New Philosopher TruePDF-Issue 28 2020

For curious people looking for
solutions to the fundamental issues

faced by humankind
w w w . n e w p h i l o s o p h e r. c o m
WELCOME TO THE ANTHROPOCENE
WE TOOK
COVID -19
S E R I O U S LY
NOW FOR
T H E C L I M AT E
CRISIS
OLIVER BURKEMAN TIM DEAN MARIANA ALESSANDRI

Apocaloptimism Pale orange dot X-risks and Existentialism
CLIMATE
# 28
Editor
Zan Boag
Editorial Director
Antonia Case
Art Directors
Carlos Egan, Aida Novoa
Cover Design
“We seek with our human hands to create Genís Carreras
a second nature in the natural world.”
Editor-at-large
Cicero Nigel Warburton
Contributors
Mariana Alessandri, Matthew Beard, Marina
Climate Benjamin, Oliver Burkeman, Tom Chatfield, André

Dao, Tim Dean, Jason deCaires Taylor, Michael
Ellis, Narda Lepes, Charley Lineweaver, Tom
As we kicked off 2020, we industrious hu- McBride, Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, Patrick
mans of the Anthropocene had successfully Stokes, James Thornton
completed a run of the five hottest years on
record. And nothing was going to stop us Illustrators / Artists
making that ten out of ten. Despite knowing Genís Carreras, Carlos Egan, Yeiyei Gómez,
full well that our actions were responsible for Russel Herneman, Alvaro Hidalgo, Corey Mohler,
increasing temperatures, we couldn't change Aida Novoa, Jinrong Xie
our ways. As former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair put it, “The blunt truth about the Photographers
politics of climate change is that no country Jason deCaires Taylor, Library of Congress, NASA,
will want to sacrifice its economy.” Yale Rosen, Wellcome Trust
When COVID-19 rolled over the top of
the world’s best-laid plans for the new decade, Administration
and country after country sacrificed its econo- Marnie Anderson, Claudio Faerman
my, it became clear that the couldn’t was really
more like a wouldn’t. Yes we can; but no we Subscribe
won’t. It seems that immediate personal fear is newphilosopher.com/subscribe
far more persuasive than future collective fear.
But the climate crisis isn’t something that Contact
will happen in the future. It is happening now, 7 Campbell St Hobart TAS 7000 Australia
and was happening long before COVID-19 [email protected]
materialised. My only hope is that rather than
falling back into our old ways, we can transfer Distributors
our freshly-acquired will to fight and willing- Korea: Bada;
ness to sacrifice from one crisis to the next. Saudi Arabia/Middle East: Mana.net.
Views expressed by the authors are not those

Zan Boag
of the publisher. Reproduction in whole or in
Editor,
New Philosopher part is prohibited.
ISSN 2201-7151 Issue 28, #2/2020
3
Contents NewPhilosopher
Contents
3 Editor’s letter 81 Scenario 3
8 Contributors 82 The evidence
10 Scientific consensus 84 Making the world whole again ~ André Dao
12 News from nowhere 88 The meaning of... climate
18 A century of climate change 90 Ethical dilemmas ~ Matthew Beard
20 Apocaloptimism ~ Oliver Burkeman 92 Wild thinking ~ Zan Boag
24 The Dancer ~ Existential Comics 96 Six thinkers
28 The burnt country ~ Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore 98 Changing the atmosphere ~ Charley Lineweaver
31 Climate stats 104 When degree is shaked ~ William Shakespeare
32 Temperature anomalies 106 Stories of change ~ Michael Ellis
34 Breaking the world ~ Patrick Stokes 109 Heraclitus on talk radio ~ Tom McBride
38 Virus views 112 Writers' Award XXVIII: Climate
44 The pale orange dot ~ Tim Dean 114 A change in temperature ~ Svante Arrhenius
48 13 views on climate change 118 Our library
50 Our ultimate fragility ~ Jason deCaires Taylor 119 Documentaries
62 Seasons in the sun ~ Marina Benjamin 120 Around the web
66 Thoughts on... climate 122 Subscribe
68 Client Earth ~ James Thornton 126 X-risks and Existentialism ~ Mariana Alessandri
78 Our place in the world ~ Tom Chatfield 130 13 questions: Narda Lepes
4
NewPhilosopher Contents
- 44 - - 20 - - 34 -
EVOLUTION CLIMATE CRISIS EXTINCTION
The pale orange dot Apocaloptimism Breaking the world
Tim Dean Oliver Burkeman Patrick Stokes
- 50 -
OCEAN
Climate
Our ultimate
fragility
Jason deCaires Taylor
- 28 -
FIRE
The burnt country
Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
- 92 - - 78 - - 68 -
ENVIRONMENT THE FUTURE LAW
Wild thinking Our place in the world Client Earth
Zan Boag Tom Chatfield James Thornton
5
Online at newphilosopher.com NewPhilosopher
newphilosopher.com is an online portal for

Online at exploring philosophical ideas on ways to live a more
fulfilling life. Read the articles, join in discussions,
watch free online documentaries and plan your trip
to the next festival near you.
newphilosopher.com
Unexpected change New Philosopher

There is little that we Writers’ Award
can do to prepare for
unexpected change – you
can’t prepare for something Entries are open for the New Philosopher Prize for
you can’t foresee. Philosophical Writing. Enter now to win $1,000 and
newphilosopher.com/arti- have your work featured in the magazine.
cles/unexpected-change/
Open to NP Up to 1,500 words of fiction

Every crisis is an subscribers, or non-fiction, based around
opportunity award XXVII the theme ‘change’. For more
details and to enter online
entries close
And let us always bear in visit:
10 June
mind that every crisis is an newphilosopher.com/prize
2020
opportunity. An opportunity
to think, to get to know and
newphilosopher.com/ evaluate ourselves and those
articles/every-crisis around us better. Subscribe now
New Philosopher
online store
Delivered to your inbox
Visit the online store for
previous issues of New
Philosopher magazine,
subscriptions as well as gift
newphilosopher.com/ ideas.
products-page/maga-
zines/
Grandstander in
the family
The philosophers put it like

this: “Shut up and submit to
my view of the world or I’ll To receive your copy of the beautifully-designed,
shame and embarrass you! 132-page digital version delivered directly to your
I’m the morally good one inbox, plus access to the archive, subscribe now at:
newphilosopher.com/
articles/grandstand- here!”
er-in-the-family/ newphilosopher.com/subscribe
6
magazine
Purchase back issues and the current edition online at newphilosopher.com.
Subscribe online at newphilosopher.com/subscribe/
NewPhilosopher.com
“New Philosopher “ New Philosopher “I feel like I have Yours is a wonderful

is one of the best has given me hope been waiting for this publication ...genuinely
things happening.” for the future of magazine all my life.” interesting and ...in
this country’s media these times...much
landscape and for needed!
“It utterly blew the public discussion “This magazine
me away.” emanating from it.” is remarkable!”
7
Contributors NewPhilosopher
Contributors
Charley Lineweaver James Thornton Jason deCaires Taylor
Charley Lineweaver is the convenor James Thornton is the founding CEO Jason deCaires Taylor is a sculptor,
of ANU’s Planetary Science Insti- of ClientEarth, a Conservation Fellow environmentalist, and photographer.
tute and holds a joint appointment of the Zoological Society of London, Taylor created the world’s first under-
as an associate professor in the Re- and Honorary Professor of Law at the water sculpture park in 2006 in the
search School of Earth Sciences. He University of Bristol. The New States- West Indies, which was listed as one
obtained a PhD in astrophysics from man named him as one of 10 peo- of the Top 25 Wonders of the World
UC Berkeley. Lineweaver has written ple who could change the world and by National Geographic. Other major
chapters for several books, including he has twice won Leader of the Year projects include MUSA in Mexico,
Our Place in the Universe, and has at the UK Business Green Awards. Museo Atlántico in Spain, The Ris-
written for Scientific American, New- Thornton graduated from Yale, Phi ing Tide in London, and Ocean At-
ton Graphic Science Magazine, and The Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, with las in the Bahamas. He is a member
Canberra Times on black holes, the or- departmental honours in philosophy. of The Royal Society of Sculptors and
igin of the universe, time-warps, and He is the author of Immediate Harm in 2014 he was awarded The Global
the Big Bang. and The Feynman Challenge. Thinker by Foreign Policy.
Oliver Burkeman Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Mariana Alessandri
Oliver Burkeman is a writer based in Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore lived in Mariana Alessandri is Assistant Pro-
New York. He is the winner of the China from 2009 to 2014 during which fessor of Continental Philosophy, Ex-
Foreign Press Association’s Young time she worked as the associate editor istentialism, Philosophy of Religion,
Journalist of the Year and was short- for Time Out Beijing, the art editor for and Spanish-language Philosophy at
listed for the Orwell Prize in 2006. Time Out Shanghai, and as an op-ed the University of Texas-Rio Grande
His books include HELP! How to columnist for the International New Valley. She has written for The New
Become Slightly Happier and Get York Times, reporting from China for York Times, Philosophy Today, Woman-
a Bit More Done and The Antidote: the blog Latitude: Views From Around kind magazine, Times Higher Educa-
Happiness for People Who Can’t the World. She writes for The Guard- tion, Chronicle of Higher Education and
Stand Positive Thinking – which ex- ian, The Economist, Financial Times, many academic journals. Her teaching
plores the upsides of negativity, uncer- The New York Times, Womankind, Wall interests include Existentialism and
tainty, failure, and imperfection. Street Journal, and Time magazine. Mexican-American Philosophy.
Patrick Stokes Marina Benjamin Tim Dean
Patrick Stokes is a lecturer in philoso- Marina Benjamin is the former arts Tim Dean holds a doctorate in philos-
phy at Deakin University, Melbourne. editor of the New Statesman and dep- ophy in evolution and morality from
He specialises in 19th and 20th century uty arts editor of the Evening Stand- the University of New South Wales.
European philosophy, personal identity, ard. A memoirist best known for The Previously the Editor of Cosmos and
narrative selfhood, moral psychology, Middlepause, which offered a poetic Editor of Australian Life Scientist,
and death and remembrance. A par- and philosophical take on midlife, her Dean is currently an Honorary Asso-
ticular focus is bringing Kierkegaard latest memoir Insomnia was published ciate in the Philosophy Department
into dialogue with contemporary an- in 2018. Benjamin is a Consultant at the University of Sydney. His work
alytic philosophy of personal identi- Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund has appeared in New Scientist, Popular
ty and moral psychology. Stokes was and a creative writing tutor at Arvon. Scientist, Cosmos, and the ABC. In 2015
awarded the 2014 AAP media prize. Her other books include Last Days in he was awarded the AAP Media Pro-
Babylon and Rocket Dreams. fessionals’ Award.
8
NewPhilosopher Contributors
Zan Boag Antonia Case André Dao
Zan Boag is Editor of New Philosopher, Antonia Case is the literary editor of André Dao is a writer and editor
Editorial Director of the internation- New Philosopher, the editor of Wom- who is co-founder of Behind the Wire,
al magazine Womankind, and Director ankind magazine, and an award-win- an oral history project document-
of poet bookstore. In 2017 he won the ning writer and journalist. Case was ing people’s experience of immigra-
Australasian Association of Philoso- selected as ‘philosopher in residence’ tion detention, and a producer of the
phy Media Professionals Award and for the 2016 Brisbane Writers’ Fes- Walkley-award winning podcast, The
was shortlisted for Editor of the Year tival and is currently writing a book Messenger. His work has appeared in
in the international Stack Awards. on personal identity and change. She The Monthly, SBS True Stories, Mean-
Boag speaks regularly on philosophy, was the winner of the 2013 Australa- jin, and Al Jazeera English. Formerly
technology, the media, and ethics, sian Association of Philosophy Media the editor-in-chief of human rights
and is the co-founder and host of the Professionals’ Award and in 2016 was publication Right Now, Dao was a
monthly philosophical discussion se- shortlisted for editor of the year in the finalist for the Australian Human
ries Bright Thinking. He is a Fellow of Stack Awards. Rights Commission’s Young People’s
the Royal Society of the Arts. Medal in 2011.
Tom Chatfield Matthew Beard Russel Herneman
Tom Chatfield is a British writer, Matthew Beard is a moral philoso- Russel Herneman is an award-winning
broadcaster, and tech philosopher. He pher with an academic background in cartoonist whose work has appeared
is the author of six books, including applied and military ethics. He is an in The Times of London, Private Eye,
Netymology, Live This Book!, and How Associate Lecturer at the University Prospect, The Spectator, and many oth-
to Thrive in the Digital Age, and speaks of Notre Dame Australia and a Fellow ers. In 2018 he won Pocket Cartoon of
around the world on technology, the at The Ethics Centre, undertaking re- the Year 2018 in the Political Cartoon
arts, and media. Chatfield was launch search into ethical principles for tech- Awards, European Newspaper Design
columnist for the BBC’s worldwide nology. In 2016, he won the Austral- award for illustration, and Society of
technology site, BBC Future, is a Vis- asian Association of Philosophy prize. News Design Award of excellence for
iting Associate at the Oxford Internet He is a presenter on the ABC podcast Illustration. He was an exhibitor at the
Institute, and is a senior expert at the Short & Curly, an award-winning chil- Society of Graphic Fine Art Draw 18
Global Governance Institute. dren’s podcast. at Mennier Gallery, London.
Alvaro Hidalgo Genís Carreras Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan
Alvaro Hidalgo is a graphic designer Genís Carreras is the designer of Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan are the
and illustrator who formerly worked every cover of New Philosopher mag- art directors of New Philosopher and
as an art director in design projects azine and the creator of Philographics: Womankind magazine, as well as for
and as a film editor and post-producer Big Ideas in Simple Shapes. Carreras’s poet tea, which is produced by the
in audiovisual projects. His illustra- work has been recognised in the AOI magazines’ publishers. Their work for
tion work uses a combination of tra- World Illustration Awards, the Laus the publications has been recognised
ditional techniques and digital image Awards, and the Stocks Taylor Ben- by AIGA, the oldest and largest or-
processing and Hidalgo’s award-win- son Awards, and his work has been ganisation for design in the United
ning illustrations have graced the cov- featured in the books MIN: New Sim- States, as well as by Computer Arts
ers of Rolling Stone and Womankind, plicity in Graphic Design, Playing with magazine, Desktop Mag, and Crea-
and have appeared in The New Yorker, Type, Geometry Makes Me Happy, and tive Journal.
Wired, Newsweek, and The Atlantic. Geo/Graphics.
9
Scientific consensus NewPhilosopher
The following 198 scientific organisations hold the position that climate change has been caused by human action:
Association of Ec
osystem Resea
Australian Acade rch Centers
my of Science
Australian Burea
u of Meteorology
Australian Coral
Reef Society
s, Chile Australian Instit
h ile na de Ciencia ute of Marine Sc
Aca d e m ia C oa, Portugal Australian Instit ience
s C ie ncias de Lisb icana ute of Physics
Acade m ia d a
c ia s d e la R e pública Domin tu rales de Vene
zuela Australian Marin
e Sciences Assoc
ia d e C ie n ti ca s y Na iation
Academ as, Matemá atemala Australian Med
c a d e m ia d e Ciencias Físic F is ica s y N a turales de Gu Australian Meteo
ical Association
A icas,
Ciencias Med rological and O
Academia de a de C ncias,ie Mexico Bangladesh Aca
demy of Scienc
ceanographic So
ciety
M ex ic a n es
Acade m ia Bolivia Botanical Societ
N a c io n a l d e Ciencias de y of America
Academia cias del Peru Brazilian Acade
ia N a c ional de Cien u Sénégal
my of Sciences
Ac a d e m
S c ie n c e s e t Techniques d British Antarctic
Survey
s
Académie de nce Bulgarian Acade
ie d e s Sciences, Fra and Sciences
of Canada California Acade
my of Sciences
Académ H u m a n it ie s my of Sciences
f Arts,
Academies o Cameroon Acade
my of Sciences
A thens
Academy of bique Canadian Assoc
e m y o f S cie nce of Mozam Canadian Foun
iation of Physic
ists
Acad th Africa
cience of Sou veloping Worl
d (TWAS) dation for Climat
Academy of S e s fo r th e D e Canadian Geoph
ysical Union
e and Atmosph
eric Sciences
cienc
Academy of S ysia Canadian Meteo
S ciences Mala rological and O
Academy of M o ldova Canadian Societ ceanographic So
ciety
ciences of y of Soil Scienc
Academy of S es of th Cze e ch Republic Canadian Societ
y of Zoologists
e
S c ie n c of Iran
Academ y o f
th e Is la mic Republic Caribbean Acade
cienc e s o f , Egypt my of Sciences
Academy of S R e se a rc h a n d Technology Center for Intern
ational Forestry
views
cientific ealand
Academy of S o y a l S o c iety of New Z Chinese Academ
y of Sciences
Research
e R
Academy of th incei, Italy Colombian Aca
azionale dei L rth Systems
Science demy of Exact,
Accademia N a te a n d E a Commonwealth
Scientific and In
Physical and Nat
ural Sciences
for Clim
Africa Centre es (CSIRO) (Austral dustrial Researc
e my of Scienc ia) h Organization
African Acad n ces Consultative G
demy of Scie roup on Internat
Albanian Aca e n tal Research
Institute Croatian Acade
my of Arts and
ional Agricultura
l Research
E n vi ro n m Sc iences
Amazon trics Crop Science So
a n A c a demy of Pedia ciety of Americ
a
A m e ric ociation Cuban Academ
ri c a n A n th ro pological Ass c e ment of Scien
ce
Delegation of th
y of Sciences
Ame th e A d va n
ociation for (AASC) e Finnish Acade
American Ass o n o f S ta te Climatologists Ecological Soci
ety of America
mies of Science
and Letters
ociati rinarians
American Ass o n o f Wildlife Vete
Ecological Soci
ety of Australia
ss o c ia ti
American A ciety Environmental
ronomical So Protection Age
American Ast ty European Acade ncy
emical Socie my of Sciences
American Ch o f P reventive Me
dicine European Federa
tion of Geologist
and Arts
C o lle g e
American European Geosc s
heries Society iences Union
American Fis ion European Physic
ophysical Un al Society
American Ge of Biological
Sciences European Scienc
e Foundation
a n In st it u te
Americ cs Federation of A
itute of Physi merican Scient
American Inst ciety French Academ ists
e ri c a n M e te orological So Geological Soci
y of Sciences
Am
sical Society ety of America
American Phy ociation Geological Soci
lic Health Ass ety of Australia
American Pub ciation Geological Soci
e ri c a n Q u aternary Asso Georgian Acade
ety of London
A m iology
e ri c a n S o c ie ty for Microb my of Sciences
Am omy
iety of Agron
American Soc ngineers
iety of Civil E
American Soc Biologists
m e ri c a n S o c iety of Plant
A tion
e ri c a n S ta ti stical Associa
Am
10
NewPhilosopher Scientific consensus
ina
tural Scientists Leopold
German Academy of Na
ts and Sciences
Ghana Academy of Ar
Academy
Indian National Science
of Sciences
Indonesian Academy gement
d Environmental Mana
Institute of Ecology an d Te chnology
gineering, Science an
Institute of Marine En nd
l Engineers New Zeala
Institute of Professiona UK
ical Engineers,
Institution of Mechan
InterAcademy Council s
of Research Universitie
International Alliance
ience Committee
International Arctic Sc arch
n for Great Lakes Rese
International Associatio Oklahoma Climatological Survey
for Science
International Council ies of Engineering and Te
chnological Organization of Biological Field Sta
tions
Co un cil of Ac ad em Pakistan Academy of Sciences
International
Sciences Society Palestine Academy for Science and
tiona l Re se arc h Ins titute for Climate and Pew Center on Global Climate Cha
Technology
Interna nge
r Quaternary Research
International Union fo sics
Polish Academy of Sciences
Geodesy and Geophy
International Union of ics
Romanian Academy
Pure and Applied Phys
International Union of Royal Academies for Science and
the Arts of Belgium
y of Sciences
Islamic World Academ Royal Academy of Exact, Physica
l and Natural Sciences of Spain
ces and Humanities
Israel Academy of Scien Royal Astronomical Society, UK
y of Sciences
Kenya National Academ Royal Danish Academy of Scienc
es and Letters
ience and Technology
Korean Academy of Sc Royal Irish Academy
iences and Arts
Kosovo Academy of Sc négal
Royal Meteorological Society (UK
)
s et Techniques du Sé
l’Académie des Science Royal Netherlands Academy of Art
s and Sciences
y of Sciences
Latin American Academ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea
Research
iences
Latvian Academy of Sc Royal Scientific Society of Jordan
Sciences
Lithuanian Academy of ers, and Sciences
Royal Society of Canada
Academy of Arts, Lett
Madagascar National y
Royal Society of Chemistry, UK
Science and Technolog
Mauritius Academy of Ar ts
Royal Society of the United Kingdo
m
y of Sciences and
Montenegrin Academ ysical and Natural Scien
ces, Argentina Royal Swedish Academy of Scienc
es
ad em y of Ex ac t, Ph Russian Academy of Sciences
National Ac
Sciences of Armenia
National Academy of public Science and Technology, Austral
ia
na l Ac ad em y of Sc iences of the Kyrgyz Re Science Council of Japan
Natio
Sciences, Sri Lanka
National Academy of es of America
Scientific Committee on Antarctic
Research
Sciences, United Stat
National Academy of ion
Scientific Committee on Solar-T
errestrial Physics
and Space Administrat
National Aeronautics ac he rs
Scripps Institution of Oceanogra
phy
Geoscience Te
National Association of Serbian Academy of Sciences and
Arts
State Foresters
National Association of Slovak Academy of Sciences
mospheric Research
National Center for At Slovenian Academy of Sciences
and Arts
gineers Australia
National Council of En h, New Zealand Society for Ecological Restoratio
l Ins titut e of W at er & Atmospheric Researc Society for Industrial and Applied
n International
Nationa ration Mathematics
Atmospheric Administ
National Oceanic and Society of American Foresters
uncil
National Research Co Society of Biology (UK)
un dation
National Science Fo Society of Systematic Biologists
Natural England Soil Science Society of America
Research Council, UK
Natural Environment Sudan Academy of Sciences
ctions Alliance
Natural Science Colle Sudanese National Academy of
Science
ience Academies
Network of African Sc Tanzania Academy of Sciences
Sciences
New York Academy of The Wildlife Society (international
)
of Sciences
Nicaraguan Academy Turkish Academy of Sciences
Sciences
Nigerian Academy of Uganda National Academy of Sci
ences
of Sciences and Letters
Norwegian Academy Union of German Academies of Sci
ences and Humanities
United Nations Intergovernment
al Panel on Climate Change
University Corporation for Atmosp
heric Research
Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst
itution
Woods Hole Research Center
World Association of Zoos and Aqu
ariums
World Federation of Public Health
Associations
World Forestry Congress
World Health Organization
World Meteorological Organizat
ion
Zambia Academy of Sciences
Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences
11
News from nowhere NewPhilosopher
12
NewPhilosopher News from nowhere
REVENGE
POLLUTION
“The only plots against us are within our own walls,—the dan-
ger is within,—the enemy is within. We must war with luxury,
with madness, with wickedness.”
–Cicero
ith the world on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,

pause due to COV- however to date there has been lit-
ID-19, almost over- tle action: in the past five year, levels
night greenhouse gas emissions, of carbon dioxide were 18 per cent
most notably NO2, dropped dramat- higher than the previous five years,
ically. Having campaigned tirelessly according to the World Meteorologi-
for change for decades, it seemed cal Organization (WMO).
that environmentalists had finally And while the WMO welcomes
got what they had been asking for, the COVID-19-induced drop in
albeit thanks to fear of a killer virus CO2 emissions of six per cent, that’s
rather than concerted action from unfortunately only “short-term good
governments worldwide to tackle news”, said Professor Petteri Taalas,
the extinction event that is of our WMO Secretary-General. Taalas
own making. echoed Shuo's concern about revenge
This sudden shift offers hope that pollution, saying that emissions are
change is indeed possible, but at the likely to return to normal and cau-
same time poses a problem: will we tioning that “there might even be a
simply return to business as usual boost in emissions”.
at some stage in the near future; or, Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has
worse still, double-down on emis- shaken humans to the core, as we
sions in a desperate bid to ‘save the fight against an unknown enemy
economy’? “This bounce-back ef- that is affecting our health, wealth,
fect – which can sometimes reverse and wellbeing. But as Taalas points
any overall drop in emissions – is out, the climate crisis is of a differ-
[called] ‘revenge pollution’,” says Li ent magnitude, one that will lead to
Shuo, senior climate policy advisor at “persistent health problems” and will
Greenpeace. have a “massive impact on econom-
Two decades ago, the interna- ics”. In this case we needn't look too
tional community agreed to stabilise far for the cause of our ills: the ene-
the concentration of CO2 and other my is within.
13
Turning down the

