Against Climate Stoicism: Learning to Fight in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Humanity has entered a period in which extreme skepticism about climate change---usually termed climate denialism---has been increasingly been replaced by what we could call climate stoicism, namely, the attitude that dangerous climate change must be accepted as an external force beyond human control. In this chapter I criticize the philosophical basis for climate stoicism, especially the variant espoused by Roy Scranton, who has solemnly declared that humanity must henceforth ``learn to die in the Anthropocene.'' By contrast, I defend a conception of the militant philosopher and propose an alternative strategic path for ``learning to fight in the Anthropocene.''