Life and Death in the Anthropocene

• In Event: The Armageddon Club: Educating for the Future of Humanity — Educating Toward Equitable Futures 2

Abstract

The Corona crisis has overshadowed media reports highlighting global protest movements such as Greta Thunberg’s School Strike for the Climate and Extinction Rebellion (XR)1 alerting us to both the climate crisis and an existential crisis with the possible collapse of our civilization in the near future. This is due to anthropogenic climate heating resulting in a range of climatic consequences largely caused by increased greenhouse gases especially from CO2 emissions, plus environmental degradations and mass extinction of our wildlife and biodiversity. While it may be alarmist and some scenarios seem extremist with many of the hallmarks of a moral panic, the science of climate crisis, and the anxiety, fear, existential angst and even anger that blames the current generation for this crisis, is real, especially for many of our young people, so it is too important to dismiss and needs exploring. While for some in philosophy and education, it may not seem necessary to do as Greta Thunberg exhorts us, ‘to follow the science’ and to challenge those who refute or deny the contemporary climatic and environmental changes in our world, to us it is vital that philosophy of education engages with current world issues, which have ramifications that are in fact practical, economic, political, philosophical, existential, moral and ethical. In this paper I examine the notion of ‘Life and death in the Anthropocene’.

Author

• Tina Besley, Beijing Normal University