On the Eschatology of Our Time

Why Is the Environment Always a Problem?

- On the Apocalypticism of Our Time,

We have always encountered countless environmental problems, along with curses predicting that they would soon bring about the devastation of the Earth and the end of humanity. Those curses continue to stalk humankind, merely changing form—overpopulation, food crises, oil depletion, sea-level rise, ozone depletion, desertification, global warming, and climate crisis.

But is that really so? Where have all the past environmental apocalypses that once threatened humanity now gone? The many environmental doomsday predictions that cursed humanity and modern civilization were all wrong. Humanity today is healthier and wealthier than at any other time in history. Why were those curses wrong? Or rather, who keeps repeating the same curse in different guises, and why? And why, despite all that, does humanity continue to progress?

“You may habitually say, ‘Things were better in the old days.’ But if you look at the reality, you will find that everywhere, in every respect, things have improved.”

“The claim that things were better in the old days is due above all to bad memory.”

Why is the present better than the past? In , Simon argues that human progress is based not on resources or the environment, but on “knowledge.” We must understand that when we “use” the environment, our goal is not to obtain resources themselves from it, but to obtain the “services” those resources provide. There is no way—and no need—to know the exact total stock of human knowledge, but it is certainly increasing.

The ground on which humanity stands today is determined not by the environment, but by “knowledge.” The goal of environmental doomsayers who curse the Earth, humanity, and civilization is to obstruct “the accumulation of knowledge.”

2023.3.13 Bench Press

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Original title: 우리 시대의 종말론에 대해 <근본자원2>

Author: Ja-yujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toronmoim

Date: 2023-03-14

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=4&idx=25457