Thursday, October 9, 2014

Climate Change: Our Current Apocalypse

Climate change has been an ever-escalating issue, becoming more and more prevalent over the last decade than ever before. As described by S. Brent Plate in, Apocalypse Now and Then: Four Rules for Watching the World End, global warming is something we collectively fear. Since this fear has been ignored and left to fester, every time it makes an appearance to the public consciousness, it is more harrowing than ever. From a certain point of view, this could be seen as positive since we must make a change at some point, and fear will force us to do exactly that.
Powered by this type of fear was the Climate Change march that happened in New York City, the largest of its kind. Backed by the exclamations of the scientific community, a collective prophet for the dangers of climate change,the goal of the march was to relay scientific findings that a possible end for humanity as we know it is within sight. In all too classical of an apocalyptic fashion, there is salvation being offered, and it's in the form of changing our over-consuming ways.
Unfortunately, however, as Dan Archer says in his comic, "the politics of the apocalypse have proved insidiously divisive and incendiary" (5th panel), and this fact is becoming apparent as humanity's hand is being forced into making a decision. 
Because apocalypse is always so divisive, and because the signs around us are more clearly than ever pointing towards destruction, those in favor of changing our ways have become the harbingers of doom. The marches, protests, and general outcry is something that has been seen in apocalypses' past.

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