{"id":764364,"date":"2022-07-29T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=581506"},"modified":"2022-07-29T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T10:15:00","slug":"is-accepting-the-end-of-humanity-the-key-to-climate-action-this-scholar-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/07\/29\/is-accepting-the-end-of-humanity-the-key-to-climate-action-this-scholar-thinks-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Is accepting the end of humanity the key to climate action? This scholar thinks so."},"content":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a part at the end of \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up,\u201d last year\u2019s wildly popular Netflix film about a comet hurtling toward Earth<\/a>, when a group of people have dinner together on the eve of the planet\u2019s destruction. As the television blares news about the impending impact and the walls begin to shake, a scientist, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, poses a wistful question to his wife, kids, friends, and colleagues: \u201cWe really did have everything, didn’t we?\u201d <\/p>\n This scene stood out to Timothy Beal, a religious studies professor at Case Western Reserve University who teaches a class on religion and ecology. Faced with certain death-by-comet (a thinly veiled metaphor<\/a> for climate change), the characters were left with neither optimism nor denial, but a heightened sense of gratitude. The scene lined up with a question Beal was already pondering: Most modern religions promote the idea that humanity will go on forever. Would we treat the planet better if we assumed that our species\u2019 time on it is limited?<\/em> <\/p>\n