Rejecting Climate Doomism
A strong call to action for the environment and our future
Description
As scientists call for widespread climate action, there has been an alarming rise in climate doomism, the belief that it is too late to do anything about climate change. Many people who struggle to imagine the solutions and social order that would be needed to support more sustainable outcomes instead look away and do nothing, immobilized by defeatist thinking. Yet every fraction of a degree of warming avoided means saving lives and livelihoods in the future.
Drawing from climate science, sociology, psychology, and philosophy, Rejecting Climate Doomism outlines the reasons to instead choose action grounded in active hope. It examines how global warming could be effectively limited through specific policy proposals. Despite the many obstacles to achieving some of the policies discussed in this book, they are still possible and worth pursuing. By outlining a positive vision of the far-reaching changes that can be used to minimize warming, the book encourages readers to advocate for the social and economic changes necessary to forge the best path for people and the planet.
Diana Stuart is a Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University.
Reviews
“In our warming world, doomerism is almost as destructive as denialism, because they both tell us to do nothing about climate change. In fact, as Diana Stuart reminds us, every degree counts—and the right changes, now, can still make an enormous difference. Rejecting Climate Doomism is well-researched, eminently readable, and carries an essential message: pragmatic, ethical and, above all, hopeful.”
- Elizabeth Cripps, University of Edinburgh, and author of What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care
“Rejecting Climate Doomism facilitates the substitution of hope for doom through both political engagement and personal/collective action. In doing so, it sheds light on the magnitude of our challenges and our ability to meet them. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels.”
- J. Schoof, Choice
“Stuart is most convincing when describing the science that indicates it is not too late to reduce harm. She highlights several points that would counteract a sense of total despair, a despair that things are so bad that mitigation is impossible. Despair, loss, and fear undermine our ability to press governments to reduce climate harm and enables climate anxiety, reducing civil society to a shivering fatalistic heap in the metaphorical corner of the room. She rightly argues that there is no ‘point of no return’ rather there are safer points than others."
- Peter J. Jacques, Environmental Politics