Words&Dirt

“I have suggested that climate change poses a fundamental challenge to how we think of our lives having meaning, and that respecting those who will follow is part of how we might constructively respond to this challenge. Such a response does not depend on sweeping views about right, duties, and responsibilities but only on modest views about what gives our lives meaning. What makes our lives worth living is the activities we engage in that are in accordance with our values, whatever happens to the world. If we live in this way, even if our cause isn’t successful, we will have lived a life that is worthwhile because it will be a life that is authentically our own. That is not to say that, from time to time, motivation will not flag. Of course it will. But when these episodes are seen as part of a life that is engaged in valuable activities, they will not threaten the sense of meaningfulness that sustains us. Some may think that this is not enough to make a life worth living, but I cannot imagine what more we could ask than to live a life that is driven by our own values, that is directed toward a project of world-historical importance, to heal both ourselves and the Earth.”

––Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, “A Life Worth Living,” by Dale Jamieson, pg. 187-8