The Twilight of Environmental Consciousness
The article develops the idea that the ecological crisis is a product of consciousness and in fact human activity does not have a significant impact on planetary processes due to the incommensurability of the scale of nature and civilization. It is shown that the feeling of impending catastrophe, environmental degradation, mass extinction of species and a general apocalypse, which have been intensively implanted in the public consciousness by eco-activists over the past fifty years, is largely due to the specifics of human “optics” based on the desire to control planetary processes that are obviously beyond the control of humanity. Shifting the emphasis to the negative aspects of anthropogenic impact on nature can be called the “twilight of environmental consciousness” (the metaphor is inspired by “Timothy Morton's dark ecology”). In conclusion, the hope is expressed that this twilight is pre-dawn and the ecology of the future will become more balanced and adequate and will cease to be a source of eschatological moods.
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