This bit caught my eye: "But like so many questions about the Anthropocene, the answer matters less than the active responses to the risk:" I think you come back to this in your final paragraph when you suggest that we know some steps to take right now without having to commit to a whole global solution. Taking action will prepare the path towards towards a sustainable civilization. There is a cognitive dissonance that is tripping us up right now: "I am an environmentalist and concerned with social justice" and "I am a successful person, creating wealth, and measuring my success (and the sucess of my nation) using a growth model. Lately I had come to feel that the push for individual actions like recycling were just "feel good" responses to a crisis in need of system wide change. Maybe these small, individual, actions are more important as a way of getting past this dissonance. The act of recycling or planting a tree relieves some of that dissonance and makes it a little easier to accept the idea of a sustainable civilization. There is a fascination with tiny houses and downsizing today. This generation of young adults seems to be less driven to have children than my generation. Are they creating the necessary change in mind set for the type of system change you've been writing about? It seems like a necessary step but a very time consuming one.
This bit caught my eye: "But like so many questions about the Anthropocene, the answer matters less than the active responses to the risk:" I think you come back to this in your final paragraph when you suggest that we know some steps to take right now without having to commit to a whole global solution. Taking action will prepare the path towards towards a sustainable civilization. There is a cognitive dissonance that is tripping us up right now: "I am an environmentalist and concerned with social justice" and "I am a successful person, creating wealth, and measuring my success (and the sucess of my nation) using a growth model. Lately I had come to feel that the push for individual actions like recycling were just "feel good" responses to a crisis in need of system wide change. Maybe these small, individual, actions are more important as a way of getting past this dissonance. The act of recycling or planting a tree relieves some of that dissonance and makes it a little easier to accept the idea of a sustainable civilization. There is a fascination with tiny houses and downsizing today. This generation of young adults seems to be less driven to have children than my generation. Are they creating the necessary change in mind set for the type of system change you've been writing about? It seems like a necessary step but a very time consuming one.