Climate Pessimism and Human Nature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20249248 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Higgins (0000-0001-8136-6466, University of Leeds, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 129 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/h11050129 |
| OpenAlex | W4306925906 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 29 |
This article builds on scholarship that understands climate change not only as a geophysical phenomenon, but also as a complex idea. It argues for a historicised analysis of what it terms “climate pessimism”: the belief that catastrophic global heating cannot be prevented. Focusing especially on nonfictional texts by Jonathan Franzen and Roy Scranton, it suggests that climate pessimism draws on a Western intellectual tradition that takes a sceptical view of human capacities and the possibility of progress. At the same time, climate pessimism tends to evoke an idea of atomised human nature associated with capitalistic modernity. Franzen draws on ideas from evolutionary psychology in a rather simplistic way. Scranton, a more complex thinker, engages not only with Buddhist thought but also with the philosophies of Benedict Spinoza and Arthur Schopenhauer. Although often criticised as a “doomer”, he sometimes moves towards an epistemological pluralism and sense of human potentiality. The concluding section brings in the concept of the pluriverse as both a corrective to climate pessimism’s tendency to Westerncentrism, and a point of connection to Scranton’s work
Buddhism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Modernity · Pessimism · Skepticism · Sociology · Theology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics
Why We Disagree About Human Nature
Reason in a Dark Time
The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory
Engaging People on Climate Change
Requiem for a Species
Climate Change
A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None
Discourses of climate delay
It's not “too late”
Too late for indigenous climate justice
Pessimism and Optimism in the Debate on Climate Change
Empathy, place and identity interactions for sustainability
A Cultural History of Climate Change
An Indigenous Feminist's Take On The Ontological Turn
Black Nihilism and the Politics of Hope
Environmental Movements in the Global South
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |