Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

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consolations of religion, we can make no persuasive case for sustainability
beyond the fact that we wish to survive. In other words,
environmentalists lack both a deep explanation for what ails us
and a larger cosmology or spirituality rendered into a coherent
and plausible alternative story of our ecological maladjustments.
Neuroscientists and biologists are learning a great deal about
what makes us tick, but can they tell a compelling, authentic, and
life-oriented story of our human sojourn plausible and powerful
enough to replace stories about the end times and the inevitability
of Armageddon? If they cannot, charlatans will fi ll the human
need for meaning in hard times with snake oil of one kind or
another.
I do not presume to know what the story might be, but I think
it must begin by placing science in a larger context where fact
and mystery meet. There are many good examples of scientists
who have been true to both science and its larger context,
such as E. O. Wilson on biological diversity, David Ehrenfeld on
humans in nature, Carl Safi na on the oceans, Rachel Carson on
the sense of wonder, Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme on “the
universe story,” and Stuart Kauffman on reinventing the sacred.
But within the scientifi c drama of life, evolution, and cosmos,
who and what are we, and why do we, of all creatures, deserve to
be sustained? Most of the debate about sustainability begins with
the unstated assumption that since we want to survive, we ought to
survive, making the question moot. But we should not let ourselves
off the hook so easily. The reason I offer is entirely practical: if we
could know why we ought to be sustained, we might better understand
how to go about it. To know ourselves worthy of survival, for
one thing, would lend energy to our efforts toward sustainability. If
we believe ourselves unworthy—no more than maximizing creatures
Homo economicus, or just clever primates—our efforts toward
sustainability will lack the conviction that arises from knowing our
cause to be valid. And knowing what makes us worthy of longevity
will help us set priorities in the years ahead and determine those