one cold but brilliant morning in November 2020 [correction]: The date of the symposium was November 2021.
a cultural symposium on climate change: Turbulence / emergence / enchantment: A compendium of climate literacies. (2021). Cove Park. https://covepark.org/turbulence-emergence-enchantment-a-compendium-of-climate-literacies/
Some of the talks – from oceanographers and archaeologists, lawyers and technologists as well as artists and writers: Digital archive: A compendium of climate literacies. (2021). Cove Park. https://covepark.org/compendium/ [Aka Niviâna’s talk is not included]
The environment was transforming the Inuit’s homes, reshaping the landscape: Carrillo-Ponce, A., Heimann, S., Petersen, G. M., Walter, T. R., Cesca, S., & Dahm, T. (2024). The 16 September 2023 Greenland megatsunami: Analysis and modeling of the source and a week-long, monochromatic seismic signal. The Seismic Record, 4(3), 172–183. https://doi.org/10.1785/0320240013
Weule, G. (2022, August 2). Earth recorded its shortest day on record recently. And that could affect our clocks. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-02/earth-shortest-day-may-lead-to-leap-second-deletion/101289964
There is no denialism in Greenland. What there is instead is despair: McDougall, D. (2019, August 12). ‘Ecological grief’: Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/greenland-residents-traumatised-by-climate-emergency
That Guardian article draws on Minor, K., Agneman, G., Davidsen, N., Kleemann, N., Markussen, U., Olsen, A., Lassen, D. D., & Rosing, M. T. (2019). Greenlandic perspectives on climate change 2018–2019: Results from a national survey (p. ResearchGate). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339177908_Greenlandic_Perspectives_on_Climate_Change_2018-2019_Results_from_a_National_Survey
Greenland has for decades had the highest suicide rate in the world [correction}: The peak was 120 suicides a year, not 121. Hersher, R. (2016, April 21). The Arctic suicides: It’s not the dark that kills you. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/474847921/the-arctic-suicides-its-not-the-dark-that-kills-you
Jones, A. (2020, May 7). The intersection of mental health and climate change: Policy suggestions for supporting Greenlandic Inuit. The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. https://jsis.washington.edu/news/the-intersection-of-mental-health-and-climate-change-policy-suggestions-for-supporting-greenlandic-inuit/
Today there’s another contributing factor: climate change: McDougall, D. (2019, August 12). Life on thin ice: Mental health at the heart of the climate crisis. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2019/aug/12/life-on-thin-ice-mental-health-at-the-heart-of-the-climate-crisis
There was a word for this estrangement circulating at that gathering in Cove Park: Albrecht, G., Sartore, G.-M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., Stain, H., Tonna, A., & Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The distress caused by environmental change. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(1), 95–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288
In fact, it’s probably even happened before in Greenland: Krisch, J. A. (2014, August 28). New study offers clues to swift Arctic extinction. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/science/study-offers-clues-to-arctic-mystery-paleo-eskimos-abrupt-extinction.html
Folger, T. (2017, March). Why did Greenland’s Vikings vanish? Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-greenland-vikings-vanished-180962119/
a press release arrived in my inbox bearing reassuring news: UNICEF. (2021, November 18). Landmark intergenerational poll shows young people are 50% more likely than older generations to believe the world is becoming a better place – yet impatient for action on mounting crises. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/eap/press-releases/landmark-intergenerational-poll-shows-young-people-are-50-more-likely-older
a UNICEF survey, billed as the first of its kind: The Changing Childhood Project | UNICEF x Gallup. (n.d.). The Changing Childhood Project | UNICEF X Gallup. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://changingchildhood.unicef.org/
A 2023 survey by the Japanese cabinet office: Jiji Press. (2023, April 2). 1.46 million working-age people socially isolated. The Japan News. https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230402-101138/
officially recognised by both medical researchers and the Japanese government: Pozza, A., Coluccia, A., Kato, T., Gaetani, M., & Ferretti, F. (2019). The ‘Hikikomori’ syndrome: Worldwide prevalence and co-occurring major psychiatric disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. BMJ Open, 9(9), e025213. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025213
everything from cash payments to buddy programmes and VR simulations of re-entry to the outside world:
Cash payments: Kim, H., & Ng, K. (2023, May 26). Hikikomori: Why S Korea is paying young recluses to leave home. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65554271
Buddy programmes: Martyn-Hemphill, A. (2019). Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japan’s young men out of their rooms [Video]. In BBC World Service. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06y5hmn
Virtual reality: Aguglia, A., Masini, F., De Michiel, C. F., Amerio, A., Orsolini, L., Volpe, U., & Serafini, G. (2024). Virtual reality as a novel therapeutic approach to Hikikomori. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 70(8), 1554–1556. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640241270748
In 2011, an article in South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper: Yoo, J., & Park, E. (2011, May 11). The overburdened family in Korea. Kyunghyang Shinmun. https://www.khan.co.kr/article/201105112139085
The coinage was swiftly expanded: Park, N. (2015, October 6). “Hell Joseon” – a country where sleepless toil brings no mobility. Hankyoreh. https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/711631.html
‘Goblin mode’ became the Oxford University Press’s 2022 word of the year: James, I. (2022, December 5). Oxford word of the year 2022 revealed as ‘goblin mode.’ BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63857329
The unexpected correlation to convenience and connection has turned out to be loneliness: Curmi, A. (2024, November 4). The big idea: Is convenience making our lives more difficult? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/04/the-big-idea-is-convenience-making-our-lives-more-difficult
it has been flagged as a global public health priority by the World Health Organization: WHO Commission on Social Connection. (2024). In World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/groups/commission-on-social-connection
Disinclination to participate in society, or adhere to its norms, has a name: ‘anomie’: Durkheim, É. (1893). De la division du travail social (First). Félix Alcan. https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/De_la_division_du_travail_social [French]
Durkheim, E. (1964). The division of labor in society. The Free Press of Glencoe: Collier-Macmillan Limited. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.126617 [English translation]
Lukes, S. (2008, November 4). Zero confidence. New Humanist. https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/1889/zero-confidence
Greta, ultimately, was no different: COP26: Greta Thunberg tells protest that COP26 has been a “failure.” (2021, November 5). BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59165781
a nightmare about climate change: Thomson Reuters Foundation. (2020, March 3). One in five UK children report nightmares about climate change. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/one-in-five-uk-children-report-nightmares-about-climate-change-idUSL1N2AV1FF/
David Wallace-Wells… wrote that ‘what looks like apocalypse in prospect often feels more like grim normality when it arrives in the present’: Klein, E. (2022, June 5). Your kids are not doomed. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/opinion/climate-change-should-you-have-kids.html
Not many men choose to be vasectomised at twenty-five: Buckley, C. (2022, November 23). Earth now has 8 billion humans. This man wishes there were none. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html
The Limits to Growth, reporting alarming predictions made by a pioneering computer simulation: Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. W. (1972). The limits to growth: A report for The Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. Universe Books. https://archive.org/details/TheLimitsToGrowth
Kahn, M. E. (2022, July 12). What the controversial 1972 ‘Limits to Growth’ report got right: Our choices today shape future conditions for life on Earth. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/what-the-controversial-1972-limits-to-growth-report-got-right-our-choices-today-shape-future-conditions-for-life-on-earth-184920
he started a newsletter, initially mailed to a few hundred supporters: Knight, L. U. (1991). These Exit Times (Issue 1). Voluntary Human Extinction Movement VHEMT. https://archive.org/details/these_exit_times_1
a website on which the extinction-curious can find answers to questions: The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. (n.d.). The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://www.vhemt.org/
‘I don’t mind being considered a kook; somebody’s got to do it,’ he told The Economist in 1998: Sui genocide. (1998, December 17). The Economist. https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/1998/12/17/sui-genocide
‘Is it okay to still have children?’ she asked almost off-handedly: Green, M. (2019, February 25). Ocasio-Cortez: It’s ‘legitimate’ to ask if OK to have children in face of climate change. The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/431440-ocasio-cortez-in-face-of-climate-change-its-legitimate-to-ask-if-ok/
not because they’re necessarily any more important than the others [footnote]: Some species do have a disproportionate impact on their host ecosystem: they’re known as keystone species. A single pair of beavers can completely transform their environment, for example.