thermostat
The effects of such massive inter-

vention into the climate are unknown,
but possible consequences include de-
pletion of the ozone layer, reduction in
rainfall, and uneven distribution of any
cooling effect. Still, as academic Jere-
my Baskin has said in his recent book
on the subject, solar geoengineering
may be a “bad idea whose time has
come”. Why? At least in part because
of the scaling down of the climate to
a manageable, controllable metaphor.
As Baskin points out, engineering the
climate is the logical endpoint of the
so-called Anthropocene, an epoch in
which the Earth, in all its complex and
rich glory, is reduced to an object of
human mastery.
Honeywell T-86 Round Thermostat, 1953
e like to simplify complex The US National Research Council,

systems down to everyday for instance, said in a 2015 report that
scales. Take national econ- “the climate system can be compared
omies, which politicians love to com- to a heating system with two knobs,
pare to household budgets, giving us either of which can be used to set the
the comforting illusion of control. The global mean temperature”. Once again,
everyday scale allows us to use common simplification creates an opening for
“We are the first
sense, and say things like: don’t spend common sense (which, as we’ll see, isn’t
more than you earn. The problem is always very sensible). Here, common generation that can
that a national economy is far more sense says: if we can’t turn down the put an end to poverty
complicated than any household. For heating by lowering emissions, maybe and we are the last
one thing, government spending is so we can turn the cooling knob up. The generation that can
big it directly affects the economy as cooling knob is the science fiction of put an end to climate
a whole. But bringing in all that com- solar geoengineering, the basic idea of change.”
plexity isn’t very comforting. which is to release a million tonnes of
Another complex system that has sulphate particles into the stratosphere Ban Ki-moon
been scaled down is the global climate. every year to reflect back some sunlight.
14
NewPhilosopher News from nowhere
Not new news
1965: “The part that remains in the that man is now engaged in a vast
atmosphere may have a significant geophysical experiment with his en-
effect on climate; carbon dioxide is vironment, the earth. Significant tem-
nearly transparent to visible light, but perature changes are almost certain to
it is a strong absorber and back radia- occur by the year 2000 and these could
tor of infrared radiation, particularly bring about climatic changes.”
in the wave lengths from 12 to 18
microns; consequently, an increase of Study by the Stanford Research Institute
atmospheric carbon dioxide could act, for the American Petroleum Institute 1979: When it is assumed that the
much like the glass in a greenhouse, to CO2 content of the atmosphere is
raise the temperature of the lower air.” doubled and statistical thermal equi-
1979: “It appears plausible that an in- librium is achieved, the more realistic
Restoring the Quality of Our Environ- creased amount of carbon dioxide in of the modelling efforts predict a glob-
ment, a report by U.S. President Lyndon the atmosphere can contribute to a al surface warming of between 2°C and
B. Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee gradual warming of the lower atmo- 3.5°C, with greater increases at high
sphere, especially at higher latitudes.... latitudes. … we have tried but have
It is possible that some effects on a re- been unable to find any overlooked or
1968: “If the Earth’s temperature gional and global scale may be detect- underestimated physical effects that
increases significantly, a number of able before the end of this century and could reduce the currently estimated
events might be expected to occur, in- become significant before the middle global warmings due to a doubling of
cluding the melting of the Antarctic of the next century.” atmospheric CO2 to negligible pro-
ice cap, a rise in sea levels, warming of portions or reverse them altogether.
the oceans, and an increase in photo- The World Climate Conference of the
synthesis. [..] Revelle makes the point World Meteorological Organization United States National Research Council
“Oh no! It’s War, Famine, Death, Pestilence, and Climate Change.”
15
The strikingly, Weizman found that when

he mapped western drone strikes in
aridity the region, “many of these attacks
– from South Waziristan through
line northern Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Iraq,
Gaza and Libya – are directly on or
close to the 200 mm aridity line.”
In his 2015 book The Conflict Naomi Klein, in a memori-
Shoreline, Israeli architect Eyal Weiz- al lecture for the late Edward Said,
man follows the so-called “aridity line”, thought that Weizman’s work illus-
the shifting boundary between de- trated the “brutal landscape of the
sert and non-desert that runs through climate crisis”. Often, when we think
North Africa and the Middle East. On of climate change, we think of over- Namib desert, photo by NASA
one side of the aridity line, the average whelming natural forces: sea levels
annual rainfall is at least 200 milli- rising, coral reefs bleaching, forests is more often than not violently re-
metres per year. That is considered turning to desert. But the confluence pressed.
to be the minimum amount of water between the aridity line and mili- In her lecture, Klein said that we
needed to grow cereal crops on a large tary violence shows another, openly should pay attention to where this cy-
scale without using irrigation. On the bloody side to the crisis. As global cle of food insecurity, rebellion and re-
other side of the aridity line is de- warming intensifies, the aridity line pression – all driven by climate change
sert, which means failing crops, water will continue to move through for- – tends to play out. Her point was that
scarcity, and conflict. The aridity line merly rich agricultural land. A brief Edward Said, who coined the term
runs, for example, through the Syrian look through history – from the an- Orientalism to describe the way east-
town of Daraa, where Syria’s worst cient to the contemporary – shows ern lives are all too often reduced and
drought on record helped fuel the time and again that hunger drives devalued by the west, wouldn’t be sur-
Syrian uprising in 2011. Even more revolutions. Civil unrest, in turn, prised to see where the aridity line runs.
If we still can
“The danger is that global carbon dioxide is removed from
warming may become self-sus- the atmosphere. The rise in sea
taining, if it has not done so al- temperature may trigger the
ready. The melting of the Arctic release of large quantities of
and Antarctic ice caps reduces carbon dioxide, trapped as hy-
the fraction of solar energy re- drides on the ocean floor. Both
flected back into space, and so these phenomena would in-
increases the temperature fur- crease the greenhouse effect,
ther. Climate change may kill and so global warming fur-
off the Amazon and other rain ther. We have to reverse glob-
forests, and so eliminate once al warming urgently, if we still
one of the main ways in which can.”
Stephen Hawking
16
NewPhilosopher
“There is broad agreement within the scientific

community that amplification of the Earth’s nat-
ural greenhouse effect by the build-up of various
gases introduced by human activity has the po-
tential to produce dramatic changes in climate.
Only by taking action now can we ensure that fu-
ture generations will not be put at risk.”
Statement by 49 Nobel Prize winners and 700 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 1990.
17
A century of climate change NewPhilosopher
In 1896 Svante Arrhenius built
A century of
a CO2 climate model; 99 years
later the IPCC noted that CO2
remained the most important
climate change
contributor to climate change.
1896: the oceans, with Revelle writ- 1979:

Svante Arrhenius builds a ing that “human beings are now World Climate Conference of
climate model showing the in- carrying out a large scale the World Meteorological Or-
fluence of atmospheric carbon geophysical experiment”. ganization conclude that “it
dioxide (CO2). appears plausible that an
increased amount of carbon
1960: dioxide in the atmosphere
1899: Charles Keeling develops a can contribute to a gradual
Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin curve (called the Keeling warming of the lower atmo-
wrote about how changes in Curve) to track rising at- sphere”.
climate could result from mospheric CO2 concentration.
changes in the concentration The CO2 concentration in 1960
of atmospheric carbon diox- is 315 parts per million. 1987:
ide in An Attempt to Frame Montreal Protocol, an inter-
a Working Hypothesis of the national treaty to protect
Cause of Glacial Periods on 1965: the ozone layer, is signed.
an Atmospheric Basis. A report titled “Restoring
the Quality of Our Environ-
ment” by the US Science Ad- 1988:
1930: visory Committee warns of At the World Conference on
Milutin Milankovitch writes the harmful effect of fossil the Changing Atmosphere: Im-
“Mathematical Climatology fuel emissions. plications for Global Secu-
and the Astronomical Theory rity, hundreds of scientists
of Climate Changes” to out- declared that by 2005 the
line the Earth’s climate cy- 1972: world would be well-advised
cles, particularly the Ice Meteorologist John Sawyer to push its emissions some
Ages. publishes the study Man- 20% below the 1988 level.
made Carbon Dioxide and the
“Greenhouse” Effect in which
1938: he accurately predicts the 1990:
Guy Stewart Callendar pres- rate of global warming from First Intergovernmental Pan-
ents evidence that both tem- 1972-2000 (0.6 C). el on Climate Change report
perature and the CO2 level is published, noting the pat-
in the atmosphere had been tern of warming in the past
rising over the past half- 1974: and that warming is the fu-
century. US chemists Mario Molina and ture is likely.
Sherwood Rowland publish an
article in Nature outlin-
1957: ing the threats to the ozone 1992:
Hans E. Suess and Revelle ex- layer from chlorofluorocarbon UN Framework Convention on
amines the uptake of CO2 by (CFC) gases. Climate Change in Rio is
18
NewPhilosopher A century of climate change
Source: climate.nasa.gov
opened for signature at the

2001: 2014:
Earth Summit, with the aim
The Third Intergovernmental The Fifth Intergovernmental
to “stabilise greenhouse gas
Panel on Climate Change re- Panel on Climate Change report
concentrations in the atmo-
port is published, stating is published, stating that
sphere at a level that would
that warming due to green- there is a clear human influ-
prevent dangerous anthropo-
house gas emissions is “very ence on the climate and that
genic interference with the
likely” and that emissions warming of the atmosphere and
climate system”.
of greenhouse gases and ocean system is unequivocal.
aerosols due to human activ-
ities continue to alter the
1995: atmosphere in ways that are 2015:
The Second Intergovernmental
expected to affect the cli- The Paris Agreement on cli-
Panel on Climate Change re-
mate. mate change mitigation, the
port is published, stating
replacement for the Kyoto Pro-
that “carbon dioxide remains
tocol, is adopted by most of
the most important contribu-
2006: the world (200 countries), in-
tor to anthropogenic forcing
China overtakes the USA as cluding the USA.
of climate change; projec-
the largest emitter in the
tions of future global mean
world.
temperature change and sea
2017:
level rise confirm the poten-
US President Donald Trump an-
tial for human activities to
2007: nounces that the USA is go-
alter the Earth's climate to
The Fourth Intergovernmental ing to withdraw from the Paris
an extent unprecedented in
Panel on Climate Change re- Agreement, stating that “The
human history”.
port is published, stating Paris accord will undermine
that “most of the observed (the U.S.) economy”.
increase in global average
1997: temperatures since the mid-
Kyoto Protocol, which aims
20th century is very likely 2020:
to limit greenhouse gas emis-
due to the observed increase USA set to withdraw from the
sions, is created. The larg-
in anthropogenic greenhouse Paris Agreement in November
est emitter in the world (USA)
gas concentrations”. 2020.
doesn’t sign on.
19
Apocaloptimism NewPhilosopher
Illustration by Yeyei Gomez
20
NewPhilosopher Apocaloptimism
by Oliver Burkeman
Apocaloptimism
by one’s likes and dislikes is a kind of The denialist, after all, pretends
psychological enslavement. Dolnick’s that nothing’s wrong precisely in or-
preferences now exerted a looser grip der not to have to confront a scenario
on his behaviour. During the rest of the he dislikes, while the despairer is una-
day, he felt less constrained by the need ble to act because he’s convinced that
to do what he liked and avoid what he a scenario he dislikes is unavoidable,
disliked – which left him freer to focus or has already arrived. Dread, on the
on doing what mattered instead. other hand, is the attempt to motivate
Perhaps it seems perverse to draw people by threatening them with the
wisdom about the climate from Dol- prospect that a scenario they’d deeply
A few years ago, the American nick’s exertions in the bathroom (other dislike might come to pass, while hope
novelist Ben Dolnick described an than the fact that freezing showers are depends on maintaining the belief that
epiphany he underwent after he be- presumably a good way to conserve wa- such an outcome can be avoided. Obvi-
gan regularly taking ice-cold showers. ter, since there’s little temptation to lin- ously, “dislike” is putting things far too
He wasn’t expecting to like the experi- ger). But I think we can. The argument mildly, when we’re talking of ecological
ence – and, sure enough, he didn’t. But goes like this: when it comes to engag- catastrophe. But thinking in such terms
a more profound alteration took place: ing with the present emergency, we face raises the intriguing possibility that,
he found himself relating differently to an inadequate menu of attitudes. There’s like Dolnick in the shower, we might
the very notion of liking and disliking denial, which plainly won’t do; and de- be able to adopt a different attitude –
things. “At almost every moment of the spair, which leads to passivity. There’s one in which facing the reality of our
day,” Dolnick wrote in The New York also dread, the attempt to scare ourselves situation, and engaging vigorously with
Times, “I am accompanied by a pair of and our leaders into a better response – it, would be less entangled with our
petulant, melodramatic children in my but I’m inclined to agree with the en- preferences, less dependent on whether
mind’s back seat. These children, Liking vironmental technologist Matt Frost or not things are unfolding as we’d like.
and Disliking, exert a distressing degree that “it is time to acknowledge that cat- As a label for such a stance, we
of control over just about everything I astrophism has failed to bring about [a] could borrow the term “apocalop-
do.” Yet his shower experiment proved global political breakthrough… we have timism”, defined as the attitude of
that when he ignored the screaming reached diminishing returns on dread.” someone “who knows it’s all going to
objections, Disliking soon piped down, Finally, there’s the seemingly prefera- shit, but still thinks it will turn out
and Dolnick could relax as the water ble option of hope, in a social, political OK.” This is an oxymoron, of course.
hit his body: “Those urgent pleas, those or technological transformation that But it’s a potentially useful one, in
desperate warnings, turned out to have might pull us back from the brink. But that it short-circuits the whole ques-
been a passing squall.” He was cold, but like all the others, hope comes with a tion of whether or not we like what’s
he was fine. And he’d confirmed the catch: it yokes the possibility of action happening, instead redirecting atten-
truth of an insight with roots in ancient to the likes and dislikes of the person tion back to what’s happening, and
philosophy: that to be overly influenced doing the acting. how we’re called upon to respond.
21
Apocaloptimism NewPhilosopher
The apocaloptimist might take rue- the bracing sense of possibility that And while it surely helped that they
ful comfort in the observation of the can result from moving past this in- felt they were labouring for the glory
psychotherapist Bruce Tift that the ternal demand for hope: “One of the of God, we secular types could stand
glass is never really “half full” or “half good things about everything being so to learn a lesson: that our care for the
empty”. On the contrary, it’s always fucked up,” he has written, “is that no planet and its inhabitants need not be
entirely full, of some combination of matter where you look there is good dependent on any thought of seeing
water and air – just not necessarily work to be done.” our efforts through to completion.
the combination we happen to prefer. There’s a specifically temporal But apocaloptimism shouldn’t be
And this realisation is liberating. shift to be made here, too – a change mistaken for a kind of saintly, hair-
The apocaloptimist can volunteer of perspective in which we surren- shirt selflessness, requiring you to ig-
to help clean up a polluted canal, or der the expectation that we might nore your own desires altogether. That’s
rebuild homes damaged by a natu- get to find out, within the span of probably impossible, and in any case
ral disaster, without first demanding our own lifetimes, whether our ef- I’m not sure it’s desirable: I care about
to know whether she’s “making any forts were worth it, or whether hu- the climate at least in part because I
difference”, in an ultimate or plan- manity will make it. The idea that care, in a selfishly particular way, about
et-wide sense, but simply because it such rapid feedback ought to be the the future of my young son, not just the
needs doing. She need not pick a side norm is probably a mindset peculiar future of humanity in general. Rather
in disputes about tactics – between, to our technologically accelerated age. than jettisoning his likes and dislikes
say, the civil disobedience of Extinc- Whenever I pass York Minster, the altogether, the apocaloptimist merely
tion Rebellion, versus research into vast cathedral in my northern English refuses to let them tyrannise him quite
bioengineering solutions – because hometown that took around 250 years so much. Whereupon he discovers that,
she can follow where her skills and to build, I’m reminded that most of if facing up to reality doesn’t exactly
energies lead her, freed from the need the stonemasons who worked on it make for a happier experience of being
to feel confident that she’s chosen the couldn’t reasonably have expected to human, it certainly makes for a realer
best path, because she knows that’s see it completed. Yet I doubt it would one. The paradox is that loosening the
unknowable. The environmental ac- have occurred to them that their work grip of one’s preferences, it turns out, is
tivist Derrick Jensen vividly captures lacked meaning as a consequence. a preferable way to live.
“Clearly a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder.”

22
NewPhilosopher
“THE DECADE THAT JUST ENDED IS CLEARLY THE

WARMEST DECADE ON RECORD. EVERY DECADE
SINCE THE 1960S CLEARLY HAS BEEN WARMER
THAN THE ONE BEFORE.”
Gavin Schmidt, NASA GISS Director
Globally, 2019’s average temperature was second only to

that of 2016 and continued the planet’s long-term warming
trend: the past five years have been the warmest of the last
140 years. This past year was 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (0.98
degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean. “We
crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming
territory in 2015 and we are unlikely to go back. This shows
that what’s happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some
weather phenomenon: we know that the long-term trends
are being driven by the increasing levels of greenhouse gas-
es in the atmosphere,” Schmidt said.
Source: NASA
23
Existential Comics NewPhilosopher
The Dancer
24
NewPhilosopher Existential Comics
25
26
Author/illustrator: Corey Mohler, Existential Comics. For more comics visit existentialcomics.com
Existential Comics
NewPhilosopher
NewPhilosopher
“The world will not be destroyed by those who

do evil, but by those who watch them without
doing anything.”
Albert Einstein
Gacko power plant, Bosnia and Herzegovina
27
The burnt country NewPhilosopher
28 Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan

NewPhilosopher The burnt country
by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
The burnt
country
think extreme weather events, large- University of Tasmania, told The At-
scale ecological destruction, and mass lantic: “This is our Gallipoli; this is our
human displacement. To Australia – bushfire Gallipoli.”
nicknamed “the lucky country” for its Yet if there is one upside to such
natural resources, endless sunny days, apocalyptic scenes, it must be, surely,
beauty, and prosperity – that realisa- that this is the wake-up call needed to
tion has come as a blow. spur on real change. The question is:
“Seeing one of the richest societies will it?
When friends asked me why I left in the world rendered close to helpless Australia has built its wealth on
my job as a reporter in Beijing to move as fire swept across the country was coal, which remains the country’s sec-
to Sydney, I would always point up- shocking,” notes Leo Barasi, author of ond-largest export after iron ore. Its
wards. The Climate Majority: Apathy and Ac- role in global emissions is far from
“The sky,” I’d say. tion in an Age of Nationalism. “And it’s stellar. Australia puts out just under
In a country like China where so- another sign for people in high-emit- five per cent of global emissions, de-
called unpolluted “blue sky days” are ting countries that climate change spite the fact it only accounts for 0.3
rare, clean air, as I saw it, was a luxury. won’t just come for the polar bears if per cent of the global population. The
Over the last six months, howev- emissions don’t fall fast.” economic cost of moving away from
er, that luxury has vanished. Smoke Here, on one of the driest conti- fossil fuels is not one, so far, the gov-
from the worst bushfire season in re- nents on earth, bushfires serve a pur- ernment has been willing to shoulder.
corded history has bled into the skies pose: to clear away the old for the new. “While Australians have heard for
of Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Yet this season’s fires were extreme. By a decade about the cost of policies to
From my studio window overlooking January, they had destroyed 8.4 mil- reduce climate change they are about
Sydney Harbour, I can usually see lion hectares across the country. It is to discover that the costs of not re-
pretty bobbing sailing boats; for days estimated that half a billion animals ducing climate change are even high-
at a time this summer they have been have perished. According to UK- er still,” the chief economist of policy
reduced to blurred stains barely visible based website, Carbon Brief, the Aus- think tank The Australia Institute, Dr
through a dirty hazy fog. tralian fires have released more CO2 Richard Denniss, says, adding: “If one
Worse, I felt the hazardous pollu- into the air than the annual emissions degree of warming gives us weather
tion – as in Beijing – burning my eyes, of over 100 countries combined; and like this, the three degrees of warning
my lungs and, I suspected, my heart. Canberra, the nation’s capital, became that the government says we are one
As the world turned its eyes to for a time the most polluted city on track for will likely make our major
Australia, the fires appeared to be a earth due to bushfire smoke. cities far less liveable and attractive.”
prescient warning of what might hap- As David Bowman, a professor of Despite this, many psychologists
pen in a post-climate change world: environmental-change biology at the believe that climate change apathy –
29
The burnt country NewPhilosopher
a sense that individuals alone cannot and they will say recycling or con- year before that we don’t talk about
make a difference, so why bother – is serving water or reducing their carbon where we’re ultimately headed under a
one of the largest problems facing footprint and buying carbon offsets. 2, 3, or 4 degree scenario,” argues Trex-
mass action towards climate change. “Neither of which will meaning- lar. “If you buy into climate science, it
Simone Brookes, conservation man- fully impact climate change,” says doesn’t really matter whether last year
ager at the Emirates One & Only Trexler. “They’re not necessarily bad was the warmest year ever, what mat-
Wolgan Valley resort, a nature retreat things to do (assuming people are ters is that the whole system is shift-
badly affected by the fires which has buying real offsets – a huge assump- ing in ways that will create all kinds of
only just reopened, told me: “A lot of tion), but they simply can’t scale to problems since the last 10,000 years of
people are overwhelmed. As a result, impact climate change.” human evolution have occurred within
they feel powerless.” Indeed, one of the largest barriers a basically unchanging global climate.”
Feeling powerless, ultimately, preventing any large-scale attempts to Yet, taking individual responsibili-
makes people lose motivation – as mitigate climate changes are human ty – as a person on the street or a gov-
does the suspicion that they are acting being’s own brains. Our brains have ernment leader – means facing some
alone, while others around them con- evolved for millennia to satiate im- hard truths. As Nsikan Akpan wrote
tinue to greedily consume, regardless mediate needs such as finding shelter, in an article for PBS last year: “No
of the larger cost. And there is some a mate and food, as well as avoiding one wants to believe their daily activ-
truth to the fear that individual actions danger. As such, we are designed to ities are responsible for a global disas-
won’t, despite the best intentions, end focus on the present – and we tend to ter that has already turned millions of
up mattering. view climate change as a far off risk people into climate refugees and killed
“Most people concerned about to be dealt with by future generations. scores of others.”
climate change have very little if any Other biases not working in our Denniss, for one, believes that the
idea what they can do to combat cli- favour include optimism bias (the government in Australia can – and
mate change,” says Dr. Mark Trexler, belief that things will get better) and should – make real changes to avoid
founder of climate change website The “patternicity” (the tendency to find another bushfire season like the one
Climatographers. patterns in meaningless noise). we have just had.
Ask the average person what they “We’re so busy arguing about “They could invest more heavily
are doing to combat climate change whether last year was warmer than the in renewable energy, batteries, public
transport and energy efficiency. They
could stop approving new coal mines
and gas wells. They could introduce a
levy on carbon pollution, or on fossil
fuel production, and use the proceeds
to fund bout the transition and prepa-
rations we need to make,” he says.
“Or they could keep telling them-
selves what a great job they are doing
and blame environmentalists for the
bushfires. My money is on option two.”
With experts such as Trexler in-
sisting that “we’ve barely started to see
the physical impacts of climate change
that will manifest in the coming dec-
ades”, what we do next matters.
For me, drumming that message
home this summer, was a photograph
on the front page of The Independent
newspaper. In it, a vast, towering col-
umn of smoke rises above the con-
tinent. “This is what a climate crisis
“I still say it’s not getting hotter.” looks like,” ran the headline.
30
NewPhilosopher Climate stats
The 2018 Climate Change Perfor- In 2013, the Intergovernmental
Climate
mance Index, which ranks coun- Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
tries based on their efforts to pre- ruled that there is at least a 95%
vent dangerous climate change, chance that human-emitted
kept places 1 to 3 unoccupied. greenhouse gasses are respon-
The organisers maintained that sible for more than half of global
no country has yet done enough temperature increase since 1951.
to prevent the impacts of climate
change to warrant placing them
in the top three.
According to a report from the
American Public Health Associa-
tion and ecoAmerica, up to 54%
of adults and 45% of children
The average temperature of the suffer depression after a natural
Earth’s surface has increased by disaster.
about 0.8C (1.4F) in the last 100
years. About 0.6C (1.0F) of this
warming occurred in the last
three decades alone. The concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere is now higher than
at any time in at least 800,000
years.
In 1751, around 11 million tonnes
of carbon dioxide was produced
worldwide. In 2015, some 36.2 bil- The furthest reported distance
lion metric tons of carbon dioxide record has been confirmed as a
was emitted globally. lightning bolt over Oklahoma in
June 2007, which covered a hori-
zontal distance of 321 km.
In 2016, China was the biggest

emitter of carbon dioxide, ac-
According to NASA, the 10 warm-
counting for around 28.21% of
est years in the 140-year record
global CO2 emissions that year.
all have occurred since 2005, with
the six warmest years being the
six most recent years.
Hurricane Katrina was the cost-
liest and one of the five deadli-
est hurricanes in the history of
the United States. At least 1,836
people lost their lives and it was
responsible for $81.2 billion in
damage.
31
NewPhilosopher
MONTHLY GLOBAL SURFACE AIR

TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES (ºC)
RELATIVE TO
1981-2010
32
NewPhilosopher
MONTHLY EUROPEAN SURFACE AIR

TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES (ºC)
RELATIVE TO
1981-2010
Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service
33
Breaking the world NewPhilosopher
by Patrick Stokes
Breaking
the world
up, live mammoths did not. So where What about the famed dodo, wiped
were they? out within a century of humans arriv-
To us, the answer seems painfully ing in Mauritius?
obvious: the mammoth was long ex- In fact, even the extinction of the
tinct. But as Mark V. Barrow Jr. notes dodo wasn’t yet accepted. Dodos had
in his book Nature’s Ghosts, Jefferson clearly become very rare, but the reali-
refused to even countenance the idea sation that none were left at all flew in
of extinction. In his writings Jefferson the face of how Europeans understood
Thomas Jefferson, third president sternly denied there were any exam- nature itself.
of the United States, was rather ob- ples in the “œconomy of nature” of For any one species to cease to ex-
sessed with mammoths. “her having formed any link in her ist ran up against deep assumptions
Teeth and bones from the mam- great work so weak as to be broken.” that all species sat within a defined,
moth, or ‘incognitum’ as it was often This was not a fringe view; in fact, immutable hierarchy: the ‘great chain
known, had turned up several times in it was biological orthodoxy. A centu- of being.’ In the great chain, every sin-
the North American fossil record. (In ry before, the Irish physician Thom- gle link has its divinely mandated spot,
fact these animals were mastodons, as Molyneux had insisted that while carefully gradated from God at the
not mammoths, but at the time both some fossilised animals had disap- top to angels to humans, then down
were believed to be the same species). peared locally, they must still be alive through nonhuman animals, plants,
Jefferson seized on their elephantine in some remote part of the world: the and ultimately things like rocks.
heft to defend against the charge, denial that no species was “so utterly On this view, species are what phi-
made by leading naturalist Georg- extinct, as to be lost entirely out of the losophers would call ‘natural kinds,’
es-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, World” was “grounded on so good a distinct and unchanging categories,
that New World animals were weak Principle of Providence taking Care in much like chemicals are. Carbon di-
and degenerate. The fearsome incog- general of all its Animal Productions, oxide is carbon dioxide, and a dodo
nitum, with molars the size of human that it deserves our Assent.” is a dodo, no matter what happens.
fist, would easily see off such Europe- This is surprising. Perhaps it was Moreover, each discrete species had
an snobbery. In a 1780 list of North still possible for figures like Jefferson its own rank that it was meant to oc-
American animals, Jefferson listed the to believe that cryptic woolly elephants cupy relative to other creatures. The
mammoth as the largest of all, bigger were lurking somewhere in the vast idea that some species could be miss-
than the buffalo or polar bear. interior of the continent – but sure- ing therefore offended the belief that
The problem for Jefferson was that ly such educated and curious people creation was divinely ordered, perfect,
while mammoth bones kept turning knew about other cases of extinction? and complete.
34
NewPhilosopher Breaking the world
Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan

35
Breaking the world NewPhilosopher
This was also of course a political there had to be mammoths out there We have a fairly recent name for
idea. Just as dogs outranked mice and somewhere. In 1803, Jefferson commis- this sort of attitude: puddle thinking.
lions outranked dogs, so too kings out- sioned the Lewis and Clark expedition In 2001 the British author and hu-
ranked nobles and nobles outranked – hoping, among other things, that it mourist Douglas Adams died, sudden-
peasants. Jefferson didn’t buy that po- would encounter live mastodons. ly and far too young. Biologist Richard
litical vision (even if his slave-owner- The thought that species were Dawkins gave a eulogy in which he
ship gives the lie to his rhetoric about contingent, and so could cease to ex- recalled a parable Adams, a keen envi-
human equality), and theologically he ist, was too horrible to contemplate. ronmentalist, had offered; the parable
was more deist than theist. But he was Extinction would be bad enough for was later published in Adams’ posthu-
still invested in the great chain as a bi- mammoths and dodos, but for us hu- mous book The Salmon of Doubt.
ological idea. mans, just admitting species could go Imagine that one morning a pud-
It wasn’t until 1796 that the French extinct would be worse. Extinction dle suddenly becomes conscious. As it
naturalist Georges Cuvier demon- doesn’t just threaten the idea that we looks around at its world, the puddle
strated that mammoths weren’t mod- are special relative to all other animals. starts to notice that the little dip in
ern elephants but a distinct species It threatens the sense that things are the ground it’s sitting in fits its watery
that had died out at some point in the the way they should be, and that our body very well indeed – in fact, the
past. This wasn’t universally accepted, existence is therefore intended, or- hole fits its every contour absolutely
however. Jefferson continued to insist dained – and assured. perfectly!
Well now, thinks the puddle, this
cannot be coincidence. The hole can’t
just fit every single part of my body by
accident. This hole in the ground must
have been designed to fit me!
And so the puddle, now convinced
that the world has been designed for
him and with his comfort in mind,
and so is clearly meant to have the
puddle in it, doesn’t really worry too
much as the Sun comes up and he
starts to evaporate.
“Is it too late to join Extinction Rebellion?”

36
NewPhilosopher Breaking the world
“I think,” said Adams, “this may be

something we need to be on the watch
and just how many thousands of
species we’ve already obliterated, it’s
Accepting the
out for.” hard to shake the little voice that says natural world is
It’s easy to laugh at this pud- everything will turn out OK because
dlecentric view of the universe. How we’re meant to be OK, somehow. But breakable took
could the puddle be so silly, so self-im-
portant, as to fail to realise he is the
the laws of physics don’t, in fact, care
if we live or die.
us centuries.
shape he is because of the hole he was Jefferson, it seems, struggled with Accepting we
formed in, and not vice versa? this until the end. In an 1823 letter
But consider how long it took to John Adams he finally admitted
ourselves could
for humans to reach the same reali- that “certain races of animals are be- break it took
sation. (Even Cuvier rejected evolu- come extinct.” Yet he also insisted that
tion, though his work on extinction providence was somehow still holding even longer.
ultimately paved the way for its ac- the natural world together. After all,
ceptance). The anthropocentric view he reasoned, “were there no restor-
that stopped generations of scientists ing power, all existences might extin-
conceding that some species just aren’t guish successively, one by one, until all
alive anymore still exerts a powerful should be reduced to a shapeless cha-
force on human thinking. Like the os.” And that would be unthinkable.
puddle, we’re just a bit too comfortable
in our cozy little hole, snugly assum-
ing that because the planet has kept us
alive and made us rich, it’s meant to do
so and won’t ever stop.
Accepting the natural world is
breakable took us centuries. Accept-
ing we ourselves could break it took
even longer. Even today, when we
understand better than ever just what
humans are doing to the atmosphere
37
NewPhilosopher
V I D-
O
19
C
VIRUS
VIEWS
NO2 concentration over Italy, March 2019, photo: ESA
38
NewPhilosopher
As the COVID-19 crisis unfold- disturbing than beatific if not chan-

“Our challenge ed, we published submissions about nelled through reason; if not giv-
from our readers on NewPhiloso- en context and meaning. Just as we
now might be pher.com in the hope that it could might have been lost in an Apolloni-
how to extricate help us all make sense of what was an world of routine and functionality
happening, and as a historical re- before this current storm, our chal-
ourselves from cord of how it made us feel. Here lenge now might be how to extricate
an emotional are your thoughts, from around the
world – you can read each full piece
ourselves from an emotional mire.
Read more.
mire.” via the links, as well as many more Stephanie Panayi, Melbourne, Aus-
submissions from readers here. tralia.
Paraphrasing Saint Paul, words Despite the unconventional cir-

without love are like a clanging bell. cumstances, we are dealing with
Yet Dionysian emotions are more boredom in the most conventional
NO2 concentration over Italy, March 2020, photo: ESA
39
NewPhilosopher
of ways. We find solace in social me- opportunity to think, to get to know

dia, video games, and TV shows. We and evaluate ourselves and those
search for something new and inter- around us better. An opportunity
esting, forgetting that, as Svendsen to mature, to grow into adulthood,
comments in his Philosophy of Bore- to make a practical contribution, to
dom, “'interesting' always has a brief move from theory to practice, to care
shelf-life, and really no other func- for, respect and trust fellow humans,
tion than to be consumed, in order science and institutions, and to un-
that boredom can be kept at arm’s derstand how fragile, vulnerable and
length”. Read more. valuable life is. Read more.
Mariana Gaitán Rojas and Filip Alkis Gounaris and Konstantinos
Vostal, Prague, Czech Republic. Gravas, Athens, Greece.
Let us always bear in mind that Tomorrow, when the world is

every crisis is an opportunity. An back on track, I might notice none of
NO2 concentration over Spain, March 2019, photo: ESA
40
NewPhilosopher
this has any relevance to anything at We are nameless characters living

“The unwanted all. But the world isn’t back on track. in the backdrop of a dystopic novel.
I had news last week that an old col- Facemasks, and self-quarantining. We
terrifying re- league – old as in my age, old as in are all trying to glean meaning, or de-
minder of the we were friends, way back in 1959 rive virtue from this ludicrous event in
– has died of the virus. She leaves an our lives. Many of us claim that this
frailty of being elderly husband and four adult chil- virus is a lesson, or an indictment of
human. The si- dren and numerous grandchildren.
She was adored. I am thinking of
a way of life. Depending on which vi-
rus origin story you believe, that may
lence of death.” their grief, their sadness, their pain. be true. But absent such a clear origin,
Their loneliness. The unwanted terri- can any meaning be derived out of this
fying reminder of the frailty of being absurd contingency? My mind drifts
human. The silence of death. I tried to human history, our own origins, and
to capture that in words. Read more. our place in nature. Read more.
Erica Greenop, Sydney, Australia. Colby Prout, Nevada, USA.
NO2 concentration over Spain, March 2020, photo: ESA
41
NewPhilosopher
It’s very easy right now to live up While social distancing is benefi-
to Seneca’s maxim: “we suffer more in cial in safeguarding the majority, such
imagination than reality”. And yet, as practices may dissolve into ‘social iso-
we collectively try to get through this lation’, holding captive one of human-
in the best possible way, one word ity’s most prized possessions – human
that comes to mind is “enough”. De- touch. Virtual interactions brought
fining, and cultivating, what “enough” about by advances in technology are
means for us. From enough infor- good measures for restricting viral
mation (as opposed to 24/7 news or transmissions but these interventions
tweets), because that’s how we stay lack the same offerings as physical in-
sane. To enough supplies (as opposed teractions – hands to hold, warm hugs
to mindless hoarding), because that’s to embrace and a peace of mind whilst
how we stay thoughtful. To enough sitting next to others on public trans-
support (as opposed to the law of the port! The reduced human connection
jungle), because that’s how we ensure poses threats especially to the mental
not only that we survive, but find wellbeing of those who are not tech-
ways to thrive. Read more. nologically savvy. Read more.
Rob Estreitinho, London, UK. Pauline Yap, South Australia.
NO2 concentration over France, March 2019, photo: ESA
42
NewPhilosopher
“As we collectively try to get through this in the

best possible way, one word that comes to mind
is ‘enough’.”
V I D-
O
19
C
NO2 concentration over France, March 2020, photo: ESA
43
The pale orange dot NewPhilosopher
THE PALE ORANGE DOT

44
NewPhilosopher The pale orange dot
By Tim Dean
Look up and you see the colour you know, everyone you ever heard sky appeared too red. So they intu-
that defines our world. At least, our of, every human being who ever was, itively colour-corrected the sky to a
world today. It’s a blue that blankets lived out their lives.” That’s the Pale more familiar light blue, bringing it
us from birth to death. It’s even visi- Blue Dot. in line with our terrestrial expecta-
ble from space. In February 1990, the That blue is so ubiquitous, so tions, meanwhile rendering the entire
Voyager 1 space probe, six billion kilo- constant, so reliable, that it’s hard to Martian landscape in an unearthly
metres away in the outskirts of our conceive of the sky being any oth- Earthly hue. It was only later they
solar system, turned its camera back er colour. In fact, when NASA re- realised they had projected their ex-
towards home and captured a fleeting ceived the very first colour images pectations of a blue sky onto an alien
blue speck barely a few pixels wide. from the surface of Mars from the planet, and restored it to its correct
“That’s here,” Carl Sagan wrote of Viking 1 lander in 1976, its techni- red-pink colour. This correction was
the spec in 1994. “That’s home. That’s cians believed there had been a cali- received with boos from the atten-
us. On it everyone you love, everyone bration error because the land and dant press, who preferred the more
45
The pale orange dot NewPhilosopher
familiar coloration of the incorrectly Part of the motivation for declaring isms that clung to the sides of hydro-
calibrated original. the Anthropocene is to acknowledge thermal vents that belched sulphur,
That might be forgivable, in a way. and take responsibility for the disrup- methane, iron and other minerals into
We crave familiarity. Yet our world tion we are causing to the biosphere the water, some of which became food.
wasn’t always familiar. It wasn’t These organisms weren’t sophisti-
always the Pale Blue Dot. For cated. Their metabolisms were
thousands of millions of years after It’s believed that up able to eke out just enough ener-
its formation, our sky was a hazy gy to survive and reproduce. But
orange, not dissimilar to what we to 99 per cent of life slowly, over the course of hun-
see on Saturn’s sixth moon, Titan,
today. For much of its past, Earth
went extinct due to dreds of millions of years, they
evolved and spread throughout
was the Pale Orange Dot. the respiration of the oceans. The structures they
Yet, were you to travel back in built can still be seen today in the
time around 2.5 billion years to
those cyanobacteria. form of the stromatolites that dot
witness such a sky, you’d best come the Pilbara in Western Australia.
prepared with breathing apparatus. that sustains us. It’s a cautionary ges- At this time, the sky was a hazy or-
This is because the gas that will one ture to encourage us to realise that, in ange, shrouded by methane clouds and
day make the sky blue is the same gas our arrogance, what we assume to be thick with carbon dioxide. The only
that gives us life: oxygen. Earth’s early permanent and unchanging is really thing that prevented a runaway green-
atmosphere had only negligible traces in constant flux. That the world hasn’t house effect that could turn Earth into
of oxygen, which were knocked out of always been this way, it hasn’t always a molten hellscape like Venus, was
water molecules when they collided been so amenable to our flourishing. the fact that the early Sun was only
with a speeding photon of ultraviolet And if the delicate balance is disrupt- around 70 per cent as bright as it is to-
light from the Sun. Remember, with- ed, it may not be familiar for long. day. Fortunately, the greenhouse effect
out oxygen in the atmosphere, there Indeed, the creatures that turned was sufficient to trap enough heat to
was no ozone layer, which means that the skies blue all those billions of years keep conditions amenable to life.
UV light bombarded our world. So if ago can serve as a reminder of the im- After a billion or so years passed,
you did travel back in time, you’d also pact that life can have on this world. a new form of life emerged, one that
need some SPF 1,000+. Life emerged on this planet remarka- evolved a clever trick. Instead of being
Our presumption about the ubiq- bly quickly after it coalesced from the bound to deriving energy only from
uity of the blue sky speaks to our primordial dust cloud. Barely had the the chemicals around it, these cyano-
inherent arrogance as a species. We molten surface cooled from the col- bacteria were able to use light from the
define the world in terms of human lision with a Mars-sized neighbour, Sun to turn abundant carbon dioxide
experience and tastes. We shape the shattering the crust and spitting out and water into energy. They invented
world to our liking, even to our det- the Moon, than oceans formed on the photosynthesis. But in the process,
riment. Some scientists have named surface of the Earth. And somewhere they also produced waste in the form
our current epoch the Anthropocene in those murky waters, life began. of a highly toxic chemical: oxygen.
– from the Greek anthro meaning The earliest forms of life did what Oxygen is explosively dangerous
“human” – in honour (or dishonour) all life forms still do: turn one chem- stuff. It even has its own hazard sym-
of the fact that our impact on our host ical into another, stealing enough en- bol. This is because oxygen is so greedy
world will be visible in the geological ergy in the process to construct more for electrons that it will drag the less
record long after we have turned to copies of themselves. In this case, they tightly bound electrons off other at-
sediment. were likely single-celled microorgan- oms in a reaction that gives off a great
46
NewPhilosopher The pale orange dot
deal of energy. The catastrophic bush- These cyanobacteria forever including developing cooperative
fires that recently afflicted Australia changed the colour of the sky and the multicellular organisms, sexual re-
can be seen as a giant series of exo- course of life on this planet. But most production and, eventually, aerobic
thermic redox chemical reactions be- of the earlier life forms perished in respiration, which boldly used oxy-
tween oxygen and the carbon in trees. the presence of toxic oxygen. And the gen to fuel even greater activity – like
For the first tens of millions of clearing of the methane clouds re- moving around.
years, the waste oxygen was sucked duced the greenhouse effect, cooling We, and almost all the other life
up by other elements, such as free hy- the planet to levels nearly inhospita- forms on the Earth today, are the ul-
drogen or iron. In fact, over this time ble to life. It’s believed that up to 99 timate progeny of these precocious
the oceans turned red as the suspend- per cent of life went extinct due to photosynthesising microorganisms
ed iron in the water turned to rust. the respiration of those cyanobacteria that emerged over two billion years
But these oxygen sinks eventually two billion years ago. That’s why this ago. They made a world in which we
became saturated, and the leftover period is sometimes known as the were to thrive while they declined.
oxygen started to accumulate in the Oxygen Catastrophe. So too, as our industrial respiration
atmosphere, clearing away the meth- But there was no turning back. changes the atmosphere yet again,
ane clouds. Clearer skies allowed the For another several hundred million we may well make a world in which
Sun’s blue light to be scattered in years, cyanobacteria barely clung to other species will thrive, but may we
every direction by the oxygen and life as the Sun slowly brightened, decline. Life is not a passive partic-
nitrogen in the atmosphere, leaving warming the world and enabling new ipant on this planetary stage. It can
the red light to pass straight through. species to emerge that could harness even change the colour of the drapes
The daytime sky turned blue and the the free oxygen to great effect. Life and murder the players. But an empty
sunsets turned sanguine. passed through other milestones, stage has no story to tell.
“We’d like to upgrade from ‘Quite Guilty’ to ‘Thoroughly Ashamed’.”

47
13 views on climate change NewPhilosopher
13 views on climate
change
#1, 2009: Statement on Climate
Change from 18 Scientific
Associations
“Observations throughout the world
make it clear that climate change
is occurring, and rigorous scientific
research demonstrates that the
greenhouse gases emitted by human
activities are the primary driver.”
#2, 2016: American Chemical Society

“The Earth’s climate is changing in
response to increasing concentrations
of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and
particulate matter in the atmosphere,
largely as the result of human
activities.”
#3, 2019: American Meteorological

Society
“Research has found a human influence
on the climate of the past several
decades ... The IPCC (2013), USGCRP
(2017), and USGCRP (2018) indicate
that it is extremely likely that human
influence has been the dominant cause
of the observed warming since the
mid-20th century.”
#4, 2015: American Physical Society

“Earth’s changing climate is a critical
issue and poses the risk of significant
environmental, social and economic
disruptions around the globe.
While natural sources of climate
variability are significant, multiple
lines of evidence indicate that human
influences have had an increasingly
dominant effect on global climate
warming observed since the mid-
twentieth century.”

NewPhilosopher 13 views on climate change
#5, 2015: The Geological Society of

America
“The Geological Society of America
(GSA) concurs with assessments by
the National Academies of Science
(2005), the National Research
Council (2011), the Intergovernmental #10, 2019: U.S. National Academy
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, of Sciences
2013) and the U.S. Global Change “Scientists have known for some
Research Program (Melillo et al., time, from multiple lines of
2014) that global climate has evidence, that humans are changing
warmed in response to increasing Earth’s climate, primarily through
concentrations of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions. The
(CO2) and other greenhouse evidence on the impacts of climate
gases ... Human activities (mainly change is also clear and growing. The
greenhouse-gas emissions) are the atmosphere and the Earth’s oceans
dominant cause of the rapid warming are warming, the magnitude and
since the middle 1900s.” frequency of certain extreme events
are increasing, and sea level is rising
along our coasts.”
#6, 2019: American Medical
Association
“Our AMA ... supports the findings #11, 2018: U.S. Global Change
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Research Program (US government
Climate Change’s fourth assessment departments)
report and concurs with the “Earth’s climate is now changing
scientific consensus that the Earth faster than at any point in the history
is undergoing adverse global climate of modern civilisation, primarily as a
change and that anthropogenic result of human activities.”
contributions are significant.”
#12, 2013: Intergovernmental Panel
#7, 2019: American Geophysical on Climate Change
Union “Warming of the climate system is
“Based on extensive scientific unequivocal, and since the 1950s,
#9, 2010: International Academies:
evidence, it is extremely likely many of the observed changes are
Joint Statement (the world’s most
that human activities, especially unprecedented over decades to
prestigious scientific bodies)
emissions of greenhouse gases, are millennia. The atmosphere and ocean
“Climate change is real. There
the dominant cause of the observed have warmed, the amounts of snow
will always be uncertainty in
warming since the mid-20th century. and ice have diminished, and sea
understanding a system as complex
There is no alternative explanation level has risen.” ... “Human influence
as the world’s climate. However
supported by convincing evidence.” on the climate system is clear, and
there is now strong evidence
recent anthropogenic emissions of
that significant global warming
greenhouse gases are the highest in
is occurring. The evidence comes
#8, 2014: American Association for history. Recent climate changes have
from direct measurements of
the Advancement of Science had widespread impacts on human
rising surface air temperatures and
“Based on well-established evidence, and natural systems.”
subsurface ocean temperatures and
about 97% of climate scientists from phenomena such as increases in
have concluded that human-caused #13, 2013: Donald Trump
average global sea levels, retreating
climate change is happening.” “Global warming is a total, and very
glaciers, and changes to many
expensive, hoax!”
physical and biological systems. It
is likely that most of the warming in
recent decades can be attributed to
human activities.”
49
Our ultimate fragility NewPhilosopher
Our ultimate fragility

