Reflections for Troubled Times

Reflections for troubled times – In this time of crisis I want to reflect a little, not on the causes of what faces us today or what we can do about it – other people are better qualified to talk about these important matters – but rather on our attitude towards this crisis. Thinking primarily in terms of the climate emergency: we may well have to face the possibility that any response is already too late, and that sooner or later it may become impossible for a large human population to subsist on an over-heated planet Earth. We should steer clear of suggesting that the planet is doomed, as this is surely misleading. As many will know, the earth has undergone periods of even more drastic climate change, such as the millions of years it subsisted entirely covered in ice and snow and with no surface water, if the “snowball earth” hypothesis is correct. At these times the climate changed more dramatically than (although admittedly not as rapidly as) it seems set do now, and the diversity of species of life reduced to a far greater extent than currently. And yet life survived, and in time exploded into diversity again. As far as I know there is no reason to think that, however catastrophic it may be for us, anything we are currently doing to the planet will prevent it from recovering in the long run – once, perhaps, it has rid itself of its current scourge (or what some have compared to a nasty virus infecting it): humanity. The planet will ultimately be fine.

But what could well happen, as some of the best informed climatologists are suggesting, is that it might become impossible for the Earth to support the current global population in its current, relatively comfortable conditions. This could mean a massive reduction in human population, or even our ultimate extinction, and on the way to that, human suffering (and the suffering of other animals) on an unimaginable scale. So it should go without saying (though unfortunately it does not) that we should do everything we can to avert rapid climate change, insofar as we believe it will lead to that kind of future. Almost all reasonable people will find that there are good reasons to believe that this change will lead to some kinds of human suffering, even if they do not believe the likely consequences to be quite that drastic. Left completely unchecked and without some miraculous solution coming into play (we become able to live comfortably on the Moon) the consequences of climate change are without question extremely grave.

If what we face is extinction, I think most of us in the secular West today will be inclined to regard the brief spell of human habitation of the planet as entirely meaningless. The prevalent view is that a certain mammal species has developed to the point where it is able fully to enact the worst of its animal instincts - instincts of competition, cruelty and domination of others and of its physical world - and that it has now given these such free vent that it is on the point of wiping itself out, and many other life forms besides. However, in opposition to the terrible record of misery and harm inflicted by humans onto humans, other animals and the natural world, we still need at this time to do justice to the other side of the coin in human history: all the acts, large and small, of generosity, of love, of self-sacrifice, and all the achievements of humanity. Who can possibly know in what scale we can weigh up such things, but my instinct is that elements of knowledge and understanding, and achievements in the arts, both large and small, are also highly significant counters on the positive side of the balance. Sometimes if I listen to Mozart, for example, I can feel that it was all worth it just for this. But worthwhile achievements in the arts do not belong only to the genius composer but are encountered every day all over the world: I also get something of that feeling happening across a really good folk musician in a pub.

We may not want to go back to the grand philosophical narratives of the nineteenth century, such as that of Hegel, according to which the self-realization of self-conscious beings, of what he calls “spirit” (Geist), is the full justification of world history. But in the moments I have described above, and others – such as simply when I experience a new sense of connection, with a stranger or a friend, or in the peaceful contemplation of nature – I do feel that there is something truly significant about the emergence of the kind of beings that we are. I feel that this is something that was meant to be.

In whatever time we have left as a species we should continue to participate fully in the miracle of being a self-conscious being in an infinite universe, rather than just lamenting what we have done to our world. And that includes enjoying the natural world just at it now is. If the eco-systems we are surrounded with are ‘downgraded’ eco-systems, they are eco-systems nevertheless. A downgraded eco-system is still a wonder in its own way: adaptation to changed conditions is of course part of what life has always done as a part of its long story on the planet. For the moment, we still have trees, plants of great beauty and extraordinary animals we can delight in. It is a little like the old idea (which Epicurus for example would have enjoined) of enjoying every day of your life while fully accepting that something may happen which will make it your last day, and even if you knew it was your last. On a global scale the same thing applies. To reiterate: we have an obligation to support and participate in whatever actions might prevent the suffering of sentient beings, and might yet prevent the terminal decline of humanity. But in a curious way I think it would also be our duty to enjoy our life on the earth, even if it was all going to end – tomorrow.