they are indicator species whose fortunes reflect the health of the ecosystem as a whole: Siddig, A. A. H., Ellison, A. M., Ochs, A., Villar-Leeman, C., & Lau, M. K. (2016). How do ecologists select and use indicator species to monitor ecological change? Insights from 14 years of publication in Ecological Indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, 223–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.06.036
What are indicator species? Understanding nature’s detectives. (2024, August 30). Planet Wild. https://planetwild.com/blog/indicator-species
Tim Gill… describes children as an indicator species for society: I wrote that he made this comparison in a blog post, but that post actually republished this newspaper op-ed column: Gill, T. (2017, July 17). Crucial indicator for a successful, healthy city: children. The Philadelphia Inquirer. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opinion/20170718_Crucial_indicator_for_a_successful__healthy_city__children.html
In 2020, just over 600 Americans of parenting age replied to a survey: Schneider-Mayerson, M., & Leong, K. L. (2020). Eco-reproductive concerns in the age of climate change. Climatic Change, 163. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02923-y
a randomised survey of 10,000 young adults in 10 countries, published in the august medical journal the Lancet: Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., & van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), E863–E873. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3
the writer Amil Niazi reprinted some of the responses she got on social media: Niazi, A. (2023, August 31). Having a kid at the end of the world. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2023/08/having-a-baby-question-climate-change-crisis.html
The ‘demographic transition model’, a standard in population studies: Roser, M. (2019, June 1). Demographic transition: Why is rapid population growth a temporary phenomenon? Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/demographic-transition
According to one study, the populations of 23 nations: The Lancet. (2020). The Lancet: World population likely to shrink after mid-century, forecasting major shifts in global population and economic power. In Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. https://www.healthdata.org/news-events/newsroom/news-releases/lancet-world-population-likely-shrink-after-mid-century
South Korea, which has declared its demographic decline a national emergency: Reuters. (2024, February 28). In South Korea, world’s lowest fertility rate plunges again in 2023. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/south-korea-japan-record-low-fertility-2023-rcna140849
as my London Business School professors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott described in their book, The 100-Year Life: Gratton, L., & Scott, A. (2016). The 100-year life (First). Bloomsbury Information. https://www.100yearlife.com/
reported Leo Lewis in a piece for the Financial Times: Lewis, L. (2023, September 30). Japan’s toddler superstar: The baby bringing hope to a ghost village. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/a43a9f8b-0051-492f-93a3-5332fd465785?shareType=nongift
Perhaps the best answer I’ve heard to Ocasio-Cortez’s question came from the writer Meehan Crist: Crist, M. (2020). Is it OK to have a child? London Review of Books, 42(5). https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n05/meehan-crist/is-it-ok-to-have-a-child
the forces of global fossil-fuel capitalism [footnote]: Decades later, they were still at it: in March 2024, the boss of Exxon – a company whose history of cover-ups and deliberate denial means it has more to answer for on climate change than any other on Earth – declared that price-sensitive consumers were to blame for its reluctance to cultivate greener energy sources.
‘It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism,’ wrote the critical theorist Fredric Jameson: In fact, Jameson wrote that ‘someone once said’ this, but it’s not clear who he meant, so the aphorism is usually attributed to him: Jameson, F. (2003). Future city. New Left Review, 21. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii21/articles/fredric-jameson-future-city
‘Advice to Young People, as you Face Annihilation’: Hallam, R. (2023, February 23). Advice to young people, as you face annihilation. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/advice-to-young-people-as-you-face-annihilation
In its most notorious passage, on the downfall of civilisation: Hallam, R. (2021, April 28). Advice to young people as they face annihilation [Video]. In Roger Hallam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au33QX9I-Mg&t=1423s. Hosted by YouTube.