Interviewee/Photographer: Jason deCaires Taylor
Interviewer: Zan Boag
50
ZB: You’re dealing on such a grand scale here that’s

there’s almost no limit to the size of the project you could
potentially undertake. Is that a little bit daunting – do
you get overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean?
JdC: You can’t comprehend the scale of working
in the ocean – it’s like being asked to produce an
installation in the desert. It’s so big, and that’s partly
what dictated the direction of my work, from mak-
ing small sculpture parks to making huge museums
with thousands of sculptures. To have any sort of im-
pact in that space you’ve really got to be ambitious.
We did a project in Mexico where I made hundreds
of works, hundreds of figures and we had them all
in the studio – it filled the studio, they filled the car
park, they filled the street. We couldn’t move. We
walked in and thought, god, it looks so impressive.
Then we put them in the sea, in this huge flat stretch
of sand and there they just became a tiny speck. I
could swim around it in four minutes.
Viewing much of your art requires viewers to get

wet and off stable ground. In a way, they are immersed
in the art – it is not just something to be viewed, but also
experienced. How do you think this change of environ-
ment affects the way viewers experience art?
Massively, of course. It’s one of the main motiva-
tions for it, why I first contemplated it. I was a diver
and an artist and I realised what an amazing space it
was. There are so many different things that happen
– there are physical things that happen, the colour
is different, refraction is different, light has to pene-
trate the surface of the water, which is obviously ev-
er-changing. The deeper you are, the more the colour
is distorted, and things appear larger underwater to
the human eye. But most importantly, you’re in this
liquid medium, you’re suspended, and I think that –
there’s a couple of things. One, it affords you the op-
portunity to look at things from completely different
angles, totally different perspectives, get really close,
move around, fly over the top of it. It also affects you
mentally; it puts you in a very different place. It puts
you in a more contemplative place, slightly detached
from the reality of the world; more open-minded.
In an interview, quoting Jacques Cousteau and his

influence on you, you said that he believes that we have
Banker, Mexico, by Jason deCaires Taylor to protect what we love – and that this is the root idea of
51
Inertia, Mexico, by Jason deCaires Taylor
your work, that you are in essence “trying to make people love coral bleaching becomes greater, the sculpture changes
the ocean”. With much of most people’s lives spent in urban en- colour to issue a warning, or a stark prognosis. That’s really
vironments and online, do you think that it is difficult to make trying to take an event that’s happening hundreds of kilo-
people love the ocean? metres out to see and bring it to an urban environment, to
Certainly. It’s definitely a challenge and it’s something provide live conditions that are happening in the water to
I try to address in my work. A recent sculpture that I did people who are very divorced from that situation.
in Australia, the Ocean Siren, that’s a piece that changes
colour – it’s a coastal piece – but it changes colour in re- In The Rising Tide, your sculptures were able to be viewed
sponse to water temperatures. As the water around The in full up to two hours either side of low tide. Could explain
Great Barrier Reef changes temperature and the risk of the symbolism of this artwork?
52
NewPhilosopher Our ultimate fragility
I try to make the works mul- I was there, there were three or four for the planet. It’s impossible for our
ti-level, but many are very obvious boats that washed up on shore without systems of government to be attached
and fairly easy to read. That particular people inside. So it was very pertinent to this model of constant growth
piece is the Four Horsemen of the to the place. For that installation, I and constant consumption. There is
Apocalypse and the horses have been tracked down quite a few of the immi- definitely an end point. As popula-
converted into oil drilling machines grants who had come over from West- tions are increasing, there’s only one
– nodding donkeys, as they’re often ern Africa, who had settled in Spain place where that can head. Systemic
known – and it features two business- and the Canary Islands, and they be- change is what’s needed and for me,
men and two children on the horses. came the models for those sculptures. our governments have been corrupted
It was very much about who’s driving So a lot of it was about telling their by corporate interests. I don’t think
our future and where we are going. story. The painting – The Raft of Me- they make decisions about what’s best
There seems to be this great standoff dusa – was about a French frigate that for people or for the planet, they just
between corporate interests and where sunk very close to that area of Africa make decisions based on what keeps
the future lies for our planet. Placing and the painting was about how the them elected and that ultimately is
the pieces in this environment, with commanders of the ship abandoned going to end in catastrophe.
eight metres of tide that rose up and their crew and let them drown or
completely covered them, it was a fend for themselves. I thought that The question is: do governments ulti-
statement about our ultimate fragili- was very much a metaphor for what is mately hold the power?
ty to the cycles of the planet and the happening now, where the authorities I don’t think they do. Not when
consequences of ignoring that. are abandoning our duty to care for you have media moguls who control
Your artwork The Raft of Lampe- these people. They should try to solve 70 per cent of the titles of a country,
dusa, with a nod to The Raft of the Medu- the root of the problem and not see and you have a mega-companies that
sa, comments on the plight of immigrants it as something threatening, but rather have annual turnovers that are bigger
coming from Africa to Europe. What in- something that needs to be treated in than the GDP of some countries. The
spired you to create this particular piece? a humane way. power has shifted dramatically due to
That sculpture was part of a larger many different factors – globalisation
series of works off the coast of Lan- There is obviously an increased being one of them. When these com-
zerote, in Spain. We did 12 different awareness of the issues surrounding cli- panies have such a hold over political
installations there and I very much mate change, yet our behaviour is much parties, it’s very difficult to change
wanted to recount local stories and the same. What are some of the reasons and I think we’re heading for a pe-
connect the museum to its place, to why we’re not making the changes neces- riod of severe social disruption and
its people. This was a very important sary to combat climate change? some form of collapse at some point.
story that I thought needed to be I think we are all realising that the This maybe will provide the impetus
told. Just on that island, the summer capitalist system just does not work to make widespread change. I’m not
There’s a way of looking at us being

absorbed back into the sea, or back
into the landscape, that makes you
face your own mortality.
53
54
The Raft of Lampedusa, Lanzarote, Spain, by Jason deCaires Taylor

56
The Coral Greenhouse, MOUA, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, by Jason deCaires Taylor
Vicissitudes, Grenada, by Jason deCaires Taylor

58
entirely putting the responsibility that your art will outlast you made you You say that your art is like leaving
on them – there are certainly choic- contemplate your own finitude? a message for future generations – how
es that individuals can make, and I certainly think about it as a way do you think they will view us and how
individuals still have a lot of power of documenting what is happening we have treated the only known inhab-
to change the way they consume or here and now. The sculptures are itable place in the Universe?
the way they live. But there is a little made from traditional materials – There’s going to be a furious
bit of a con where the onus is put on stone or concrete, quite monumental, backlash, and I think that is already
the individual – it’s really important and I feel like I am creating a diary of happening, we can already see it with
that regulation catches up in all ar- what’s happening at the moment, in the massive divide that we’re seeing
eas of society that prevents you from a way so that future generations will between the older generation and
building a house that is not renewa- know and understand that we knew the younger generation. They’re real-
ble, prevents you from buying a car what was going on and we tried to ising now that the system has been
that causes pollution – the regulation say what was going on, but maybe rigged and the system isn’t working
has to be there and people will adapt. ultimately we didn’t succeed – or we for them. I think that brings with it
Change has to come from the top and might have succeeded, who knows. a lot of positivity but also at some
it has to be fast, unfortunately. There’s a way of looking at us being point, probably soon, they are go-
absorbed back into the sea, or back ing to clash very strongly. There’s
Although ultimately the ocean will into the landscape, that makes you certainly a great awareness that my
claim your art, it will persist for gen- face your own mortality and I think it generation, the Baby Boomer gener-
erations and will be viewed by those makes you think that ultimately, the ation, had some very good times that
who are not yet born when you and I planet won’t die; we’ll die. And the were short-sighted and they’re being
are no longer here. Has this knowledge planet will go on. looked upon very negatively.
Silent Evolution, Mexico, by Jason deCaires Taylor
59
The Rising Tide, London, by Jason deCaires Taylor
The Rising Tide, London, by Jason deCaires Taylor
60
Systemic change is what’s needed

and for me, our governments have
been corrupted by corporate
interests.
Silent Evolution, Mexico, by Jason deCaires Taylor
61
Seasons in the sun NewPhilosopher
by Marina Benjamin
Seasons in
the sun
crazed character in the movie, in the D factories, enhancing our mood and
grip of a psychotic form of sunstroke, gifting our skins a pleasing warmth – a
wishes to derail. Slave to the kami- visible glow. On a summer’s morning,
kaze urge to fly into the heart of the as bright yellow fingers of light poke
solar furnace, he has a body to prove into our bedrooms around the cur-
it: skin crackled to a crisp; lidless eyes, tain’s edge, how many of us will leap
peeled back; face and body, charred out of bed, jolted awake, electrically
and flayed like an anatomical model. I charged for the day ahead?
The Sun has always reigned as a think of his deformed madness some- We are affected profoundly by the
god in my world. Heedless of health times when I wonder about my own climate, and by climate changes large
warnings, I long for the penetrative irrational addiction to summer, the and small.The human body reacts swift-
heat of its rays on my skin, the bur- season (as I see it) of expansiveness ly to alterations in humidity, atmos-
nish and ripeness and Southern hem- and fulfilment, but tinged with a reck- pheric pressure, cloud cover or wind,
ispheric tang it bestows on daily life, less allure. We are told not to look into just as it reacts to light and dark. Blood
and the brilliant light – both literally the Sun because the looking will blind pressure is higher in winter, when low-
and figuratively nourishing – that so us, but the intrusive thought is always er temperatures cause our blood vessels
many painters have been driven to there, goading us to stare regardless, as to narrow; and lower in summer when
chase, moving to Cornwall, to Arles, to if by proving ourselves equal to its too- our vessels dilate, making us flush, and
Tahiti, the better to trap it on canvas. bright glare we might somehow exalt contributing to that feeling of relaxa-
Perhaps my old soul was Aztec – or ourselves. tion and wellbeing the season induces.
else devoted to Ra, the ancient Egyp- Besides, nothing escapes the We are sensitive to shifts in barometric
tian overlord of Heliopolis. Sun’s magic touch. It is transforma- pressure, too. Which is why people can
At the cheesy end of my solar ob- tive. Rough urban landscapes glisten. sense when a storm is coming: the de-
session, I have seen Danny Boyle’s Stone cities like Edinburgh, Antwerp pression is something they feel in the
2007 sci-fi thriller Sunshine many or Rome acquire the sheen of a Jerusa- air-filled tubes of their sinuses, or in
times over, never tiring of his fictional lem: in summer, they are golden. There their joints, which can become pain-
astronauts’ nail-biting mission to reig- is a bodily dimension to consider as ful. Low barometric pressures can also
nite a dying Sun – a mission that one well, as the Sun turns us into Vitamin cause headaches and difficulty hearing.
62
NewPhilosopher Seasons in the sun
Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan 63

Seasons in the sun NewPhilosopher
In 2011, Japanese researchers published Recently I came across the term we face now, as a planet, scales up our
findings in the Journal of Internal Med- solastalgia. Coined by the Australian eco-anxieties to new levels.
icine demonstrating a direct link be- environmental philosopher Glenn Al- The mental toll of our environ-
tween patients suffering migraines and brecht, the neologism combines solace, mental degradation is only now im-
a sensitivity to atmospheric pressure. desolation and algia, (from the Greek pinging on our collective conscious-
But it is the emotional response to for pain) to give shape to the distress ness. Papers have been published
climatic change that is more complex of seeing a familiar environment ruth- about suicides among farmers made
and troubling. With the diminish- lessly transfigured by drought, fire destitute by crop-searing heat, and
ment of sunlight that attends the ap- or flood. Solastalgia, in other words, about the mental health problems
proach of winter, thousands of people names the stress and helpless anomie among Americans who have fallen
in climates cold and warm (up to 9.9% induced by environmental change. victim to uncontrollable fires and dev-
of the population in Alaska, but astating storms. In 2017, the APA
as high as 1.4% in Miami) expe- approved ‘eco-anxiety’ as a clin-
rience the depressive mood disor- I am prey to feelings ically valid diagnosis. All of it is
der known as SAD, or Seasonal a form of mourning, the grief we
Affective Disorder. With a raft of intense anxiety associate with SAD, writ global.
of symptoms that include leth-
argy, weight gain, a tendency to
at summer’s end, as Among teenagers inspired by
the urgent exhortations of Greta
over-sleep and listlessness, SAD I start to dread the Thunberg, that grief and anger is
engenders a kind of waking hi- virulent and palpable. The spring-
bernation. In acute cases, sufferers
onset of SAD. time of their young lives ought, by
report feeling worthless, hopeless, rights, to be a time of growth and
and sometimes, suicidal: they have In a paper published in Austral- soaring potential. But today’s youth
trouble concentrating, trouble sleep- asian Psychiatry in 2007, Albrecht are instead being forced to reckon
ing, and a flat-lining libido. clarified the coinage. “As opposed with a contraction of their horizons
To the extent that SAD affects to nostalgia – the melancholia or and a planet-sized shrinking of tem-
me personally, I am prey to feelings of homesickness experienced by indi- perateness and life-supporting quality
intense anxiety at summer’s end, as I vidual when separated from a loved that may never end. For the young,
start to dread the onset of my seasonal home – solastalgia is the distress that there’s a very real possibility that, for
depression. I know very well that there is produced by environmental change them, summer – the high season of
are treatments I might seek out: light impacting on people while they are their lives – might never arrive.
lamps, melatonin supplements, CBT. directly connected to their home en- The irony is that all the while our
But so far I’ve resisted them, perhaps vironment.” It is a homesickness you Earth grows warmer, the Sun’s light,
because despite acknowledging that feel without ever leaving home. SAD, increasingly obscured by particulate
we have animal natures, primitive it seems to me, qualifies as solastal- pollution, grows ever dimmer. As the
responses to the climate that are be- gia on a small scale – its apt acro- myths of old might have it, the Sun
yond our control (and equally evasive nym denoting a lament for the loss will be ferried away on the barge of
of conscious awareness), I still incline of summer light once autumn’s shade a solar deity, never again to brighten
towards philosophical explanations. arrives. But the environmental crisis our days.
64
NewPhilosopher Seasons in the sun
“O! that that earth, which kept the world in awe,

Should patch a wall to expel the winter’s flaw!”
Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1,
by William Shakespeare
65
Thoughts on... climate NewPhilosopher
CLIMATE
“How could I look my grandchildren
in the eye and say I knew what
“A change in the weather is sufficient
to create the world and oneself anew.”
“People need reminding that the
climate crisis is no longer a
was happening to the world and – Marcel Proust future problem.”
did nothing?” – Katharine Viner
– David Attenborough
“There is no debate here, just scien- It’s past time to open our eyes and “With degrees of warming, as with
tists and non-scientists. And since the shift to a more sensible approach to world wars or recurrences of cancer,
subject is science, the non-scientists living on this small, precious planet. you don’t want to see even one.”
don’t get a vote.” – David Suzuki – David Wallace-Wells
– Bill Maher
“The main challenges of our times “I have a feeling that climate change “We have forgotten how to be good
are the rise in inequality and global may be an issue as severe as a war.” guests, how to walk lightly on the
warming.” – James Lovelock earth as its other creatures do.”
– Thomas Piketty – Barbara Ward
“Men argue. Nature acts.” “Those least responsible for climate “If you want to understand opposition
– Voltaire change are worst affected by it.” to climate action, follow the money.”
– Vandana Shiva – Paul Krugman
“The blunt truth about the politics of

climate change is that no country will
want to sacrifice its economy.”
– Tony Blair
66
NewPhilosopher Thoughts on... climate
“Humanity is called to recognise the

need for changes of lifestyle, produc-
tion and consumption, in order to
combat this warming.”
– Pope Francis
“LOOK DEEP “Climate change is the defining issue
INTO NATURE, of our time – and we are at a defining

moment. We face a direct existential
threat.”
AND THEN
– António Guterres
“It’s real ... And the great irony and
YOU WILL UN- tragedy of our time, is a lot of the

general public thinks scientists are
still arguing.”
DERSTAND – James Balog
EVERYTHING
“You don’t listen to the science be-
cause you are only interested in solu-
tions that will enable you to carry on
like before.”
BETTER.” – Greta Thunberg
Albert Einstein “The Earth’s climate system is an or-

nery beast which overreacts even to
small nudges.”
– Wallace Smith Broecker
“Small steps will no longer do. The

biggest steps need to be taken by
those with the biggest boots.”
– Sauli Niinisto, President of Finland
67
Client Earth NewPhilosopher
Client Earth
Interviewee: James Thornton
Interviewer: Zan Boag
the interest of the public and to save work as an environmental lawyer and
the environment which was started the head of a charity is indeed to try
around by a couple of different organ- and save all sentient beings.
isations in the US. I started doing that It’s a pretty good ‘why’ that you have
work with one of those in 1979 and set there.
up an office in Los Angeles to do such [Laughs] It’s a good brief. Given
work. Then I became essentially an ex- that climate change is real and very
ile from the US due to the fact that my pressing, if your client is the Earth and
partner, now husband, wasn’t allowed to be focused on it in this way gives
to stay in the United States. So, I left you the energy you need to keep doing
the United States – the human rights the work.
ClientEarth is an environmental lawyers were better in Europe than
law charity that you founded 12 years in the United States at that point. I And energy is what’s required – it’s
ago, now with offices in London, Brus- looked around and I saw that in the such a ferocious battle that needs to be
sels, Warsaw, Berlin, and Beijing. On European setting, the environmental fought. I imagine that you’re working on
the website, it states that you “use the law groups weren’t using law in a strategic a number of interesting cases. Could you
to hold governments and other compa- way, in a way that I had been doing it run through one of the cases you’re work-
nies to account over climate change, na- in the US. There wasn’t any non-prof- ing on at the moment that looks promis-
ture loss, and pollution”. What prompted it environmental law firm working at ing from your point of view?
you to start Client Earth and how do the European level, so there seemed Let me sketch out the litigation
you hold governments and companies to to be a wonderful opportunity to con- that we’re doing in the European con-
account? tribute to the whole European envi- text. It has about 50 cases going on
We’re set up as a group of interna- ronmental community. And that’s the against coal in one way or another,
tional lawyers, formed as a charity, and way it started. And the basis of it, and and there are also about 50 cases on air
in place of a traditional client we have what keeps me going, is my own Zen quality, to get diesel out of the market
the Earth and everyone who lives on practice because it’s the why do I care and drive the transport fleet towards
it – so you, and all your readers are our each day. You’ll be familiar with the being electrified. One interesting case,
clients, and we try to act on behalf of Bodhisattva vow, which is to save all which has just been completed so I
everyone who lives on it. I had done sentient beings, and I take that in my know that it’s a success, was against
a lot of work in the United States in work in a very literal-minded way. My a coal-fired power station with a very
68
Illustration by Alvaro Hidalgo
NewPhilosopher
Client Earth
69
novel approach. So, we’ve prevented to be made, and we voted against, we with us. That was a beautiful moment.
the building of 38 coal-fired power voted our 30 euros worth of shares, In terms of litigation, and nobody
stations in Europe since we started 12 and it helped that we brought 40 per knows it yet, it is what China is doing.
years ago. One of our goals is to ensure cent of the shareholders with us. But So, I started working in China in 2014
that there are no new coal-fired pow- the government had a slight majori- to advise the Chinese Supreme Court
er stations built in Europe. And we’ve ty, and it went ahead. We personally in writing a law to allow citizens and
succeeded – there haven’t been, we’ve sued the officers and directors of the prosecutors to bring cases. Citizens
stopped all of the new ones. But in Po- company and we alleged that they against companies; prosecutors against
land, the government was very keen on had violated their standard corporate the government. And then they invit-
building what it was calling “the last duty of care to their shareholders by ed us to start training judges to decide
new coal-fired power station” in Po- knowingly making a bad investment environmental cases – we’ve trained at
land. Which was a sort of back-hand- in coal. And what happened, and this least 1,000 judges by now. And they
ed compliment to us. So, we said, OK, is Poland, quite conservative in many set up environmental courts, quite un-
we’re going to take a novel approach. ways, the business newspaper, which like anything in most of the world. We
We’d been using environmental law years earlier had denounced us, ran a trained the judges, and the prosecutors
but this time we said, let’s step aside series of articles about this case and came to us and said, “In that law that
and use a purely business approach, it never even mentioned that we were you helped write, we got the right to
a purely company law approach. We environmentalists in any way. Which sue the government on behalf of the
commissioned an economic study by was fascinating. What they said was people for environmental issues if they
an independent company saying that that investors question future of coal. weren’t doing their job. But we’ve nev-
this new coal-fired power station was And that’s how it was discussed – it er sued the government – we’ve never
going to be uneconomic because the was discussed very seriously as a pure- had the right to sue the government
cost of renewable energy was falling ly business thing. And then, the best before. You sue governments all the
very rapidly and it would beat, in the news is that we hired the best secu- time and you seem to win. Could you
market, this new coal-fired power rities litigator in Poland; we won the train us to sue the government?” What
station. So that it was simply a bad case against the officers and directors. a remarkable question. So, we did start
investment. So, we said “great”, we And here’s the punchline: the next day, to train them, bringing in experts from
bought shares in the company, went the stock price went up almost four per all over the world, and then 2018 was
to the meeting where decision had cent. Isn’t that great? The market was the first full year of their new activities
“To my grandchildren I leave

my SUV, my ski hut, and 400 PPM of CO2.”
70
NewPhilosopher Client Earth
businesspeople in the west tell me that and gas, so their own consultants have
Plan B is to take they see the changes already, after only publicly described what they call their
the oil and gas a couple of years. The attitude is very
much changing, very rapidly. In the
Plan B. Plan B is to take the oil and
gas and use it as feedstock, which is it,
and use it as west, companies know that they have for plastics, and yet more plastics, and
to comply with whatever the law is – yet more plastics. If society is smart
feedstock for they don’t always, but generally you enough to stop using oil and gas, oil
plastics, and yet know that there’s a likelihood that and gas companies are keen to start
you’re going to get caught and pros- seeing the production of hugely more
more plastics. ecuted, so people tend to comply, but plastics. This is a terrible strategy for
in China that wasn’t the case, but is saving civilisation. The movement in
rapidly becoming the case. In a sense, that direction has already started. For
I love the cases that we bring, but the example, there’s the biggest plastics
cases that are most important are the manufacturer in Europe, one of them
100,000 that we didn’t bring in China. anyway, it’s called Ineos, and they ta-
bled plans for a huge expansion of
in bringing environmental cases as the You say that in the west, generally their plastics facility on the border be-
federal prosecutors. So, the following companies comply with legislation, how- tween Belgium and the Netherlands.
January, January 2019, we sat down ever is it an issue that changing legisla- Because, here you see, even if you
with them and said, how many cases tion is a very difficult thing to do? stop all the coal-fired power stations,
did you initiate in 2018? And the an- Yes. The way I often think about if you have all these plastics facilities
swer was: 48,000. Extraordinary. it is that if we enforced all the envi- increasing in scale then each of them
ronmental laws currently existing, produces as much emissions as a big
Do you find that you face more bar- would you stop pollution, would you coal-fired power station and then they
riers trying to change legislation in the stop plastics turning up in the ocean, also produce plastics, which is a trag-
UK, or the US, or in European countries? would you stop climate change, and edy in itself.
What’s interesting is that in Chi- the answer at the moment is ‘no’, even
na there have been no barriers because if you enforced them all perfectly. And Is the problem here because of the
the government from top to bottom is they’re not enforced perfectly. What profit motive that is inherent in the way
aligned to make as much progress on you really need is environmental law companies are set up that it must make
the environment as soon as possible. 2.0, and it is difficult to get things more profit each year otherwise the heads
When they invite you to help them through. An example is that the EU of the company will be removed. Is the
do something, it really happens. And is trying to do a pretty good climate problem here that companies are driven
they’re really keen to make change. change law and we’ll see if the new by profit first and foremost and whatever
In terms of being global leader on the commission gets it through. But that’s happens, whether it is good or bad for the
environment – the United States used the question: will it get it through? environment, is irrelevant?
to be one – at the moment it’s China, And it is pretty difficult. Companies Yes, to the question that whether
and what they’re doing is very excit- often threaten to leave and move it is good or bad for the environment
ing. So, 2018 there were 50,000 cas- somewhere else – I’ll move from Bel- is irrelevant, but that’s what the law
es, almost, 2019, same, around 50,000 gium to Indonesia if you tighten the can change. I think the profit motive,
cases, and many of those, something law. It more of a threat than a reali- at least for a while, could help us a lot
like 70 per cent, were actually against ty because to a large degree compa- in driving innovation. If we are going
governmental entities that weren’t nies are able to do lots of damaging to save civilisation then we’ll need to
their job of enforcing the law. So, what things to the environment under the reinvent the way we do everything.
they’re doing very effectively is to say existing law. Here’s a European case We need to reinvent transport, we
what is the fastest way we can create involving climate and plastics. The oil need to reinvent how we create energy
the rule of law for the environment and gas industry knows pretty well – we need energy systems – we need
in China so that everybody, whether now that society will have to start to reinvent agriculture, and so on. All
they’re a government official in some using less oil and gas, in the coming of these things will take enormous in-
province, or a company, knows that decade and further decades. But they vestment and that has to come mostly
they have to comply with the law. And have no intention of selling less oil from the private sector and for those
71
people who are willing to put their that will be catastrophic, how do
The good news, life on the line to say build renewable you change them? That has to be by
I should say, is energy systems, rewarding them with
profit is fine. I’d say to your very deep
changing the rules. It isn’t enough to
say that companies will lose their so-
that economics question, let’s examine whether we cial contract because people will vote
can do without a profit motivation at with their money and go somewhere
is finally on the some point when we’re more mature else. That’s fine, and it’s a good idea,
side of the en- as a civilisation because we have been but it goes much, much deeper than
wise enough to redesign our energy that. You have to change the rules.
vironment, and systems, redesign our transport and And there are some rules you can
the future of so on. The main issue at the moment
is that there are many big incumbent
change. For example, you could say,
and we will be trying to get this to
people’s health industries focused on the wrong ac- happen, you could say that all compa-
tivities. They weren’t intentionally set nies listed on the London Stock Ex-
and all that – re- up to do bad things; we discovered it change, for example, if you’re going to
newable energy along the way. But the problem is that be listed there you need to come up
they have so much power that it is very with a business plan that shows that
is now cheaper difficult to dislodge them. Incumbent you can become carbon neutral or car-
industries, say, in the energy sector, are bon positive in everything that you do
than coal-gener- still burning coal in Europe. They don’t and all the uses of your product by a
ated energy. want to stop burning coal at all, hence certain date, just tell us: 2050 or 2040,
us suing them. But who is going to something like that. And then, that
change them? That’s the question. The you must actually act on that plan. You
good news, I should say, is that eco- have a curve, and you have to reduce
nomics is finally on the side of the en- your emissions along that curve in a
vironment, and the future of people’s way that will match what the scientists
health and all that – renewable energy say we have to do, and the law says that
is now cheaper than coal-generat- you have to hit that curve, you have to
ed energy. But you have to make the reduce, reduce, reduce. And govern-
transition and the transition is a huge ments are talking about doing that on
change and the incumbent industries a national basis, but it doesn’t involve
are like huge dragons sitting in the companies at the moment. When the
middle of the river. They don’t intend EU is saying that all European coun-
to move and governments are unlikely tries will reduce their emissions by this
to move them because they’re deeply amount, they’re looking at 2050 and
intertwined with governments, you have come up with a plan to do it, so
see that in Australia certainly, and the far nothing is binding companies. If
new industries that want to produce the companies were actually told that
renewable energy in a clean and lovely they need to do this, then they would
way, aren’t set up to attack the dragons in fact do it.
because they’re smaller. Who’s going
to do it? That’s where citizens come What do think of the way individu-
in, a Zen monk with a sword attacks als are made to feel bad about their choic-
dragons and the hope is to clear them es? Of course, individuals have a role to
out of the way so that the people who play in what they choose to consume, but
want to do the right thing have access does putting the onus on individuals, in a
to markets, have access to capital, have way, let companies and governments off
access to people. the hook?
If corporations – in their current Your question is a very important
design, and with their current direc- one. And it’s important for all of us
tions – are producing these results to become aware of these things, and
72
indeed to modify our behaviour. And along and do whatever they do. And not good news. The question is, how to
there are easy things you can do: you politicians in Australia at the moment, go beyond that and beyond the anger
can eat a lot less meat, for example, who slightly won the last election, are that comes from that and find a posi-
it’s enormously helpful; you can not clearly captive of the coal industry – tive step to take.
waste food – I was looking at num- that needs to change, and people can
bers the other day in Britain that the change that. The people in power in Despite the despair that many do feel
normal household throws away 25 per Australia at the moment are unlikely and the fact that the crisis is increasing in
cent of its food as waste. That’s easy to change their own minds… but it magnitude, there is a lot of hope in that
to change, and those would make sig- was very close – it was like the Brexit people are getting together, people are dis-
nificant and important differences, but election in the UK. It was a very close cussing this more – it is on the table for
nowhere near enough. What I think election. People who vote, who could politicians and for companies. Despite the
those things are important in doing vote, need to do so, whether you’re kids fact people are rallying more around this
is, first of all, making some kind of or retirees, you need to make sure that issue and looking for solutions, I imagine
contribution, making people under- politicians understand that you really that you get quite a lot of resistance. There
stand that there is something they can care about whether they vote one way must be some individuals and companies
do, but real change has to come from or the other on these issues. So, there’s that aren’t too pleased about the work
governments and companies. Really a lot that people can do, and it’s very you’re doing. What sort of resistance are
governments, because companies, as empowering that you can do some- you getting, and where are you finding
we were just discussing, the companies thing, not only at home but also po- the most resistance to the changes you’re
that need to make changes the most, litically. That gets you over the despair, trying to implement?
won’t make them voluntarily – they the depression, that is a natural part of In court, you’re fighting, so there’s
need to be told what to do. What can understanding the difficulties. Once resistance there, but if you pick your
people do about that? Well, vote for you understand the difficulties facing battles carefully then you win. Those
the people who will do the right thing. civilisation, once you have the infor- are, in a way, set-piece battles and we
The children of the world should get mation and you’re open to it, a natural generally win cases. In legislatures there
organised and demand change, oth- response is to feel bad. That’s an in- is a whole array of forces that you en-
erwise politicians will tend to drift telligent response because the news is counter. In Brussels, for example, there
Coal worker's pneumoconiosis, photo by Yale Rosen
73
are something like 15,000 corporate by us because that is really efficient. If

