Opinion: How to live with the climate crisis without becoming a nihilist

Government reports have warned that the U.S. is already suffering the effects of climate change. The climate crisis has moved into everyday life and it can feel overwhelming. Hurricane Dorian, which left more than 70,000 people homeless, was an instance of this climate breakdown. A hotter ocean means stronger storms, a higher sea means worse flooding, a hotter atmosphere means more rain. Worsening wildfires in California and elsewhere, devastating flooding in our agricultural heartland, swaths of dead forest in the Rockies, the global collapse of coral reefs — these are just a few examples of the long and lengthening list of the catastrophic impacts of climate breakdown. The evidence that human-caused global heating is dangerously disrupting Earth systems is unequivocal, and it no longer takes a scientist to see this. Denying this reality puts billions of lives at risk, and will surely come to be condemned by history. Faced with this reality, it may be tempting to say, “We’re doomed,” as Jonathan Franzen recently suggested . This view comes from a deep misconception about how the crisis is likely to unfold. We will not suddenly pass a tipping point to doom at 2° Celsius of global heating above preindustrial […]

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