TY - JOUR

T1 - Caring for the future?

T2 - a response to Rupert Read

AU - Foster, John Michael

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Global Discourse on 18/04/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/23269995.2017.1300441

PY - 2017/5

Y1 - 2017/5

N2 - Massively disruptive climate change, now inevitable, is the worst tragedy which human beings have yet brought on themselves. It is tragic in the full classical sense – a disaster entailed on the protagonist (here, humanity) by destructive weaknesses inherent in crucial strengths and virtues. There is thus no way of avoiding it by picking and choosing among our values, and its effects can neither be compensated for nor mitigated by prospective gains to offset against anticipated losses. But once we have discarded a strained and wilful last-ditch optimism, and recognised that we are not in control, we will still need to find genuine hope if we are to have any chance of coming through. This requires us to embrace the transformative power of tragic experience, letting go of values which we may hitherto have regarded as sacrosanct and welcoming the creative destruction of current assumptions and expectations as an affirmation of life.

AB - Massively disruptive climate change, now inevitable, is the worst tragedy which human beings have yet brought on themselves. It is tragic in the full classical sense – a disaster entailed on the protagonist (here, humanity) by destructive weaknesses inherent in crucial strengths and virtues. There is thus no way of avoiding it by picking and choosing among our values, and its effects can neither be compensated for nor mitigated by prospective gains to offset against anticipated losses. But once we have discarded a strained and wilful last-ditch optimism, and recognised that we are not in control, we will still need to find genuine hope if we are to have any chance of coming through. This requires us to embrace the transformative power of tragic experience, letting go of values which we may hitherto have regarded as sacrosanct and welcoming the creative destruction of current assumptions and expectations as an affirmation of life.

KW - Climate change

KW - enlightenment

KW - hope

KW - optimism

KW - sustainability

KW - tragedy

KW - values

U2 - 10.1080/23269995.2017.1300441

DO - 10.1080/23269995.2017.1300441

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 168

EP - 170

JO - Global Discourse

JF - Global Discourse

SN - 2326-9995

IS - 1

ER -