You need to re- lobbyists. There are a couple of hun- they’re smart enough to see the writing
write the rules of dred environmentalists, and we are the
only group of lawyers working with
on the wall, then we can help them.
economics, the the environmentalists. There is a tre- Let’s say, you’re installed as ultimate
mendous force on one side, and then legislative ruler of the Earth – you deter-
thought systems you have to make arguments when mine the rule of law, what companies can
of economics, so you’re discussing legislation, reason and can’t do, how individuals can and
economics and investment in the fu- cannot behave. What are the first laws
they don’t direct ture. And to a surprising degree, you you’d write for companies? And the first
you towards de- can make progress. You might expect
that we get a lot of physical threats,
ones for individuals?
First, I’d invite a lot of kids to join
structive activi- and happily we don’t. In Poland, in the me. But seriously, I was talking before
beginning, when we started by suing about environmental law 2.0 and that’s
ties, but only to- 14 new projects that were coal-fired the next stage, but what you’re asking
wards activities power stations, then we were in fact is what the fundamental shift has to
shut down by the secret police – our be – and it’s a wonderful question that
that harmonise office was shut down by the secret very few people ask. My deep feeling
police a couple of times, they went about this is that you need to, in a seri-
with global Earth and investigated us and talked to all ous way, change the rules of the game.
systems. the other environmentalists that they If you design the rules of the game in a
could find and they kept asking them: way that conduct which is deleterious
“Who do these people actually work will no longer be on anyone’s screen
for? Are they foreign agents?” And – it just won’t be an option. And that
there were threats around that time. needs to be in the way we generate en-
But what’s interesting at the mo- ergy, so that generating energy from
ment is that a number of companies coal just isn’t possible. And instead we
are beginning to ask for advice, and generate renewables, we use hydro-
that is a shift. So, we set up a team gen for storage. Australia, for exam-
of corporate lawyers, and it’s the only ple, could become the world leader if
such team in the world, and we’re say- it cancelled coal projects, built a huge
ing what corporate regulations should amount of renewable and it used a
look like. For example, the risk of cli- lot of renewable energy to separate
mate change for pension funds. And the hydrogen from sea water and
what has been happening is that we then sold the hydrogen as ammonia
did change the pension fund rules to Asia instead of selling coal. So, if
after some years of work lobbying for change the rules of the game then
that, and the pension fund rules re- that would become more attractive.
quire that you take into account the For energy systems you need to say,
risk of climate change in the stocks “How do you build an ecological civ-
and bonds that you buy. That’s good. ilisation?” so that energy systems are
And then pension funds came to us not destructive in any way. For agri-
and said, “What does all this mean?” culture – how do you build an ecolog-
What started happening is that we ical civilisation so that agriculture not
were advising them – companies and only delivers food that is cleaner and
pension funds, the smart ones, were healthier, but that agriculture also
saying “we see the changes coming… sequesters carbon, agriculture helps
can you give us advice on how we can biodiversity; how do you do that?
change quickly so that you don’t come And you need to do it with indus-
after us.” And I’m very happy to give trial policy, you need to rewrite the
people lessons on how not to be sued rules of the game so that nobody can
74
burn coal, so that you use hydrogen to from the top – to reconceive things. really is on the side of people and the
make cement – it would be perfectly The world doesn’t stop, things are still planet now: renewable energy really is
clean, and you need to make cement, going on, but in the meantime rede- cheaper. When I was a young person I
and that would be a perfectly clean sign everything in a way that is prac- would stand up and say that we need
way to do it, but you need to rewrite tical and can be tried in the internal renewable energy, and people would
the rules for industrial policy. Trans- Chinese system, and maybe export- say, “well, you’re a nice, idealistic young
port: the same. You need to rewrite ed. And that’s so far beyond what’s person, but the economics won’t allow
the rules of economics, the thought going on in Australia, or France, or it.” Now it’s really different – the eco-
systems of economics, so they don’t Germany, or the United States. It’s nomics does allow for clean energy
direct you towards destructive activ- an intellectual creative beacon of very because it’s cheaper than dirty energy.
ities, but only towards activities that pragmatic hope for me. What I’m But, back to the timescale – econom-
harmonise with global Earth systems. hoping is that instead of having to be ics, the markets alone will not deliver
For law, you need to redesign the legal the ruler of the world to do this, what fast enough because of this problem
system so that all these things I’m talk- we’re seeing is that one country is of the incumbents sitting in the river.
ing about are captured in the right sort throwing hundreds of its best people Therefore the second thing you need is
of rules which we can enforce, citizens at this, inviting hundreds of foreign for citizens like us to rise up, use legal
can enforce – everyone is empowered experts to join, and developing some- tools, and slay the incumbents so that
to do that. If you do all these things, thing that then could potentially be the market can actually deliver. And
you’ll end up designing an ecological open-sourced and greatly speed up third, I would say that something that
civilisation. It has been a dream of the transition that we need to do. also gives me hope, is that this is re-
mine for a very long time, and one the ally all about consciousness. It struck
remarkable things about going to Chi- Legislative change takes time, but me recently that environmental prob-
na and working there was after a few time is exactly what we’re short on when lems are mental problems – no more
meetings with high officials, I started it comes to the changes that are necessary than that. They’re problems of how we
hearing of the idea of an ecological civ- to combat climate change, pollution, and think, how we behave; only that. If we
ilisation. I thought, stop, what do you the general environmental destruction can have a revolution of conscious-
mean? I said, I admire the skill of the that our species is currently inflicting on ness, about how we think about these
Communist Party in coming up with the Earth. The changes that are necessary things, then it becomes possible to
slogans, is this just a slogan? And that need to be made on a global scale, and as transform very quickly.
got a laugh, then they said, no, we re- big as China may be, we need changes
ally believe it. And they’ve divided everywhere. What sort of time frame are Indeed, but despite all this we do
the world into eight different divi- you working towards when it comes to face a major barrier: those who think
sions, along the lines that I’ve been implementing these changes you think are that there’s no reason to change their
talking about, and they’ve thrown necessary, and do we have enough time? behaviour, or who couldn’t be bothered
hundreds of their best people at it. I’m working on a ten-year time to change because it’s inconvenient for
And they invited me to join the panel frame, which I’ve frequently stated, them. What do you have to say to those
on rewriting the Chinese legal sys- based on some good science that we who don’t think that there’s any reason to
tem, which I advised them on. And need to make some significant chang- change our behaviour or that we face any
this, I take enormous encouragement es in the next ten years. Can we do it? pressing environmental concerns?
from this because they really are tak- Yes, I think we can do it because of I say, wake up and listen to chil-
ing this seriously – this a direction several factors. One is that economics dren and what they are telling us.
75
NewPhilosopher
Photo: West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrin-

thus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured.
2001 Mars Odyssey, NASA.
76
NewPhilosopher
77
Our place in the world NewPhilosopher
Illustration by Yeyei Gomez
78
NewPhilosopher Our place in the world
by Tom Chatfield
Our place in the world
the world into twenty-one equidistant the more sober sciences, if I may be
parallels between Greenland and the allowed the expression, the superiori-
equator, calculating the duration of ty is still more visible… moral philos-
the longest day in each of the central ophy, likewise.”
seven. The uninhabitable extremes, This kind of cosy prejudice was all
south of Arabia and north of Britain, very well (at least from a European
were ignored. perspective) when pronounced from
Ptolemy’s was a refinement rather an English study. But it was becoming
A climate is, etymologically, a than a rejection of Parmenides’s scheme less easy to maintain against science’s
mixture of two fields that frequent- – and this was more-or less how things capacity to measure the world not only
ly coincided in the ancient world: remained for the next sixteen hundred geometrically, but in terms of actual
geometry and astronomy. The word years. Climate was synonymous with conditions across space and time. In
originates in the ancient Greek verb latitude, and latitude with climate. December 1816, for example, a letter
klinein, “to lean”, which yielded the While the weather ceaselessly changed, was published in the Baltimore jour-
term klima for a “slope” or “zone”. In and seasons came and went, a region’s nal The Portico lamenting that year’s
the sixth century BC, Pythagoras’s climate was as permanent and predes- atrocious weather conditions – and
disciple Parmenides suggested that tined as the divisions cartographers the need to take a serious scientific in-
the Earth (which he believed to be drew upon maps. terest in the factors behind them.
spherical) could be divided into five As European powers colonised “Amidst the variety of speculations
distinct klimata based upon its sur- much of the world between the 16th which are to be found in our daily or
face’s slope in relation to the sun. and 18th centuries, far from being monthly publications,” an anonymous
The two polar zones were deemed discarded, the classical view of cli- contributor wrote under the pen-
too frigid for life, and the equatorial mate became a convenient form name Observator, “it may be consid-
zone too torrid, leaving a habitable of geographical determinism. “The ered a matter of surprise, that few or
temperate zone on either side of the intermediate climates have always none should be dedicated to the in-
equator. Aristotle subsequently con- been esteemed, both in ancient and vestigation of the phenomena of cli-
cluded that the southern temperate modern times, to be the most favour- mate, not only as applied to our part,
zone might be inhabited, but that no able to human nature,” the English but also the eastern proportion of the
Greek could ever explore it: the equa- physician William Falconer wrote in northern hemisphere…. It is general-
tor’s impassable heat was in the way. 1781, approvingly invoking Aristotle. ly admitted, that within the memory
By the time of the great mathe- He continued in this vein for some of man, there has been no summer so
matician, geographer and astronomer time: “…the inhabitants of temperate short or so inclement as the last…. In
Ptolemy of Alexandria, seven centu- climates, of Europe especially, have Europe snow has fallen in July, and we
ries after Parmenides, things had be- far excelled the rest of the world in have had no months of the year with-
come more precise. Ptolemy divided almost every article of literature… in out frost in these United States.”
79
Our place in the world NewPhilosopher
in recorded human history. Tambora allowed larger weather patterns to be

For all the so- sent gas and smoke soaring 25 miles recorded as they unfolded.
phistication of into the air, ejecting an estimated ten
billion tonnes of rock. The island was
Indeed, the very existence of
weather fronts and their unfolding
modern models, devastated by lava, pyroclastic flows, whorls was unknown (and unknowa-
toxic gases and fires, while a rain of ble) to ages whose information could
climate itself coarse ash spread for a thousand miles. travel no faster than a galloping horse.
remains an ab- Tens of thousands of people died in Through almost all of human histo-
the vicinity, many from starvation and ry, weather was a local phenomenon,
straction. disease. Yet it was the fine ash and sul- its only known patterns regional and
phur dioxide expelled into the upper seasonal. Now, new instruments and
atmosphere that would have the most instantaneous electronic communica-
devastating long-term effect. tions began to reveal a series of grand
What might lie behind these As these gradually spread across interlocking systems. When Mount
anomalies? “The superstitious,” the the planet, their presence in the strato- Krakatoa erupted in Indonesia in
author continued, “have sought for sphere began to reduce the strength of 1883 – an eruption ten times less vi-
the source of last summer’s cold, in the incoming sunlight. By the next year, in olent than Tambora’s – the event was
spots on the sun’s disk, while others, the northern hemisphere, it’s estimated reported in Europe on the same day. It
not exploring the true reason, fear a that global temperatures had cooled by would take a century for the effects of
final deterioration of our climate, that between half and one degree Celsius, ash clouds on global temperatures to
will make it hardly more desirable an effect enhanced by the eruption’s be fully investigated; but knowledge of
than that of Lapland.” He, however, coincidence with a more general cool- the planetary environment was accu-
ventured a less terrible explanation: ing trend. Crops failed, nonstop rains mulating at an ever-faster rate.
the temporary growth of “great bodies fell, frosts formed where none had What do we mean when we talk
of Arctic ice… chilling the air and the been seen before. The Year Without A about the climate, today? We’ve
whole Atlantic Ocean.” Summer, as 1816 became known, var- moved so thoroughly from abstraction
The letter’s author was entire- iously helped precipitate famine, hard- to empiricism that it’s difficult even to
ly correct to describe the summer of ship and civil unrest across Europe, imagine earlier worldviews. Yet cli-
1816 as devastatingly cold and wet Asia, and North America. mate is as atavistic a battleground as
across the northern hemisphere, and It was also one of the last truly ever: a place where evidence meets ex-
to attribute this to an event of massive global natural disasters to elude scien- istential dread, and reasoned analysis
climatic impact. But something more tific notice. The Portico’s correspondent butts its head against experience. This
distant even than Arctic ice lay behind was asking the right questions, but is perhaps because, for all the sophis-
it: a cataclysm that had taken place the communication and measurement tication of modern models, climate
one year and ten thousand miles away. tools required precisely to address itself remains an abstraction: a busi-
On 5th April 1815, a 14,000-foot them didn’t yet exist. They would soon. ness of patterns and possibilities. The
volcano called Mount Tambora erupt- As thermometers and wind speed and weather is what’s real: it’s what we see
ed on the island of Sumbawa, in what rainfall gauges became portable and and feel, celebrate and lament, endure
was then the Dutch East Indes and is popular, meteorology began its birth or perish by. And – if history is any
now Indonesia. It was, and remains, – backed by technologies such as the guide – it’s also something whose les-
the most powerful volcanic eruption telegraph which, for the first time, sons are only learned belatedly.
80
NewPhilosopher
SCENARIO 3
In 2020, despite past pledges, the inter-
national support for the Paris Agreement
starts to wane. In the years that follow,
CO2 emissions are reduced at the local and
national level but efforts are limited and
to large impacts on the Amazon rainforest,
which is also affected by deforestation. A
hurricane with intense rainfall and asso-
ciated with high storm surges destroys a
large part of Miami. A two-year drought in
not always successful. … the Great Plains in the USA and a concomi-
Global warming of 1.5°C is reached by tant drought in eastern Europe and Russia
2030 but no major changes in policies oc- decrease global crop production, resulting
cur. Starting with an intense El Niño–La in major increases in food prices and erod-
Niña phase in the 2030s, several cata- ing food security. Poverty levels increase
strophic years occur while global warming to a very large scale, and the risk and inci-
starts to approach 2°C. There are major dence of starvation increase considerably
heatwaves on all continents, with dead- as food stores dwindle in most countries;
ly consequences in tropical regions and human health suffers.
Asian megacities, especially for those ill- There are high levels of public unrest and
equipped for protecting themselves and political destabilisation due to the in-
their communities from the effects of ex- creasing climatic pressures, resulting in
treme temperatures. Droughts occur in some countries becoming dysfunctional.
regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea, The main countries responsible for the CO2
central North America, the Amazon region emissions design rapidly conceived mit-
and southern Australia, some of which are igation plans and try to install plants for
due to natural variability and others to en- carbon capture and storage, in some cases
hanced greenhouse gas forcing. Intense without sufficient prior testing. Massive in-
flooding occurs in high-latitude and trop- vestments in renewable energy often hap-
ical regions, in particular in Asia, following pen too late and are uncoordinated; energy
increases in heavy precipitation events. prices soar as a result of the high demand
Major ecosystems (coral reefs, wetlands, and lack of infrastructure. … Global and re-
forests) are destroyed over that period, gional temperatures continue to increase
with massive disruption to local liveli- strongly while mitigation solutions are be-
hoods. An unprecedented drought leads ing developed and implemented.
Scenario 3 [one possible storyline among worst-case scenarios], from Global Warming of 1.5°C, 2018, an IPCC Special
Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emis-
sion pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable de-
velopment, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
81
Climate change NewPhilosopher
THE EVIDENCE The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of
it is extremely likely (greater than 95 per cent probability) to be the result
of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that
is unprecedented over decades to millennia.
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled
scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of informa-
tion about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data,
collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was
demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer
of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many
instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of
Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.
Monthly mean CO2 concentration

Mauna Loa 1958 – 2019
Seasonal variation
CO2 Fraction in dry air (µmol/mol)
Departure from yearly average
CO2 Fraction in dry air (µmol/mol)
Month
Data: R.F. Keeling, S.J. Walker, S.C. Piper and A. F. Bollenbacher

Scripps CO2 Program
82
NewPhilosopher Climate change
GLOBAL WARMING
TEMPERATURE OCEANS:
RISE:
The planet's average surface temperature has risen

about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius)
since the late 19th century, a change driven largely
by increased carbon dioxide and other human- The oceans have absorbed much of this increased
made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the heat, with the top 700 metres (about 2,300 feet) of
warming occurred in the past 35 years, with the five ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees
warmest years on record taking place since 2010. Fahrenheit since 1969.
SHRINKING SEA
ICE LEVEL
SHEETS: RISE:
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have de-

creased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Re-
covery and Climate Experiment show Greenland
lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year
between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last cen-
about 127 billion tons of ice per year during the tury. The rate in the last two decades, however, is
same time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass nearly double that of the last century and is accel-
loss has tripled in the last decade. erating slightly every year.
EXTREME OCEAN
EVENTS: ACIDIFICATION:
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution,

the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased
by about 30 per cent. This increase is the result of
The number of record high temperature events in humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the at-
the United States has been increasing, while the mosphere and hence more being absorbed into the
number of record low temperature events has been oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by
decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about
increasing numbers of intense rainfall events 2 billion tons per year.
83
Making the world whole again NewPhilosopher

