notes, though throughout most of history, each generation left things more or less as they found them, we live in a more fraught time of uncreative destruction. Scientists are rushing to document the extent of our damage, and while humanities scholars ought to have something to say about this, it seems a touch unhelpful to suggest wistfully that we need to be more thoughtful citizens who broaden and deepen the local conversation on sustainability. A well-meaning but diffident treatise. Read Lewis Dartnells The Knowledge (2014) for a more useful take on what comes next.

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