Exhausted: Education and the Response to the Planetary Crisis

Abstract

The climate crisis is of a severity that fills many with a sense of hopelessness. The modest steps that ordinary citizens can take to reduce energy consumption and waste seem futile in relation to the massive changes that are needed from governments and industry, and inertia often results. The responses of philosophy and education have been conscientious and constructive in many respects, but again these endeavours are overwhelmed by the intransigence of economic interests. Perhaps because of this, such responses are in danger of becoming self-referential expressions of right-mindedness or nostalgic appeals for a simpler, more natural world. The discourse betrays signs of exhaustion—an exhaustion that seems to match the exhausted condition of the planet. The present discussion offers no easy solutions but asks what might be the best way to live in relation to such circumstances and how education might contribute to this.