NewPhilosopher Making the world whole again
by André Dao
Making the world

whole again
creator ordered his son to kill him, and all too often obscured by phrases like
to make the earth out of his body, the “man-made” climate change, which
sun from his right eye, and the moon imply that responsibility lies with hu-
from his left. His brain was scattered manity in general. According to Ox-
across the sky and became the stars. fam, the world’s richest 10 per cent
The sky became known as karawa, the account for 49 per cent of consump-
ocean was called marawa. And the tion-based emissions. If we look at it
earth, which was made from the Spi- historically, The Guardian has reported
A long time ago, between 5,000 der Lord’s body, was Tarawa. that on a per capita basis, the United
and 3,000 years ago – pre-history, as Today, Tarawa is sinking back into States and countries in Western Eu-
they say – the world’s first great sea- the sea. Or, to be more accurate, it is rope are responsible for the most his-
farers, the Austronesian peoples, be- sinking beneath sea levels that are torical emissions. Even looking at re-
gan their great seaborne expansion rising due to human-caused climate sponsibility through nation-states can
from South East Asia into the Indian change. According to current projec- be misleading. Not every US citizen
and Pacific Oceans. Among the far- tions, Tarawa – along with the other bears the same responsibility for the
flung islands they landed on – as far as 31 atolls which make up the Repub- US’s outsized emissions footprint. In-
Madagascar in the west, and Hawaii lic of Kiribati – will be wiped from stead, it’s the fossil-fuel extracting and
in the east – was the Tarawa atoll, a the map by 2100. Actually, rising sea burning activities of specific groups of
collection of tiny islands surrounding levels will leave Tarawa uninhabitable individuals – otherwise known as cor-
a lagoon in the middle of the Pacific well before the end of the century. porations – that are responsible.
Ocean. Since that first settlement, Coastal erosion and increased flood- Now we know who is responsible.
the culture of the atoll has also been ing are pushing people from outlying But how should we measure their re-
influenced by Polynesian culture, via islands to South Tarawa, which is now sponsibility? That is the question legal
Samoa and Tonga, and Melanesian one of the most densely-populated ar- systems around the world are faced
culture, via Fiji. eas in the world. The overcrowding is with today. One answer is to look at
One of the stories told on the straining natural resources, especially how law treats other forms of wrong-
atoll is a creation myth: before time drinkable water. Salt deposits left by doing. Here we see that law often
began, Nareau the Creator – the Spi- flooding seawater make growing crops speaks in lofty but mysterious phrases.
der Lord – walked alone through Te harder every year, and the salt contam- One such phrase, common to Anglo-
Bo ma Te Maki, the darkness and the inates what drinking water is left too. American jurisdictions, is that the
cleaving. When the darkness and the The atoll might be unliveable as soon victim of a legal wrong is “to be made
cleaving began merging to form sub- as 25 or even 15 years from now. whole”. The idea is that legal remedies
stance, Nareau wove the first beings, Who is responsible for this catas- should put the victim back in the po-
the other gods. So that humankind trophe? The answer is pretty obvious: sition they were in before the wrong-
would not be separate from him, the the rich. But that obvious answer is doing. So if, for example, I wrongfully
85
Making the world whole again NewPhilosopher
dispossess you of your collection of first lawsuits against a fossil fuel com- ity as compensation, we could also
mint-condition The Beatles vinyl re- pany over climate change. In 2015, think about responsibility as care. To
cords, the law will make me return the the New York Attorney General sued put it simply, those who are most re-
records to you. And if I’ve damaged ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest sponsible for climate change should
them before they can be returned? oil and gas companies, over revelations be responsible for looking after those
The law will try to make you as good as that the company had long known most affected. That means not only
whole – with money. In other words, I about the threat fossil fuels posed. stopping ongoing climate change by
will have to pay you a sum of money Four years later, the judge found getting to zero emissions, but caring
that represents the monetary value of entirely in ExxonMobil’s favour. It for the people for whom zero carbon
the lost records, plus a sum of money wasn’t, stressed Justice Ostrager, be- targets in 2050 will be too late – like
to compensate you for any emotional cause he didn’t believe that the com- the inhabitants of Tarawa. In concrete
damage incurred. pany was a major contributor to cli- terms, Anote Tong, a former president
In theory, this might be how re- mate change. Rather, he dismissed the of Kiribati, put it this way: the people
sponsibility for climate change would lawsuit because the actual case wasn’t of Kiribati must be ensured a viable
be measured. The inhabitants of Tar- about the damage caused by climate pathway to “migrate with dignity”.
awa are to be made whole again. But change, but whether or not Exxon- Responsibility in this sense was
calculations for non-economic loss are Mobil misled its investors about the recently tested in a case before the
notoriously difficult, even in compara- risks of climate change to its own prof- UN’s Human Rights Committee.
tively simple cases involving individu- itability. By that measure, the judge Ioane Teitiota, a Kiribati citizen,
als. Magnify those difficulties to the found that no investor had been mis- witnessed first-hand the effects of
scale of loss caused by climate change led. The point, for our purposes, is that climate change on Tarawa, where he
and they start to look insurmountable. the legal action came in the form of lived with his wife in a traditional
What sum of money would compen- a securities fraud lawsuit because that village. Their wells became salinised,
sate you for the loss of your home- was the form of responsibility readily and crops became increasingly diffi-
land? For the loss of stories connected applicable to a corporation – a form of cult to grow. He and his wife saw in
to that homeland, like the story of Na- responsibility that is all about protect- the news that there “would be no fu-
reau the Creator? ing investors from losses that are al- ture for life in their country”. Want-
Apart from the difficulty of calcu- ready understood to be monetary. No ing to have children, they moved to
lating the amount of compensation, the need for translation there. New Zealand, where they sought,
necessity of translating loss into dollars Are there any other forms of le- and were denied, asylum.
distorts law’s perception of harm. We gal responsibility we could turn to? Before the Human Rights Com-
can see this distortion in one of the Rather than thinking of responsibil- mittee, Teitiota argued that New
To put it simply, those who are most

responsible for climate change
should be responsible for looking
after those most affected.
86
NewPhilosopher Making the world whole again
Zealand would violate his right to life al, is one of slow violence. Rob Nixon,
if it deported him back to a country the professor of English and environ-
with no future. The committee’s de- mental studies who coined the term,
cision was a mixed bag. On the one described slow violence as violence
hand, it acknowledged that the risk that “occurs gradually and out of sight,
of an entire country being submerged a violence of delayed destruction that
under water is so extreme that return- is dispersed across time and space, an
ing someone to such a country could attritional violence that is typically not
be incompatible with their right to viewed as violence at all”. The tragedy
life. On the other hand, the commit- of Tarawa is that its slow sinking into
tee said that the timeframe for the the sea isn’t seen for what it is – the
impending disaster on Tawara – be- violent and irreversible destruction of
tween 10 and 15 years – was insuffi- a society that has lived on the atoll for
ciently imminent to prevent Teitiota thousands of years. And until the law
from being deported. learns to see slow violence for what it
The problem here, and with legal is, its efforts to hold those responsible
responses to climate change in gener- to account will continue to fail.
87
The meaning of climate NewPhilosopher
88
NewPhilosopher The meaning of climate
Climate
/ˈklīmit/
noun:
1. The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.
2. A region with particular prevailing weather conditions.
3. The prevailing trend of public opinion or of another aspect of public life.
Origin:
Late Middle English from Old French climat or late Latin clima, climat-, from Greek klima ‘slope,
zone’, from klinein ‘to slope’. The term originally denoted a zone of the Earth between two lines of
latitude, then any region of the Earth, and later, a region considered with reference to its atmos-
pheric conditions.
89
Ethical children NewPhilosopher
Ethical

children
Questions from
and answers for children,
by Matthew Beard
If we know it’s a bad thing, why don’t how we work to stop climate change. baby to put them on anymore. When
we stop climate change? We need to unite. Each of us work- the baby died, the idea of the shoes
The trickiest part of this question ing alone – doing things like recycling, died with it.
is the word ‘we’. Lots of us believe that avoiding plastic or being more sus- We might think that an Earth
climate change is real and that’s is a tainable – is good, but it won’t go far without any life on it is a bit like
bad thing (that is probably going to get enough. We need to give ourselves one those baby shoes. It’s tempting to
worse). But not everybody thinks that big, loud voice that’s as powerful as the think that because everything that
way. There are still people who deny people getting in the way. That means lives on Earth is dead, the planet
the existence or seriousness of climate writing to politicians, showing up to itself is dead too. But I’m not sure
change, even despite the evidence. Un- protests and getting other people to that’s true.
fortunately, some of these people are do the same. Without anything living here, the
very powerful and very wealthy. Alone, none of us is as powerful as Earth would still soar through space,
It might be nice if the world was some of the big climate deniers. But waves would continue to crash against
a perfect democracy, where every per- together, we can be noisy enough to cliffs, rivers would run and lightning
son had the same ability to influence overcome them. would crack across the horizon. The
what happened. In reality, sometimes planet would be full of sound, colour,
a small group of people have much What happens if everything on Earth order and chaos.
more influence than they should. dies – does the Earth die too? I think it would be better if there
Some people have had much more There’s a famous short story – some was life around to enjoy the Earth.
impact than others in causing climate people say it’s the shortest story ever Just like it would be better if there was
change, and now some people are hav- written. It goes like this: “For sale: baby a baby foot to put the shoe onto. But
ing more impact in getting in the way shoes, never worn.” even without life, the shoe is beauti-
of addressing it. Lots of people read this story as be- ful, as is the Earth, and both can serve
What that means is that each of ing a story about a baby who died. The as a reminder that something very
us needs to think differently about shoes are being sold because there is no special – life – has been lost.
90
NewPhilosopher Ethical dilemma
Ethical
dilemma
by Matthew Beard
I like to think that I care for the envi- a world that is not of our making or courage to change what I can, and the
ronment and for the future of the planet, choosing and thrown into moral con- wisdom to know the difference.”
and I’m concerned by the potential effects nections and relationships that confer Accepting our inevitable connec-
of climate change and environmental de- on us obligations, responsibilities and tion to the current state of affairs is
struction – bushfires, drought, rising sea sometimes, inescapable guilt. only an appropriate moral response
levels, food shortages, etc. I try to buy local For many of us, the lifestyles that once we’re confident we’ve dealt with
food and recycled packaging, I steer clear we live are built to adapt to a system what can be changed. It seems to me
of anything in plastic, and rarely fly an- that we are rapidly discovering is fun- as though there are parts of your life
ywhere. Yet not all my actions are in the damentally unjust and unsustainable. you’re treating as fixed that might ac-
best interests of future generations: I have Our fit-for-purpose lives make sense tually be quite flexible. For instance,
two vehicles (one of them diesel) that my within an unfit-for-purpose system. do your children have the ability to use
partner and I use constantly, I heat my in- And now, in a moment where pivotal public transport? How much ferrying
efficiently-designed house using log fires, I change is necessary, many people are do they really need? What options are
conveniently ignore the fact that most of trying to change their lives whilst the there for carpooling?
my clothes are shipped from the other side system stubbornly insists on staying There’s a difference between some-
of the world, and I eat meat. However I the same. thing being impossible to change and it
don’t feel like can change any of these aspects The result of this is usually a lot being hard or inconvenient to change.
of my life: having just one car would make of sacrifice on the part of individu- When we hit the former, we need to
it all but impossible to ferry our children al people and families. We make our accept the reality of our life, warts and
around, I can’t afford to upgrade heating lives better aligned to our values and all. When it’s the latter, we shouldn’t
or buy more expensive local clothes, and a the longevity of the planet but do so throw our hands up and surrender. We
meat-free diet leaves me feeling flat. But at the cost of how well-optimised our should fight to make our life and our
even if I were to make these changes, I am lifestyle is to the economic and social world one we’d be proud to live in, and
certain that it would make no difference systems we’ve been thrown into. to have played a role in building.
to the fate of the planet. The same is true Realising this can remind us of the What’s more, whilst the serenity
of those around me – it seems to be a case value of acceptance: we cannot change prayer approach offers a quiet dignity
of the tragedy of the commons. Why should the system by changing our behaviour, in the face of unshakeable challenges,
concerned citizens change their behaviour so perhaps we need to find other ways it’s by no means the only approach.
in small ways if it will make no difference of changing the system and, in the Perhaps your actions won’t make a
at all? Meanwhile large companies con- meanwhile, accept and find ways to difference one way or another in the
tinue to destroy and pollute… make sense of our complicity. grand scheme of things. It doesn’t fol-
As a child, I was taught the Se- Perhaps. But to do this alone low that you should lend the strength
renity Prayer: “grant me the courage would be an incomplete moral re- of your arm to ecological collapse.
to accept the things I cannot change”. sponse. After all, as many reading this There may be dignity in acceptance,
It’s a wonderful distillation of some- would know, I’ve offered an incom- but it can also be found in continu-
thing essential about the human con- plete citing of the Serenity Prayer. The ing to fight, strive and howl in protest,
dition. We find ourselves thrown into full version continues “… grant me the even when facing impossible odds.
91
Wild thinking NewPhilosopher
92
NewPhilosopher Wild thinking
by Zan Boag
Wild thinking
people who would help transform the or even what that something is that
way our society was structured. it lacks. Pinpointing how to fix the
It’s most likely an understatement problem is more difficult, and while
to say that Frank would be disappoint- important, without action it is ineffec-
ed with the direction the world has tive.” It’s not that he didn’t value the
taken in the twenty years since I sat ‘what’ and the ‘how’, it’s just that he
in his classroom. 2019 was Australia’s thought we needed to put more em-
hottest and driest year on record, with phasis on action; on doing. We know
the annual national mean maximum that the tap is leaking – we’re annoyed
Our classes were often conduct- temperature 2.09 °C above average by the dripping and we’re upset by the
ed in low light, a blurry, soft-spoken and rainfall 40 per cent below average. waste. But rather than simply pointing
figure gesticulating from the front. Bushfires raged across the country, and complaining, we must start trying
“Don’t just flick on a light switch,” ex- burning 186,000 square kilometres of to fix the tap.
horted Frank Fisher. “Think about the land and killing one billion animals. There’s a phenomenon that is
process involved in generating the en- In 2014 Australia’s Carbon Tax was referred to as environmental condi-
ergy for that light – all the way from repealed. In 2018, the current Prime tioning, which is, according to the
the coal-fired power plant to this light Minister held aloft – in parliament, no OECD, “the modification of the en-
switch – and ask yourself, ‘Do you re- less – a lump of coal like a trophy; and vironment of one or more organisms
ally need that extra bit of light?’” His that was before he was elected. Else- by their activities, including reaction
suggestion to combat the involuntary where in the world, it’s little better. and co-action (liberation of oxy-
switching on of lights when entering The world is losing an area of forest gen, for example, by water plants in
a room: place them at knee height the size of the UK each year. The last an aquarium)”. By releasing massive
(although when he said this, I could six years are the six hottest years on amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere,
always picture a cracked switchboard record globally. According to the UN, humans in the 20th century are cer-
and scuff marks circling the knee- there are “46,000 pieces of plastic” per tainly engaging in their own form of
height light switch). square mile of ocean, a phenomenon environmental conditioning. But it
Peripatetic classes, lectures in the which finds its apotheosis in the Great is another form of conditioning that
bush, light-free tutorials: the aim of Pacific Garbage Patch, which boasts I think is at the heart of our current
all these activities was to shift our some 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. malaise, one in which we are passive
perspective, to make us view the world Frank would probably also be dis- rather than active participants. While
from a different angle – to make our appointed by my reference to what is we may be conditioning the environ-
thinking “wild”, as he liked to say.This wrong with the current state of the ment, we are also becoming conditioned
mild-mannered professor of environ- world. “Identifying what is wrong to the current environment – adapt-
mental science wanted to make his is easy,” he would say. “It’s not hard ing to the state of affairs that sees ris-
students “wild thinkers”; a group of to identify that something is lacking, ing temperatures and polluted rivers,
93
Wild thinking NewPhilosopher
failing crops and cleared rainforests. to the inaction that permeates all lev- I’m not doing Frank any justice
We are becoming conditioned to the els of society, from individuals to gov- by mentioning light switches and
devastation and destruction around ernments to corporations. And that buses; his ideas ran much deeper
us; unmoved the effects of climate is who Frank Fisher was talking to in than this. What he really taught
change; insensitive to the legacy we our classes: he was trying to exhort a me, and countless other students
leave for future generations. By be- group of 20-somethings to unearth I imagine, was how to look within
coming accustomed to this new envi- and embrace the wild thinker within, myself and unearth my wildest
ronment, we do nothing. Genetically, as he was certain that it was only wild thoughts, and, importantly, to turn
humans have adapted to cope with thinking that could save us. them into action. “Just that you do
various environmental conditions. Twenty years after those darkened the right thing,” Marcus Aurelius
Excess layers of fat to deal with the classes, Frank is no longer with us, ul- writes in Meditations. “The rest
cold, sweating to deal with the heat. timately dying from a brain tumour in doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired
Are we adapting psychologically to 2012. His spirit remains in the ideas or well rested. Despised or hon-
deal with climate change by becom- and energy he passed on to his stu- oured. Dying... or busy with other
ing numb to its effects? Is it inconve- dents, including me: I still take pause assignments.” Just as Aurelius ad-
nient to look at the causes front on, before flicking a light switch, thinking vised, Frank showed through his
to implement the solutions that we of him when I feel my way through a five-decade battle with Crohn’s dis-
know to be necessary? dark room in the evening for a glass of ease and his relentless fight against
When I say ‘we’, I refer mostly to water. And when I see gridlock in city environmental destruction that we
those over 50; those who may not be traffic, I am reminded how he cam- must not find excuses for inaction.
around to feel the full force of Nature’s paigned – unsuccessfully – for Mel- Instead, we must do all that is in our
response to our tinkering with the bourne to have free public transport. power to effect positive change in
Earth’s systems. Younger generations An idea that seems obvious, yet some- the world – no matter how cold or
seem to have a more visceral response how unachievable all at once. tired or busy we might be.
94
NewPhilosopher
“Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever

he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are
turned to discords.”
– George Perkins Marsh
Yan'an East Road Interchange, Shanghai, China
95
Six thinkers NewPhilosopher
Climate
The Physicist The Diplomat The Leader
Stephen Hawking Kofi Annan Chief Seattle
1942 – 2018 1938 – 2018 1786 – 1866
Human demands Your threat Respect the land
“One can see from space how the “Depending on where you live, “You must teach the children that
human race has changed the Earth. your threat is much different from the ground beneath their feet is the
Nearly all of the available land has the other person. If you ask a New ashes of your grandfathers. So that
been cleared of forest and is now used Yorker today, because of the way the they will respect the land, tell your
for agriculture or urban development. press plays it, he will say terrorism children that the earth is rich with
The polar icecaps are shrinking and is his biggest fear. But for somebody the lives of our kin. Teach your chil-
the desert areas are increasing. At living on a small island state, then it dren what we have taught our chil-
night, the Earth is no longer dark, but is climate change, the rise of the sea dren, that the earth is our mother.
large areas are lit up. All of this is evi- level, for his whole island may be Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the
dence that human exploitation of the washed away. If I go to southern Af- sons of the earth. If men spit upon the
planet is reaching a critical limit. But rica, they tell me it is HIV/AIDS and ground, they spit upon themselves.
human demands and expectations are somewhere in Asia it is poverty. This … This we know, the earth does not
ever-increasing. We cannot continue is also why you will find it difficult to belong to man, man belongs to the
to pollute the atmosphere, poison the find agreements, because if you want earth. This we know. All things are
ocean and exhaust the land. There someone to be concerned about your connected like the blood which unites
isn’t any more available.” threat, then you should be concerned one family. All things are connected.
about his.” Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the
sons of the earth. Man did not weave
the web of life, he is merely a strand
in it. Whatever he does to the web, he
does to himself.”
96
NewPhilosopher Six thinkers
What does climate change mean to humans?

Here are six thinkers’ views on the climate.
The Linguist The Activist The Ethicist

Noam Chomsky Naomi Klein Kieran Setiya
1928 – 1970 – 1976 –
Exponential growth Stop looking away Weaker than a child
“Global warming proceeds on its “Slavery wasn’t a crisis for British “Making our ethics more explicit,
inexorable course. During this mil- and American elites until abolition- being self-conscious about our princi-
lennium, every single year, with one ism turned it into one. Racial dis- ples and premises, improves our mor-
exception, has been hotter than the crimination wasn’t a crisis until the al thinking. This is particularly true
last one. There are recent scientific civil rights movement turned it into when the questions are ones of public
papers, James Hansen and others, one. Sex discrimination wasn’t a cri- policy, when they operate at scales
which indicate that the pace of global sis until feminism turned it into one. that defy intuitive judgement, and
warming, which has been increas- Apartheid wasn’t a crisis until the an- when they threaten our complacent
ing since about 1980, may be sharply ti-apartheid movement turned it into desire to maintain the status quo. The
escalating and may be moving from one. In the very same way, if enough problem of climate change is chal-
linear growth to exponential growth, of us stop looking away and decide lenging in all these ways. It is unique,
which means doubling every couple that climate change is a crisis worthy or unusual, in that it leads rapidly
of decades. We’re already approach- of Marshall Plan levels of response, beyond the usual terrain of political
ing the conditions of 125,000 years then it will become one, and the po- theory to questions more abstract and
ago, when the sea level was about litical class will have to respond, both existential. Why should we care about
roughly 25 feet higher than it is today, by making resources available and by the survival of humanity? The answer
with the melting, the rapid melting, bending the free market rules that makes a difference to our assessment
of the Antarctic, huge ice fields. We have proven so pliable when elite in- of catastrophic risks. How should we
might – that point might be reached. terests are in peril.” think about decisions that affect the
The consequences of that are almost identity of future individuals? If we
unimaginable. I mean, I won’t even do not act on climate change, people
try to depict them, but you can figure born 50 or 100 years from now will
out quickly what that means.” lead impoverished lives.”
97
Changing the Earth’s atmosphere NewPhilosopher
Changing
the Earth’s
Interviewee:
Charley Lineweaver
Interviewer: Tim Dean
atmosphere
The other planets are not suitable for of the Sun, but it has no atmosphere.
aerobic respirers like us. There’s an ef- Therefore, there’s no water. Therefore,
fort that might be made to terraform we’re not interested in it in terms of
Mars to get some oxygen in the atmos- habitability. But if you made the Moon
phere there, but that will take a long, bigger and bigger, it would become
long time, and lots of effort. For the harder for gases like CO2, hydrogen,
near future, let’s say 1,000 years or so, nitrogen, oxygen, or H2O, to escape.
if you’re going to live on Mars, you’re As planets get more and more mas-
going to have to live inside a cave or a sive, they tend to have atmospheres.
capsule or a spacesuit of some kind be- For example, Mars is about one tenth
cause the atmosphere of Mars is CO2 the mass of the Earth. Therefore, Mars
and we can’t breathe that. Exoplanets cannot hold on to its atmosphere very
are a whole other story that is getting well, because gravity is what holds an
increasingly beautiful and complex. atmosphere on to a planet. However,
Most people are probably familiar We’ve found thousands and thou- if Mars were maybe twice as massive
with just one atmosphere: our own. How sands of new planets. A small fraction as it is today, it would have a thicker
does Earth’s atmosphere compare to the of them are what you might call wet atmosphere, and it would maybe have
other planets that we know about? rocky planets in the habitable zones held onto the water that it started out
There’s no place in our solar system of their host stars. One thing that de- with. Similarly, Venus. If it had not had
today where we could land and then termines a planet’s atmosphere is its such a large atmosphere – if it hadn’t
say: ‘Oh, this is nice. We can breathe.’ surface temperature. It’s not enough been so close to the Sun – it might not
There’s no oxygen on the Moon. to be at the right temperature, you have gone through a runaway green-
There’s no oxygen on Mars. There’s no need an atmosphere. Take the Moon, house effect, which was probably the
oxygen on Venus, Saturn, Uranus, etc. for example. It’s in the ‘habitable zone’ reason it lost its water. The atmos-
98
NewPhilosopher Changing the Earth’s atmosphere
Illustration by Alvaro Hidalgo 99

The atmospheres of exoplanets depend

on how far the exoplanets are from their
host star and on whether they are massive
enough to hold on to an atmosphere.
pheres of exoplanets depend on how that’s the sweet spot in the distribu- can be so cold that their gases are easy
far the exoplanets are from their host tion of exoplanets that we’re looking to hold on to. So, there’s a kind of a
stars and on whether they are massive at very carefully – trying to figure out trade-off. High masses and cold tem-
enough to hold on to an atmosphere. what the patterns are. The highest peratures allow a planet to hold on to
If a planet is too massive, its atmos- mass planets have hydrogen atmos- its atmosphere, while low masses and
phere will be gigantic, like the atmospheres. As planet masses get small- high temperatures make it easier for
pheres of Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, er, they probably have thick water the atmosphere to escape. The atmos-
and Saturn. There is a sweet spot that atmospheres. Even lower mass and pheres of exoplanets depend on how
some colleagues have called the ‘cos- you start to have atmospheres like we far the exoplanets are from their host
mic shoreline’ between rocks with no have on Venus, Mars, and Earth. And star and on whether they are massive
atmospheres, and rocks with gigantic if you get even less massive – and cold enough to hold on to an atmosphere.
hydrogen atmospheres. In between – you have atmospheres made out of Those are the two variables you need
there’s a strip that you might call nitrogen and argon, like Pluto’s. Small to keep in mind when you’re thinking
rocks with modest atmospheres. And planets far away from their host stars about rocky planets with atmospheres:
100
mass and temperature. We’re trying Venus is so different from the Earth.
Life has played to figure out what the details of this It’s something that we might be-
a very important trade-off are among the exoplanets
we’re detecting.
come more familiar with if we keep
on burning fossil fuels, increasing the
part in changing CO2, and thus produce a runaway
Let me ask about one planet that we greenhouse on Earth.
the Earth’s at- do know quite a lot about, which is Ve-
mosphere. nus. Venus has a lot of physical similar- What would Earth’s atmosphere look
ities to Earth. But Venus’s atmosphere like if life had not evolved here?
is very different from ours. It’s much That’s a difficult question. Life has
more dense and the surface temperature played a very important part in chang-
is over 460 degrees Celsius. How did it ing the Earth’s atmosphere. For ex-
diverge so much? Was it once more like ample, 2.3 billion years ago there was
Earth’s atmosphere? the Great Oxygenation Event, and
Yes, the data suggests that Venus the oxygen levels went from almost
was like Earth about four billion years zero to around one per cent. That’s a
ago, maybe even three billion years ago, large increase. And then somewhere
maybe even more recently. Some peo- just before the Cambrian it went up
ple think there might have been life on again. And so the oxygen content that
Venus. Earth is at 1 AU [astronomical everybody thinks is very important –
unit, the distance from the Earth to the because that’s what you’re breathing
Sun]. Venus is at 0.7 AU. When you right now – has changed enormously.
calculate how much sunlight Venus Also, I’m looking at a bunch of clouds
receives, you take the inverse square of right now. And the trees out there,
that distance, which means that Venus they’re doing what’s called evapotran-
gets about twice as much sunlight as spiration. They’re taking lots of water
Earth. On the other hand, Venus has from the soil and putting it into the
clouds that are very reflective, so its air, and that turns into clouds. So, let’s
albedo is very high. And so Venus re- think about the Earth with life and
flects a lot more of sunlight than Earth without life. Let’s say that the water
does. But Venus’s atmosphere is also content is the same. I’ve heard some
very thick and full of CO2, which is a people who study this say there might
strong greenhouse gas. It had a runa- be twice as many clouds in the atmos-
way greenhouse effect, which is why phere because of life compared to a
101
Humans are hundreds or thousands of years, and then

the very long term over millions of years?
to the billion-year timescales that
I’ve been talking about. Over the past
changing this We know that the Sun will turn billion years, the biosphere may have
into a red giant and engulf the Earth reduced the amount of CO2, to keep
natural variation. or make it unbearably hot in about six the Earth cool despite the increasing
So, for example, billion years. We are very sure of that. luminosity of the Sun.
On the other hand, the luminosity of
right now the sea the Sun continuously increases. That If we do continue to pump enough
levels would be will have the effect in about half a
billion or a billion years of remov-
greenhouse gases into our atmosphere to
reach a tipping point and start a runa-
going down, but ing the water from Earth. Losing the way greenhouse effect, what would that
water on Earth is something that is do to our atmosphere?
because we’re really bad if you’re a life form. And The most optimistic thing I can say
emitting so much so it looks like a billion years would about that is look at the past million
be how long we have before the in- years on Earth. Look at the ice cores
CO2, they’re go- creasing luminosity of the Sun dries from Antarctica or Greenland and see
out the surface of the Earth. People how the temperature has varied, and
ing up. say that’s a long time. Well it’s short what caused that variation. And keep
cosmologically, but it’s very long in in mind that for most of Earth’s his-
terms of a human lifetime. It seems to tory, we have not had polar ice caps.
be the case that the CO2 content of Having polar ice caps is what you get
the Earth has been decreasing over a when you are in a glacial period and
billion-year timescale; you may have it’s cold. Now, that doesn’t mean that
heard of C3 or C4 photosynthesis. humans are not having an effect. It’s
C4 is better at grabbing CO2 out of just that the natural variability over,
the atmosphere. And this is a way for example, the last hundred million
in which some plants have adapted years is gigantic. For example, the sea
over the last 100 million years or so level goes up and down by hundreds
to a decreasing level of CO2. It may of metres. And this is a very natural
be that some kind of Gaian regula- thing that has nothing to do with hu-
tion is going on: the biosphere may mans. On the other hand, we know
be trying to keep the temperature in that humans are changing this natural
planet without life. That’s important a regime comfortable for life by de- variation. For example, right now sea
because low clouds reflect sunlight. creasing CO2. As CO2 goes down, levels would probably be going down,
They cool the Earth. But high clouds the greenhouse effect decreases, but because we’re emitting so much
have the opposite effect. H2O vapour cooling the atmosphere. Meanwhile, CO2, they’re going up. If you look at
acts as a greenhouse gas. So the effect the luminosity of the Sun is going the variability over 100 million years,
of clouds is incredibly complicated and up, and so they compensate for each so far humanity has changed the tem-
the people who are trying to make cli- other and therefore the temperature perature or the sea level maybe 10% or
mate predictions are always wrestling stays about right for life. That’s one less of what you would expect to see
with these two contradictory influenc- idea. Some people think that’s balo- over the hundred-million-year time-
es of H2O in the atmospheres. ney and other people think it makes scale. So, for example, during the Pal-
sense. So, it’s a hard thing to test. aeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
What about the future of Earth’s at- But in the long term, CO2 is going 56 million years ago it was 8 degrees
mosphere? Because changes happen very down except for the fact that we are warmer than it is now on average.
slowly, relative to human lifespan, we burning all these fossil fuels. We can’t That’s a lot. But the problem with what
tend to feel as though things like the at- keep on doing this for very long. I’m humanity is doing is we’re changing
mosphere are relatively stable. But we not sure how long people will contin- things on a much faster timescale.
know that they do and will change. What ue to burn fossil fuels, maybe 50 or That’s the issue. That is unprecedent-
can we expect from the future of Earth’s 100 years, or maybe 1,000 years. But ed, as far as I can see. People should
atmosphere in the near term over maybe that’s a blip. That’s nothing compared recognise that the Earth has changed
102
enormously on long timescales. In the ing to it in the next decade or three.

