Book contents
- Morality and the Environmental Crisis
- Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society
- Morality and the Environmental Crisis
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Environmental Crisis and Moral Life
- 2 Why Does Nature Matter?
- 3 The Spirit of Ecological Democracy
- 4 Can We Talk?
- 5 Where Do We Draw the Line?
- 6 Guilt and Responsibility
- 7 Changing the World
- 8 Dilemmas of Reason
- 9 Despair
- 10 Futures1
- Index
9 - Despair
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2019
Book contents
- Morality and the Environmental Crisis
- Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society
- Morality and the Environmental Crisis
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Environmental Crisis and Moral Life
- 2 Why Does Nature Matter?
- 3 The Spirit of Ecological Democracy
- 4 Can We Talk?
- 5 Where Do We Draw the Line?
- 6 Guilt and Responsibility
- 7 Changing the World
- 8 Dilemmas of Reason
- 9 Despair
- 10 Futures1
- Index
Summary
Detailed knowledge of how the environmental crisis is both increasing and not being met with anything like adequate seriousness can lead to environmental despair: hopeless dread about the future of life on earth and a resigned depression over humanity’s inability to live morally and rationally. Taking such despair as a permanent possibility of an informed consciousness, this chapter offers some ways to think about the environmental crisis that offer not so much hope as courage. These include simply trying to live with as much love as possible in the present, accepting our essential ignorance about the future, and appreciating that the miracle of life on earth ever existed at all.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Morality and the Environmental Crisis , pp. 214 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019