Malvern rider I am not pretending to have any answers of course. I do believe humans seem to revel In apocalyptic disaster scenarios though. It’s not just movies – that was only an example. Most religions have it – Christianity has the end of days, Judaism and Islam have similar. Look at the late art of Michaelangelo, Bosch, Goya….These are not escapist ideas but deeply embedded in the psyche of people in the past.
Previous centuries have certainly had apocalyptic times when it seemed like the world was coming to an end – the various pandemics are the best example – the Black Death killed 75 million in Europe alone. Then there are the wars. In terms of ecological devastation we have it as well. My home country New Zealand was devastated by mass burn offs across vast tracts of the country prior and post colonialism which made a lot of the fauna extinct (Moas being the best known example). There are no lessons from this for today’s world other than we are still here.
What’s happening at the moment is horrific – the plight of orangatuns, rhinos and elephants from poachers, etc, etc. the destruction of the rainforest and subsequent reduction of eco diversity is hugely concerning for the future. We must battle against this of course.
All I say is humans are adaptable and will survive. Technology is breathtaking as well – DNA manipulation, the possibilities of resurrecting extinct species, the elimination of disease (smallpox for example), etc. who knows what our future holds. It will be different but the world will survive. I don’t think it will necessarily be totally dystopian either but we will see.