last million years or so you see these And so you might think it doesn’t mat-
glacial and interglacial periods, and ice ter what humans do. Nature does that
ages coming and going, the polar ice itself. It’s not that warming has never
caps increasing and decreasing in size. happened before. It has. What is new is
Those things are natural. But they’re the rate at which it is changing. That’s
natural if they’re taking 100,000 years, crucial for biology, because if change
not 100. happens slowly, biology can adapt. If
change happens quickly, species can’t
How has the research you have done, adapt quickly enough to keep up. And
and the thinking along cosmological so you run into problems associated
timescales, changed the way that you with the wonderful things that species
look at our own planet and what we’re do for each other. The biosphere is all
doing to it? connected and there’s a nice network
Well, it’s kind of like living in a that compensates and buffers things.
neighbourhood and then getting a But if you turn the temperature up,
map of the neighbourhood, and then turn the thermostat up by one hun-
getting a map of the country, and then dred degrees, then life will die except
getting a map of the Earth, and get- for some bacteria, and then things will
ting a map of the solar system. It gives be enormously changed. It all depends
you a perspective from further away. on the rate of change, not necessarily
It gives you an overview that almost the amount of change.
makes you feel that you’re no longer a
part of it, or that your part of it is tiny
and less significant. I guess it makes Dr Charley Lineweaver is Senior
you a little bit more humble. I think. I Fellow at the Planetary Science Institute
hope. That’s the feeling I get about the at the Australian National University.
Earth from studying other planets. The
idea that there are many billions and
billions of other planets like Earth out
there, well, what does that say about
humanity on Earth? A lot of people
think human-like intelligence is a
convergent feature of evolution. There-
fore, we should expect all kinds of
technological aliens out there. But we
haven’t heard from any. I think one of
the most important things to keep in
mind is that the timescale is really im-
portant. When you talk about what’s
happening in the atmosphere, are you
talking about day-to-day, or a season-
al timescale or a decadal timescale?
Or a 1,000-year, 10,000-year, hun-
dred-thousand-year, a million-year,
ten-million-year timescale? These are
hugely different. When you talk about
the differences that have happened to
Earth’s atmosphere over the last hun-
dred million years, they are enormous
compared to anything that we are do-
103
When degree is shaked NewPhilosopher

NewPhilosopher When degree is shaked
When degree
is shaked
By William Shakespeare
When the planets

In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,
What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenity and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what discord follows. Each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe.
From Troilus and Cressida
105
Writers’ Award XXVI: Change NewPhilosopher
Here we present the winners of New Philosopher Writers’ Award XXVI: Change. Once
more, we received a record number of entries from around the world, from Milan
to Texas to Canberra to London. In first place is writer Michael Ellis for Stories of
change and in second place is Beloit College Emeritus Professor of English Tom
McBride for Heracl itus on tal k radio.
Stories of change
by Michael Ellis
When all is said and done, how do But who is right? The parable pro- and killed. Last, through a medium,
we not know but that our own un- claims, ‘though each is partly in the the samurai alleges that his treacher-
reason may be better than anoth- right, all are in the wrong.’ ous wife forced him to stab himself
er’s truth? There’s a good chance you can im- with her dagger. Each story offers an
W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight agine situations where you feel that you alternative slant on proceedings, and
could declare, ‘but I know I’m right.’ each story loosens the viewer’s grasp
You may have heard the one-thou- Right? This parable imagines what lat- of the truth. The truth is not the only
sand-year-old parable of the blind six er came to be known as the Rashomon thing disrupted by the Rashomon ef-
and the elephant. Imagine yourself as effect – the phenomenon of recalling fect; it also asks us to reflect on how
blind and inclined to learn what an the same event differently. The Rasho- storytelling changes us. And how we
elephant looks like. You approach the mon effect stems from Akira Kuro- are just one perspective among others.
beast, with five others, and each of you sawa’s 1950s ground-breaking film But herein lies the troubling as-
try to see it by touching different parts Rashomon, which depicts the death of pect of being an individual in an ever-
of the animal. You feel satisfied that a samurai told three times from differ- changing social world. Do our nar-
you’ve found the truth about the ele- ing perspectives. First is the bandit’s rative identities change when other
phant’s appearance – a distinct mental version, who claims to have beaten the people tell their stories? Sarah Polley’s
image. ‘The creature looks like a snake,’ samurai in a duel after seducing the film Stories We Tell offers insight into
you cry touching the trunk. ‘No, it samurai’s wife. The wife’s account is the way narrative identity warps under
looks like a tree,’ you hear someone that, after being assaulted by the ban- the weight of competing perspectives.
remark about the knee. ‘It looks like a dit, she fainted with dagger in hand, The film excavates layers of memory
rope,’ calls another, regarding the tail. awaking to find her husband stabbed within a family unit in an attempt to
106
NewPhilosopher Writers’ Award XXVI: Change
WINNER
Writers’ Award XXVI:

Change
uncover the truth at the core of her vividly his encounter with Michael; it norms, which take a lifetime to devel-
family’s story. Their stories, often re- remained burned into his memory and op. Memories, of course, are not like
vealing and deeply personal, portray into his life’s story. But Michael had replaying a videotape; rather they are
the fallibility of memory. Their con- forgotten that Harry was ever present an expression of how we see the world,
flicting memories constitute the com- at Diane’s wake. For Harry, the day encoded with our values and a product
pelling way narratives build our iden- was filled with uncertainty and regret of our innate potential to create mean-
tity, helping to make sense of our place for attending the burial and imposing. And this potential toward mean-
in the world. ing on the family that he was not yet ing can be corrupted and distorted by
In Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley is a part. For Michael, the day centred the stories and perspectives of others.
unsettled by the constant questioning around his family’s grief, without re- We have all experienced this type of
and mystery surrounding the identity gard for Harry’s presence. Yet when misshaped truth, playing games as
of her biological father. Her siblings Michael discovers that Harry was at children of whispered messages to one
tease her about not looking like Mi- the funeral and his closeness to Diane, another. Our stories garble with each
chael – her siblings’ biological father the narrative of that day is forced to mumbled message; the truth a muddle
and the man who raised Sarah. Mi- yield and change, considering Harry’s of multiple viewpoints.
chael even jokes with Sarah, asking perspective on proceedings and Mi- Each of our life stories can be re-
‘who do you think your father is this chael’s relation to him. imagined and changed through our
week?’ Sarah searches for her bio- Clearly this is complicated by the continual retelling. And each of our
logical father, as rumours lead her to tenuous truth of eyewitness testimony. stories are manipulated endlessly by
Montreal where her mother starred in Memory has been shown to be falli- others, sending ripples through our
a play. Harry, the director of the play, ble; if one accounts their story mul- lives. We change our individual nar-
is shown to be Sarah’s biological fa- tiple times, then the story can evolve ratives through others’ differing per-
ther. This revelation, though a relief to and change beyond any resemblance spectives on them, like light refract-
Sarah, complicates the story she tells of its humble beginnings. The in- ing through a prism and bending in
about her identity and underlines how terpretation of witnessing a fatal car infinite directions. The narrative that
our stories are constantly changing. crash, for example, can differ widely Sarah weaves, for instance – that Mi-
Later in the film, Harry confesses from witness to witness. Personal in- chael is her biological father and her
his trepidation surrounding his attend- terpretation of such an event depends siblings blood relations – requires her
ance at Diane’s funeral. He remembers on learnt socio-cultural values and to unbind her grip and reprise a new
107
Bl ind monks examining an elephant, Hanabusa Itchō, 1652–1724.
story, allowing for Harry’s perspective would be a jumble of incoherent rever- tethered to the consequences of the
to become integral to her life. Our ies that wouldn’t tether us to the social social world. In this vision of reality,
narrative identities become pliable world in which most of these events we would be free from criticism and
when bent and stretched by storytell- take place. As our narrative identities critique. But we would be caught in
ing. hang together throughout our lives, a solipsistic limbo unable, however
Yet our life narratives must hang they are reshaped and changed by the long we sat thinking, to know our-
together as a cohesive and coherent imposing force of competing stories; selves without the opaque mirror
thread. In fact, Scottish philosopher our lives become a civic playground held to us by other people’s stories.
Alasdair MacIntyre argues for the where we gossip and grow; we exist We would be stuck unchanged and
“narrative unity of a human life” in among a site of narrative chatter that unknown. Indeed, we uncover our
which an individual’s life is seen as a helps determine how we see ourselves personhood through our interactions
connected story and not an accumu- and where we stand in others’ stories. with other people. We are one among
lation of discreet events. MacIntyre Of course, this is all very anti-Car- others. So, whether you see a snake,
believes this establishes the possibili- tesian. Descartes elevation of the “I” a tree or a rope, the person you think
ty for a properly civil and moral life. as the original truth, beyond the vast you are relies on what others see and
Without our ability to bind together illusion of the external world, severs often what they tell. Even if that is
all our discreet events, our identities the cogito as a free-floating entity, un- constantly changing.
108
RUNNER-UP

Change
Heraclitus on talk radio

by Tom McBride
Whatever the philosophical merits again, that the Annual List makes exhausted the nuance of what Her-
of the subject, I have a made a little on them feel old and out of it. They can- aclitus thought, since he was much
the side talking about change. That’s not believe that so much has changed interested in permanence as he was
because over two decades ago I got “since these college kids were born in change. He’s sometimes opposed
involved in a project called the Mind- eighteen years ago”. They will chuckle by Parmenides, who thought change
set List, an annual inventory of what about it, but one can tell that they feel was an illusion, whereas Heraclitus
has always or never been true during a bit insulted and hurt. Change can be thought change happened all the time
the lifetimes of entering college stu- hard even when it’s gradual and soft. and was real. Well, apparently Hera-
dents. Wire-rimmed glasses no longer I find myself wanting to refer them clitus did think change was real, but
meant John Lennon but Harry Potter. to Heraclitus. Some of them may in deeming it constant he was also
LBJ is no longer Lyndon Johnson but know his most famous fragmentary saying it was fixed. The river is always
LeBron James. Funds of information apothegm, that one never steps into fluid, but its flow is always fixed. It is
change, and professors had better the same river twice – I once heard it the very pan-persistence of change
learn to adapt when they teach their quoted in the original ancient Greek that gives our being its grounding.
charges, who grow younger each year. and got a rush at the fluid rhythms of He was among those who objected
The Mindset List became popular and the syllables. Heraclitus was a clev- as Homer and Hesiod called the gods
brought its authors, such as me, to in- er stylist. If I had referred these dis- drunken fighters and fickle lovers. No:
terviews and appearances on national mayed call-in listeners to Heraclitus, A god presides over the permanence
and international media. Time maga- I might have said, “This fellow from of change, the fixity of fluidity. If only
zine once called the term “now part of ancient Greek civilisation, Heraclitus, we could see things from a god-like
the American lexicon”. said change is incessant, so we all have perch, we would not be so distressed
We Mindset List authors have to get used to it.” by change. But that requires us to stop
been on lots of talk shows, where the That would have been a fine ra- thinking about gods as rapists and
public calls in to say, over and over dio retort, but I would hardly have bullies, wanton and wild. The river
109
Democritus and Heracl itus, Richard

Gaywood, ca. 1630-1680, The Met
is always changing, and we are always fire burns and goes out and flames It’s as though, for Heraclitus fans,
changing between steps into it. But again. It nourishes us via the sun and Hopkins ruined his brilliant display of
that’s just it: we are always changing. burns us in a fever. This is suggested, Heraclitean fire, of great philosophi-
Heraclitus said elsewhere that the though never quite stated, in Hop- cal interest, with theology. The title of
bow and arrow seem two but are re- kins’ ear- and eye-ravishing lines, the poem adds, “And the Comfort of
ally one. Shooting it entails both life chocked with shimmering neologisms the Resurrection.” But then Heracli-
and death. Opposites unite, but that’s, of spectacular change (“yester-tem- tus was not writing or thinking for a
again, is just the point: they are oppo- pest”, “air-built”) and shifting clouds Christian audience hundreds of years
sites but always caught up in the same and ooze and dust and the dark and off, nor, it seems, were the callers into
cycle of life and death. Spatially they pulsating void of blinding sun and, shows on the Mindset List comforted
are diverse and changing, but tempo- over time, the absence of Christ, who by their priests.
rally they are the unmodified same: is welcomed abruptly near the end of Even if change is the one tempo-
animation and mortality at once. the poem as He whose trumpet blows ral constant we have, it can seem pro-
Gerard Manly Hopkins, one of the away the relentless chaos of change found – which must have been what
most interesting of poets from a phil- without end. drew Heraclitus’ attention to it in
osophical perspective, and the most For Father Hopkins, a Jesuit, the the first place. This aspect of change
novel of Victorian poets, once wrote permanence of change was no comfort. is illustrated with wit in a poem by
a dazzling poem called That Nature is Only the resurrection of Christ, “who another philosophically arresting
A Heraclitean Fire, and an elemental was what I am now”, can offer solace. writer (one of the most so, according
110
RUNNER-UP

Change
to Simon Critchley), the American wilderness. It’s just that we have to see know, as the fiery cycles of modifi-
Wallace Stevens. In Anecdote of the Jar, the change from a god-like Olympus. cation are our immovable lot. Young
Stevens wrote a little verse about an Fire creates the silicon that runs dig- Margaret is like those talk show callers
impenetrable wilderness in Tennessee ital devices, on which more and more who mourn that today’s young people
and the placement of a single home- consumer products are sold, which in have no appreciation of the Cold War.
made jar in that overgrown mélange their making and discarding heat the As with Margaret, are grieving for
of fecund flora. The poem is apparently planet, likely too much. Change and themselves. A more god-like vision
about change: the wilderness sudden- fire – all the way down. would reveal to them the Heraclitean
ly gathered round the homely jar as However much he may have system and offer them comfort: they
though to worship it, “like nothing else flinched from the worldview of the are not alone. Hopkins, a devout be-
of bird or bush in Tennessee.” Precip- pagan Heraclitus in one of his po- liever, does not give little Margaret the
itous change, right? A single rounded ems, Hopkins also the perfect poem, comfort of the Resurrection that will
artefact changes our perception of the I think, about what Heraclitus was put a stop to all this unity of nourish-
wilderness? You could almost put it on trying to get at. It’s called “Spring and ing and burning up, in which concep-
the Mindset List: “A home-fired jar fall.” Once more Hopkins shows not tion is a death sentence, but he may
has always tamed a wilderness in Ten- only his innovative word-smithery hope, in a way, that she will come to
nessee.” Change, right? Wow! and metre but also his sense of Her- see it as the way things are—she is not
Wrong. The poem is not about aclitean change through a young girl’s being singled out, and this might be
change but about fire. It too shows us (Margaret’s) eyes as she contemplates her, and our, comfort, sans the solu-
the empire of a Heraclitean fire. The the baleful falling of the leaves (“gold- tion of Christ, who makes philosophy
sun beams upon the wilderness and en grove’s unleaving”). In a poem unnecessary for anyone who signs up
lets it grow incorrigible, undomes- that takes less than a minute to read, with Him.
ticated, and thick. But another fire Hopkins merges the blight of the fall- When I do interviews about the
shapes the jar. Chaos and order: it’s all ing leaves with “the blight that man Mindset List and hear those callers
fire. Both the seeming and the seminal was born for./It is Margaret that you lamenting generational change, I wish
role of fire, which Heraclitus thought mourn for.” The world’s ablaze with I could put Heraclitus himself on the
the primordial element of all there is, change – Hopkins, mostly via sound, air. He might well say that I’ve got
offers a logical stay-ness as a sponsor makes the dying leaves spectacular- him all wrong. But if he had a good
for the sudden transformation of aes- ly poignant – and we and Margaret translator, he’d be a hit on the radio,
thetic vision, in which a single artefact weeps that it cannot stay spring for- and I think he’d say that change is the
shapes perception of an unbridled ever. Yet we are more stable than we law and as the law it is unchanging.
111
Word length up to 1500 words,
the winner receives $1000 and will
have their work published in the
next edition of New Philosopher
magazine.
Award XXVII: family.

Closes 10 June 2020
Award XXVIII: climate.

Closes 10 September 2020
Email your piece to
[email protected]
For full details visit

www.newphilosopher.com/articles/prize
Open to subscribers only.
Brought to you by the New Philosopher team, Womankind magazine is available in
digital format worldwide.
A change in temperature NewPhilosopher
A change
in temperature
Atmosphere simulation at global scale based on Geodesic grid, by Jinrong Xie
Excerpt from Philosophical Magazine 41,

237-276 (1896), by Svante Arrhenius
114
NewPhilosopher A change in temperature
by Svante Arrhenius
which was founded on too wide a of great importance in the transmis-

use of Newton’s law of cooling, must sion of rays from the earth. Tyndall
be abandoned, as Langley himself in held the opinion that the water-va-
a later memoir showed that the full pour has the greatest influence, whilst
moon, which certainly does not pos- other authors, for instance Lecher and
sess any sensible heat-absorbing at- Pernter, are inclined to think that the
mosphere, has a “mean effective tem- carbonic acid plays the more impor-
perature” of about 45°C. tant part. The researches of Paschen
A great deal has been written on The air retains heat (light or dark) show that these gases are both very
the influence of the absorption of the in two different ways. On the one effective, so that probably sometimes
atmosphere upon the climate. Tyndall hand, the heat suffers a selective dif- the one, sometimes the other, may
in particular has pointed out the enor- fusion on its passage through the air; have the greater effect according to
mous importance of this question. To on the other hand, some of the at- the circumstances.
him it was chiefly the diurnal and an- mospheric gases absorb considerable ...
nual variation of the temperature that quantities of heat. These two actions We may now inquire how great
were lessened by this circumstance. are very different. ... must the variation of the carbonic acid
Another side of the question, that has The selective absorption of the in the atmosphere be to cause a given
long attracted the attention of physi- atmosphere is, according to the re- change of the temperature. The an-
cists, is this: Is the mean temperature searches of Tyndall, Lecher and swer may be found by interpolation in
of the ground in any way influenced Pernter, Röntgen, Heine, Langley, Table VII [not included here]. To fa-
by the presence of heat-absorbing Ångström, Paschen, and others, of cilitate such an inquiry, we may make
gases in the atmosphere? Fourier a wholly different kind. It is not ex- a simple observation. If the quantity of
maintained that the atmosphere acts erted by the chief mass of the air, but carbonic acid decreases from 1 to 0.67,
like the glass of a hot-house, because in a high degree by aqueous vapour the fall of temperature is nearly the
it lets through the light rays of the and carbonic acid, which are present same as the increase of temperature
sun but retains the dark rays from in the air in small quantities. Further, if this quantity augments to 1.5. And
the ground. This idea was elaborated this absorption is not continuous over to get a new increase of this order of
by Pouillet; and Langley was by some the whole spectrum, but nearly insen- magnitude (3°.4), it will be necessary
of his researches led to the view, that sible in the light part of it, and chiefly to alter the quantity of carbonic acid
“the temperature of the earth under limited to the long-waved part, where till it reaches a value nearly midway
direct sunshine, even though our at- it manifests itself in very well-defined between 2 and 2.5. Thus if the quan-
mosphere were present as now, would absorption-bands, which fall off rap- tity of carbonic acid increases in geo-
probably fall to -200°C., if that at- idly on both sides. The influence of metric progression, the augmentation
mosphere did not possess the qual- this absorption is comparatively small of the temperature will increase nearly
ity of selective absorption”. This view, on the heat from the sun, but must be in arithmetic progression. This rule –
115
A change in temperature NewPhilosopher
which naturally holds good only in the tiary times there existed a vegetation America was covered with ice on the
part investigated – will be useful for and an animal life in the temperate west coast to the 47th parallel, on the
the following summary estimations. and arctic zones that must have been east coast to the 40th, and in the cen-
conditioned by a much higher tem- tral part to the 37th (confluence of the
... perature than the present in the same Mississippi and Ohio rivers). In the
I should certainly not have under- regions. The temperature in the arctic most different parts of the world, too,
taken these tedious calculations if an zones appears to have exceeded the we have found traces of a great ice age,
extraordinary interest had not been present temperature by about 8 or 9 as in the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Syria,
connected with them. In the Physical degrees. To this genial time the ice age the Himalayas, India, Thian Shan, Al-
Society of Stockholm there have been succeeded, and this was one or more tai, Atlas, on Mount Kenia and Kili-
occasionally very lively discussions on times interrupted by interglacial peri- mandjaro (both very near to the equa-
the probable causes of the Ice Age; tor), in South Africa, Australia,
and these discussions have, in my New Zealand, Kerguelen, Falk-
opinion, led to the conclusion that Is the mean temper- land Islands, Patagonia and other
there exists as yet no satisfactory parts of South America. The ge-
hypothesis that could explain how ature of the ground ologists in general are inclined to
the climatic conditions for an ice
age could be realised in so short
... influenced by the think that these glaciations were
simultaneous on the whole earth;
a time as that which has elapsed presence of heat-ab- and this most natural view would
from the days of the glacial epoch. probably have been generally ac-
The common view hitherto has
sorbing gases? cepted, if the theory of Croll,
been that the earth has cooled in which demands a genial age on
the lapse of time; and if one did not ods with a climate of about the same the Southern Hemisphere at the same
know that the reverse has been the character as the present, sometimes time as an ice age on the Northern and
case, one would certainly assert that even milder. When the ice age had its vice versa, had not influenced opinion.
this cooling must go on continuously. greatest extent, the countries that now By measurements of the displacement
Conversations with my friend and enjoy the highest civilisation were cov- of the snow-line we arrive at the re-
colleague Professor Högbom, togeth- ered with ice. This was the case with sult, – and this is very concordant for
er with the discussions above referred Ireland, Britain (except a small part in different places – that the temperature
to, led me to make a preliminary esti- the south), Holland, Denmark, Swe- at that time must have been 4°-5°C.
mate of the probable effect of a varia- den and Norway, Russia (to Kiev, Orel, lower than at present. The last glacia-
tion of the atmospheric carbonic acid and Nijni-Novgorod), Germany and tion must have taken place in rather
on the belief that one might in this Austria (to the Harz, Erz-Gebirge, recent times, geologically speak-
way probably find an explanation for Dresden, and Cracow). At the same ing, so that the human race certainly
temperature variations of 5°-10°C., I time an ice-cap from the Alps cov- had appeared at that period. Certain
worked out the calculation more in ered Switzerland, parts of France, Ba- American geologists hold the opin-
detail, and lay it now before the public varia south of the Danube, the Tyrol, ion that since the close of the ice age
and the critics. Styria, and other Austrian countries, only some 7000 to 10,000 years have
From geological researches the and descended into the northern part elapsed, but this most probably is
fact is well established that in Ter- of Italy. Simultaneously, too, North greatly underestimated.
116
NewPhilosopher A change in temperature
One may now ask, How much less (about 15 per cent) than in the
must the carbonic acid vary accord- Northern hemisphere. The ocean cur-
ing to our figures, in order that the rents, too, must there, as in the present
temperature should attain the same time, have effaced the differences in
values as in the Tertiary and Ice ages temperature at different latitudes to
respectively? A simple calculation a greater extent than in the Northern
shows that the temperature in the hemisphere. This effect also results
arctic regions would rise about 8° to from the greater nebulosity in the arc-
9°C., if the carbonic acid increased tic zones than in the neighbourhood
to 2.5 or 3 times its present value. In of the equator.
order to get the temperature of the
ice age between the 40th and 50th Svante August Arrhenius was a
parallels, the carbonic acid in the air Swedish scientist who received the Nobel
should sink to 0.62-0.55 of its pres- Prize for Chemistry in 1903. Arrhenius
ent value (lowering of temperature was the first to use basic principles of
4°-5°C.). The demands of the geolo- physical chemistry to estimate the extent
gists, that at the genial epochs the to which increases in atmospheric carbon
climate should be more uniform than dioxide are responsible for the Earth’s in-
now, accords very well with our the- creasing surface temperature.
ory. The geographical annual and di-
urnal ranges of temperature would be
partly smoothed away, if the quantity
of carbonic acid was augmented. The
reverse would be the case (at least to a
latitude of 50 from the equator), if the
carbonic acid diminished in amount.
But in both these cases I incline to
think that the secondary action due
to the regress or the progress of the
snow-covering would play the most
important role. The theory demands
also that, roughly speaking, the whole
earth should have undergone about
the same variations of temperature,
so that according to it genial or gla-
cial epochs must have occurred si-
multaneously on the whole earth.
Because of the greater nebulosity of
the Southern hemisphere, the varia-
tions must there have been a little
117
Our library NewPhilosopher
Our library
Field Notes from a The Uninhabitable The Plague