O’Neill, B. (2021, November 4). The perverse fantasies of XR’s founder. The Spectator. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-perverse-fantasies-of-xr-s-founder/
Malik, K. (2021, November 7). Want to change the world? Then you’d better give up on self-defeating pessimism. The Observer. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/07/bleak-pessimism-about-the-planets-future-is-as-lethal-as-blithe-optimism
whether fear or hope is better at motivating action on climate:
Maskell, J. (2022). To scare or not to scare? Is a message of fear more effective than a message of hope? Responsible Science, 4, 35–36. https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/scare-or-not-scare-message-fear-more-effective-message-hope
Ettinger, J. (2019, January 23). Guest blog: hope, fear and the Extinction Rebellion. Climate Outreach. https://climateoutreach.org/hope-fear-and-the-extinction-rebellion/
Kleres, J., & Wettergren, Å. (2017). Fear, hope, anger, and guilt in climate activism. Social Movement Studies, 16(5), 507–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2017.1344546
Talk of societal collapse thrives online, in despairing Reddit forums and gloomy creative collectives and as the memetic punchline to a million social-media exchanges about the future.
Reddit forum: Collapse of civilisation. (n.d.). Reddit. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/
Creative collective: Home. (n.d.). Dark Mountain. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://dark-mountain.net/
Memetic punchline: Know Your Meme contributors. (n.d.). This Is Fine. Know Your Meme. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-is-fine
It has become a subculture: we doomscroll through doomerist memes and doomerist blogs; there are doomerist influencers, doomerist TV shows, doomerist festivals and doomerwave music.
Memes: Adam. (2018). Doomer. In Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/doomer
Blogs: Smith, N. (2023, February 22). Don’t be a doomer. Noahpinion. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/dont-be-a-doomer
Influencers: Silva, M. (2022, May 22). Why is climate ‘doomism’ going viral – and who’s fighting it?. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-61495035
TV shows: TV Tropes contributors. (n.d.). After the end. In TV Tropes. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AfterTheEnd
Festivals: Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Festival 2010–13. (n.d.). Dark Mountain. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://dark-mountain.net/about/gathering-places/uncivilisation/
Music: Hann, M. (2021, July 20). ‘Thom Yorke made a doomerwave version of his own f***ing song!’ The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/doomerwave-vapourwave-thom-yorke-creep-b1885403.html
Scientific American asked six climate scientists: Weeman, K. (2023, September 5). What do climate scientists tell their kids about the future? Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-climate-scientists-tell-their-kids-about-the-future/
Christiana Figueres, the diplomat who led the breakthrough 2015 Paris Agreement on climate: Figueres, C. (2020). The case for stubborn optimism on climate [Video]. In TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/christiana_figueres_the_case_for_stubborn_optimism_on_climate/transcript?subtitle=en
Even a whistle-blower like David Wallace-Wells acknowledged a few years later: Zuckerman, A. (2021, December 14). David Wallace-Wells on his growing optimism for the planet’s future. Time Sensitive. https://timesensitive.fm/episode/david-wallace-wells-on-his-growing-optimism-for-the-planets-future/
Extinction Rebellion, suffering growing pains: van der Zee, B., & Weston, P. (2023, April 21). Big tent for the Big One: Extinction Rebellion shows softer side in London protest. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/21/big-one-extinction-rebellion-cliimate-protest-london-xr
Clare Farrell, one of XR’s co-founders, had recently been in court: Smith, S. (2023, December 13). Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell on smashing up HSBC bank. Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61534/1/extinction-rebellion-xr-co-founder-clare-farrell-prison-hsbc-windows-smash
explaining why she felt her action to be justified [footnote]: This form of defence was subsequently banned. Hallam defied that ban in a later case over a protest which obstructed a motorway, and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The judge said he had ‘crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic’, but both ban and sentence were widely criticised as excessive.
the words of the Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci… including, in a letter to his sister-in-law [correction]: The letter was to his brother Carlo: Gramsci, A. (1929, December 19). Letters from prison [Letter to Carlo Gramsci]. https://archive.org/details/lettersfrompriso0000gram/page/158/mode/2up?q=beaten
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will: Francesca Antonini notes that Gramsci was building on a quote from the French writer Romain Rolland: Antonini, F. (2019). Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will: Gramsci’s political thought in the last miscellaneous notebooks. Rethinking Marxism, 31(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2019.1577616