On Climate Fatalism.

Essays | Daniel Liu | Aug 11th, 2021.

So, this Monday, the U.N. released a climate report that pretty much guaranteed that we are all screwed. 

The paper, written by over 200 climate scientists, finds that even if hardly possible drastic cuts were made to greenhouse gas emissions, the planet was still more likely than not to warm 1.5 degrees celsius above preindustrial conditions. This would unequivocally cause climate refugee crises, dramatic increases in natural disasters, and under the most optimistic scenario, all the ice in the Arctic would still melt. 

So that's it right? We should just give up? I mean when sea levels are guaranteed to rise and swallow up the coast no matter what we do, why should we do anything?

Climate fatalism, or climate pessimism, is an outlook on the oncoming crisis that since something is inevitable, there shouldn't event be an effort to mitigate the effects. Here are three reasons why even if the climate cannot be completely restored, it is in the youth's interest to do anything and everything they can.

1. Climate fatalism pardons the largest polluters of their crimes.

The entity with the most to gain from everyone giving up on the climate cause are the ones that ones that brought us into this whole mess in the first place. Corporate greed alongside unsustainable practices have produced the majority of greenhouse gases. When people just accept the outcome of climate change, these companies enjoy lighter pressure from governments, action groups, and people. They will never take responsibility for their actions and we will suffer the consequences for it.

2. Climate fatalism sustains inequitable societies.

Climate change disproportionately affects minorities and indigenous people.  Giving up on climate means giving up on providing these people with necessary resources to save their environments and livelihoods. When natural disasters strike, it will be Black and Hispanic communities ravaged by lack of environmental infrastructure and economic ruin. When sea levels rise, it will be indigenous people forced to become climate refugees and move from their homelands. Saying that there is nothing we can do for the climate means we are complicit in environmental racism.

3. We can still have a livable planet for future generations.

At the end of the U.N.'s report, it documented ways to limit further climate change. This is critical. It means there are ways to mitigate the effects of environmental damage and they are perfectly achievable. It is integral to understand that every single millidegree increase to the Earth's climate matters. This is not a fight for our own generation's right to the planet–it is a fight for literally every single human that will ever be born. 

Climate fatalism is selfish, it is defeatist, and it ignores the truth: that there are things we can and should do.