Catastrophe Earth
Elizabeth Kolbert David Wallace-Wells Albert Camus

Warning signs A sliver of life Ultimate indignity
In the same way that global warming The Earth has experienced five mass By the force of things, this last rem-
has gradually ceased to be merely a extinctions before the one we are living nant of decorum went by the board,
theory, so, too, its impacts are no longer through now… Unless you are a teen- and men and women were flung into
just hypothetical. Nearly every major ager, you probably read in your high the death-pits indiscriminately. Hap-
glacier in the world is shrinking; those school textbooks that these extinctions pily, this ultimate indignity synchro-
in Glacier National Park are retreat- were the result of asteroids. In fact, all nised with the plague’s last ravages. …
ing so quickly it has been estimated but the one that killed the dinosaurs So long as the epidemic lasted, there
that they will vanish entirely by 2030. involved climate change produced was never any lack of men for these
The oceans are becoming not just by greenhouse gas. The most notori- duties. The critical moment came just
warmer but more acidic; the differ- ous was 250 million years ago; it be- before the outbreak touched the high-
ence between daytime and nighttime gan when carbon dioxide warmed the water mark, and the doctor had good
temperatures is diminishing; animals planet by five degrees Celsius, acceler- reason for feeling anxious. There was
are shifting their ranges poleward; and ated when that warming triggered the then a real shortage of man-power
plants are blooming days, and in some release of methane, another greenhouse both for the higher posts and for the
cases weeks, earlier than they used gas, and ended with all but a sliver of rough work.
to. These are the warning signs that life on Earth dead. We are currently
the Charney panel cautioned against adding carbon to the atmosphere at a
waiting for, and while in many parts of considerably faster rate; by most esti-
the globe they are still subtle enough mates, at least ten times faster.
to be overlooked, in others they can
no longer be ignored.
118
NewPhilosopher Our library
Food for thought from the New

Philosopher library. We discover
books that can change the way
you view the world.
A Treatise of Human Losing Earth The Psychopath

Nature Test
David Hume Nathaniel Rich Jon Ronson

Pleasures of the senses Better understood Danger to society
Men are also vain of the temperature Nearly everything we understand “How did they diagnose you?” I asked.
of the climate, in which they were about global warming was understood “They give you a psychopath test,”
born; of the fertility of their native in 1979. It was, if anything, better un- said Tony. “The Robert Hare Check-
soil; of the goodness of the wines, derstood. Today, almost nine out of ten list. They assess you for 20 personal-
fruits or victuals, produced by it; of Americans do not know that scientists ity traits. Superficial charm. Proneness
the softness or force of their language; agree, well beyond the threshold of to boredom. Lack of empathy. Lack
with other particulars of that kind. consensus, that human beings have of remorse. Grandiose sense of self-
These objects have plainly a reference altered the global climate through the worth. That sort of thing.
to the pleasures of the senses, and are indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels. “For each one they score you a 0, 1
originally considered as agreeable to But by 1979 the main points were or 2. If your total score is 30 or more
the feeling, taste or hearing. How is it already settled beyond debate, and at- out of 40, you’re a psychopath. That’s
possible they could ever become ob- tention turned from basic principles to it. You’re doomed. You’re labelled a
jects of pride, except by means of that a refinement of the predicted conse- psychopath for life. They say you can’t
transition above-explained? quences. Unlike string theory and ge- change. You can’t be treated. You’re
netic engineering, the “greenhouse ef- a danger to society. And then you’re
fect” – a metaphor dating to the early stuck somewhere like this.”
twentieth century – was ancient his-
tory, described in any intro-to-biology
textbook.
119
Documentaries NewPhilosopher
Documentaries
To view the documentaries below and many others, visit
newphilosopher.com/videos/
Siberia: The Philosophy of

The Melting Permafrost Climate Change
newphilosopher.com/videos/siberia newphilosopher.com/videos/phil-climate-change/
Russian geophysicist that once thawed could “It’s real. The changes the great irony and tragedy
Sergei Zimov together tilt the world climate are happening. They’re of our time, is a lot of
with his son Nikita want beyond our control. very visible, they’re the general public thinks
to prevent the permafrost photographable, they’re scientists are still arguing
from thawing due to measureable. There’s about that. Science is not
climate change. The ice in no significant scientific arguing about it.”
Siberia contains microbes dispute about that. And – James Balog
120
NewPhilosopher Around the web
Around the web New Philosopher is on

Tw i tt er a n d Fa c ebo ok - jo in us !
A climate of mind Global warming and

violent behaviour
Anyone who cares about climate
change has to be tired of the vitriolic Mary Claire King, as much as any
tirades that masquerade as public de- individual scholar, has changed how
bate over that issue. Climate change we think about what it means to be
has become a rhetorical contest akin human. She did so using genetics as
to a sports match, with each side seek- a lens through which to see what was
ing total victory – often through the otherwise invisible.. It was King who Video: Vanishing
cynical manipulation of fear, distrust, first identified a key gene in breast can-
and intolerance. No wonder the public cer. It was King who helped to identity We’re entering the Earth’s sixth
is confused. the missing dead in Argentina in the era of extinction – and it’s the
https://ssir.org/books/reviews/entry/a_ 1980s. It would also be King who, in first time humans are to blame.
climate_of_mind 1975, first compare the genetic simi- This video introduces you to the
larity of humans and chimpanzees. It key species, and the people who
was known chimpanzees and humans are trying to prevent them from
were similar, kin, but just how similar? vanishing.
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/
observer/global-warming-and-violent- newphilosopher.com/videos/
behavior vanishing/
American Psychological Association

and ecoAmerica. Climate change-in-
duced severe weather and other natu-
Devil’s dictionary ral disasters have the most immediate
effects on mental health in the form of
PLAGUE: n. In ancient times a the trauma and shock due to personal
general punishment of the innocent injuries, loss of a loved one, damage
for admonition of their ruler, as in to or loss of personal property or even
the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Climate & mental health the loss of livelihood, according to the
Immune. The plague as we of to-day report. Terror, anger, shock and other
have the happiness to know it is merely When people think about cli- intense negative emotions that can
Nature’s fortuitous manifestation of mate change, they probably think first dominate people’s initial response may
her purposeless objectionableness. about its effects on the environment, eventually subside, only to be replaced
and possibly on their physical health. by post-traumatic stress disorder.
But climate change also takes a sig- https://www.apa.org/news/press/
nificant toll on mental health, accord- releases/2017/03/climate-mental-
@TrueSciPhi ing to a new report released by the health
“How astonishing, when the
lights of health go down,
the undiscovered countries
that are then disclosed,
what wastes and deserts of
the soul a slight attack of
influenza brings into view...”
Virginia Woolf
Follow New Philosopher on social media
121
GREAT MINDS
like to think
Give a gift that keeps on giving

newphilosopher.com/subscribe/?gift=2
122
123
Subscribe NewPhilosopher
Subscribe to
New Philosopher
2 ways
to subscribe
1 Online at
https://www.newphilosopher.com/subscribe/
2 Email us: [email protected]
what our readers say

The perfect Your magazine is so helpful and is You have introduced such a won-
churning up the little grey cells, as derfully fresh & intelligent publica-
gift for family Hercule Poirot says. tion to expand our minds & hearts.
Thank you.
& friends Thank you, this world is brighter,
more aware, and more meaningful I feel like I have been waiting for this
with your publication in it. magazine all my life.
Great magazine. Finally one worth In a country so defined by the shal-

Extraordinary quality in all respects. reading. Will recommend it to all low, crass propaganda and cognitive
New Philosopher is one of the best friends. conformity coming out of its papers,
things happening. magazines, and broadcasters, yours
This is a quality magazine: intelligent, is a true gem. You have no idea how
I love how the writing reminds lucid, lively, and beautifully designed happy I was to discover it, it has given
me that the types of issues we are and produced. Recommended. me hope for the future of this coun-
grappling with today are similar to try’s media landscape and for the
those grappled with by philosophers A magazine that treats its audience as public discussion emanating from it.
for centuries. intellectual equals, that doesn’t insult
their intelligence by simplifying or I have to say that it is a tremendous
I love this magazine. I no longer like manipulating concepts or appealing to relief and joy that your publication
reading or listening to mainstream crass consumerism as do most of the has arrived. Your magazine provides
news as it is not good for my health. publications out there. Thank you for oxygen to the soul. I have often felt
Your magazine is good for me. It has creating something that brings philos- alone, alienated or old-fashioned in
real discussions that relate to life rather ophy out of the sandstone universities my outlook but now know I have a
than reporting sensational ‘news’. and into our lounge rooms without soulmate to reflect and take action
Thank you. losing its depth or critical stance. with, namely New Philosopher.
124
NewPhilosopher Subscribe
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION
1-year subscription 2-year subscription 3-year subscription
Digital back issues newphilosopher.com/shop/
#19 ‘life’ #20 ‘play’ #21 ‘power’ #22 ‘time’ #23 ‘being human’
#24 ‘balance’ #25 ‘death’ #26 ‘change’ #27 ‘family’
Print back issues newphilosopher.com/shop/
#9 ‘property’ #10 ‘fame’ #11 ‘technology’ #12 ‘education’ #13 ‘luck’
#14 ‘nature’ #15 ‘future’ #16 ‘food’ #17 ‘communication’ #18 ‘stuff ’
125
X-risks and Existentialism NewPhilosopher

NewPhilosopher X-risks and Existentialism
by Mariana Alessandri
X-risks and
Existentialism
and presumably even Kierkegaard. As our end and calling it progress for
transhumans, Bostrom thinks we will decades now, until someone labelled
do life better, that is, if we don’t kill it global warming.
ourselves first. The transhumanist fix for global
Before 1945, the only existential warming – the problem of humans’
danger to humanity was comets, ac- excessive control over nature – is more
cording to Existential Risk (X-risk) control over nature. Technological
In Fear and Trembling, Søren Ki- scholars. Shortly afterwards, we made pessimist Phillip Verdoux thinks we
erkegaard’s pseudonymous author Jo- the hydrogen bomb, raising the num- are too deep in the problem to quit
hannes de Silentio admonished men ber of threats against humanity from now. So, while he admits that we get
who wanted to “go further” than faith, one to two. 75 years later we face 23 ourselves into jams like these – glob-
because they failed to realise that faith X-risks, according to Bostrom, and al warming, vicious robots, and other
was a task for a lifetime. These rash most are our own doing. That’s a dan- X-risks – by doubling-down on tech-
individuals, whom he disparagingly gerously sharp increase in the number nology, he thinks we can only save our-
called “assistant professors”, didn’t un- of threats not just to my life but yours. selves by turning to it: befriending it.
derstand the first thing about faith if One man-made X-risk is climate The idea is that we’ll just make things
they planned to go beyond it. Today, change. Another is our robots going worse if we start pushing hackers un-
assistant professors and Silicon Valley Oedipal on us. We seem to be speed- derground; at least above ground they
techies promise that one day we’ll sur- ing up our extinction, not reducing its can be regulated.
pass humanity by becoming transhu- likelihood. If the pessimist’s turn to technology
man. When we merge with super-in- There is something that feels fat- surprises us, the techno-optimists’ en-
telligent AI, we’ll finally conquer our ed about the race to kill ourselves – thusiasm for it shouldn’t. They believe
limitations, eradicate our suffering, I suspect that we’re engineering our we’re wasting the little time we have
and vanquish death. Oxford philoso- doom, although perhaps behind our left to save ourselves before Boston
pher Nick Bostrom even argues that own backs. I’m not talking about sinks into the Atlantic. The problem for
when we are enhanced by AI, we’ll be Nick Land’s flavour of acceleration- these transhumanists isn’t that we have
better equipped to promote the exis- ism, where we intentionally cut to manipulated nature; it’s that we haven’t
tential value of life. Transhuman 2.0s the worst case-scenario to see what done it enough. They propose that we
will be more effective than us measly comes next. I mean something more aggressively fund technology and sci-
human 1.0s at spreading the ideas of idiotic and common, like when a fac- ence to beat the Earth’s overheating.
world-historical-individuals like Pla- tory directs their toxic drain-pipe to Technogaians constitute a contentious
to, Nietzsche, Martin Luther King, Jr., a nearby lake. We’ve been designing type of environmentalist capable of
127
X-risks and Existentialism NewPhilosopher
joining libertarians and democrats on overwhelmingly male, and many come loneliness, despair, and grief. Try-
the issue of clean tech. By encouraging from Silicon Valley. Curious men ing to eradicate these “weaknesses”
AI, genetic engineering, and bio-hack- striving to overcome limitation is not a sounds like toxic masculinity’s been
ing, they think we can reverse global new story, and not even a new deadly given security clearance and a park-
warming, feed everyone, find cures to story, when you consider colonialism’s ing spot. When we eliminate our un-
diseases, and possibly also live forever. obsession with discovery and expan- sightly existential features, what of us
Gennady Stolyarov, chairman of the sion. But in addition to killing or en- will remain?
Transhumanist party, made a list of slaving those people over there and In 1850, Arthur Schopenhauer
technological solutions to combat cli- greedily extracting from the planet its wrote that humans would wage war on
mate change that includes self-driving shiniest and tastiest treats, now we’re each other out of boredom if suffering
cars and GMOs. He supports were eradicated. Perhaps bore-
US Republican 2020 presidential dom best explains the increase in
candidate Zoltan Istvan, who also Perhaps boredom X-risks; that, or an old-fashioned
believes that by funding tech we fear of death. Martin Heidegger
can beat the Earth’s collapse and, best explains the located the uniqueness of human
in the process, become superior
versions of ourselves.
increase in X-risks; existence in its ability to care about
itself and worry about its own ex-
Didn’t social media in 2019 that, or an old-fash- tinction. Almost everything we do
guarantee that the definition of in- counts for him as “fleeing from
sanity most often attributed (prob-
ioned fear of death. death,” which makes the transhu-
ably incorrectly) to Albert Einstein manists’ flight from death two-
would forever be seared into our brains? cannibalising ourselves. Perhaps Pan- fold and ironic: they’ll hasten death
If we recall that in the last 75 years we’ve dora wasn’t propelled by curiosity (or out of disguised terror.
aggressively multiplied our X-risks, and hubris) after all, but by self-loathing. 23 X-risks cause us more anxiety
yet we insist on doing more of what got Nietzsche accused the priest- than one did, so if Kierkegaard was
us here, then we’ve gone bananas. Hu- ly class of promoting weakness and right that anxiety makes us human,
bris had already been discredited by the shaming strength, in short, of hating then we’re headed into a still more
time it became a sin, and yet it nicely humanity. The Ray Kurzweils of tran- human future, not a transhuman one.
names why we keep trying to take our- shumanism also seem to hate human- And we’ll never get further than hu-
selves out, only to throw up a hasty Hail ity (though they sometimes lean on manity as long as we bungle human-
Mary in the eleventh hour. It’s nicer to Nietzsche’s Superman for credibility) ity as badly as Kierkegaard’s assistant
call it curiosity. by targeting for removal everything professors bungled faith. We need a
Instead of assistant professors, let’s that makes us us, what tech critic and new existentialism to help us see that
imagine transhumanists as Pandoras, lay philosopher Evgeny Morozov a human being with no existential
except that instead of the Gods order- calls features of humanity, not bugs. features simply isn’t one. Just as Ki-
ing them not to open their box of ills, My list captures our least photogenic erkegaard’s assistant professors were
the warning comes from Luddites: a – but all too human – side: pain, suf- surprised that they couldn’t get be-
handful of philosophers and religious fering, sadness, inefficiency, mistakes, yond faith, I predict that transhuman-
geezers who still believe in outdat- aporias, frailty, hesitation, doubt, con- ists will be surprised that they can’t get
ed concepts like hubris. Naturally, fusion, fragility, and of course, death. beyond being human without losing
the transhumanists wave them off, When we vanquish death we’ll no their humanity – that Bostrom’s idea
sign on to the project of vanquish- longer fear it, the logic goes, and dit- of broadcasting the juiciest bits of hu-
ing death, and get to work bio- and to for suffering and limitation. But manity out of a Turing-approved voice
nano-hacking their way to immortal- death, suffering, and limitation are box will fail to catch. In the end, there
ity. In contrast to the Homeric and three of the most existentially rec- is no transhuman; there’s only human
Biblical literature that paints curios- ognisable features of humanity, not life and human death, which, like
ity as a woman, these Pandoras are to mention fear, angst, care, sadness, faith, is a task for a lifetime.
128
NewPhilosopher
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that

science gathers knowledge faster than society
gathers wisdom.”
Isaac Asimov
Striding Thoth, the god of writing, accounting, and all things intellectual; 332-30 BCE, The Met.
129
13 questions NewPhilosopher
What is your demon?

13 questions: Trying to solve problems that are too big for me. But I will keep trying,
I guess.
Which thinker has had the greatest influence on your life?

Yuval Harari and Byung-chul Han: one spoke to how I interpret the
world today, adding new perspectives, and the other to the inner side,
how I feel about it all.
What do you doubt most?

News. I trust some people in that field, but just a few.
If you could change one thing about the world, what would that be?
I would like us to be wiser as a species.
What is happiness?
It sounds silly, but not being divided, with your body here, your head or
your heart anywhere else, brief moments when I am there as a whole in
one place, happy. Then always something happens…
What does it mean to be human?

In Buenos Aires right now we are about to enter stage 2 of the
pandemic, so I guess we will put that definition to the test.
Narda What illusion do you suffer from?

Greatness, of course. I really think we can fix our food system and that
I can help a little bit.
Lepes If you could choose, what would you have for your last meal?
Oh, I really know this one; easy. The best of each. In season, the best
in the world of every fruit and vegetable. Wild strawberry from Italy,
soft and sweet pineapple from the north of Brazil, tomatoes from
Santorini…
The question you’d most like to ask others?

Do you cook? If not... why not?
What is your motto?

Do. Always do.
In conversation with Zan Boag What is a good death?

That’s very difficult because a sudden, quiet one, with no pain, is better
for the one dying, but rips apart the ones who are left behind. And
when the ones who will keep living have time to prepare, you suffer. So
Narda Lepes is an Argentinian TV I guess a balance between those two.
producer, chef, and author.
What do people accuse you of?

Being too direct, and forward, that some sense as a bit rude.
What is the meaning of life?

Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan Not much, I think.
130
CLIMATE

New Philosopher TruePDF-Issue 28 2020

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

New Philosopher TruePDF-Issue 28 2020

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

New Philosopher TruePDF-Issue 28 2020

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

For curious people looking for

solutions to the fundamental issues

OLIVER BURKEMAN TIM DEAN MARIANA ALESSANDRI

Climate Benjamin, Oliver Burkeman, Tom Chatfield, André

Views expressed by the authors are not those

3 Editor’s letter 81 Scenario 3

8 Contributors 82 The evidence

10 Scientific consensus 84 Making the world whole again ~ André Dao

12 News from nowhere 88 The meaning of... climate

18 A century of climate change 90 Ethical dilemmas ~ Matthew Beard

20 Apocaloptimism ~ Oliver Burkeman 92 Wild thinking ~ Zan Boag

24 The Dancer ~ Existential Comics 96 Six thinkers

31 Climate stats 104 When degree is shaked ~ William Shakespeare

32 Temperature anomalies 106 Stories of change ~ Michael Ellis

38 Virus views 112 Writers' Award XXVIII: Climate

48 13 views on climate change 118 Our library

50 Our ultimate fragility ~ Jason deCaires Taylor 119 Documentaries

62 Seasons in the sun ~ Marina Benjamin 120 Around the web

66 Thoughts on... climate 122 Subscribe

newphilosopher.com is an online portal for

Unexpected change New Philosopher

Open to NP Up to 1,500 words of fiction

The philosophers put it like

“New Philosopher “ New Philosopher “I feel like I have Yours is a wonderful

Oliver Burkeman Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Mariana Alessandri

Patrick Stokes Marina Benjamin Tim Dean

Zan Boag Antonia Case André Dao

Tom Chatfield Matthew Beard Russel Herneman

Alvaro Hidalgo Genís Carreras Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan

ith the world on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,

Turning down the

The effects of such massive inter-

Honeywell T-86 Round Thermostat, 1953

e like to simplify complex The US National Research Council,

Not new news

The strikingly, Weizman found that when

“There is broad agreement within the scientific

In 1896 Svante Arrhenius built

1896: the oceans, with Revelle writ- 1979:

opened for signature at the

Illustration by Yeyei Gomez

“Clearly a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder.”

“THE DECADE THAT JUST ENDED IS CLEARLY THE

Globally, 2019’s average temperature was second only to

“The world will not be destroyed by those who

Gacko power plant, Bosnia and Herzegovina

28 Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan

The 2018 Climate Change Perfor- In 2013, the Intergovernmental

In 2016, China was the biggest

MONTHLY GLOBAL SURFACE AIR

MONTHLY EUROPEAN SURFACE AIR

Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service

Illustration by Aida Novoa & Carlos Egan

“Is it too late to join Extinction Rebellion?”

“I think,” said Adams, “this may be

As the COVID-19 crisis unfold- disturbing than beatific if not chan-

Paraphrasing Saint Paul, words Despite the unconventional cir-

NO2 concentration over Italy, March 2020, photo: ESA

of ways. We find solace in social me- opportunity to think, to get to know