Though the technological advancements of the Anthropocene have benefited society in the short term, we as a race have allowed ourselves an ignorant enchantment with our unrestrained “progress.” We have failed to address the unsustainable nature of our trajectory, condemning ourselves to a world of destruction and dire consequence. If we remain unmoved, and continue to construct a future around the same Promethean ideals that initially accelerated human impact, we will self-destruct.

Defying all rationale, humans have consistently denied truth and routinely ignored facts, refusing to acknowledge the impending dystopia of an ever accelerating Anthropocene, excusing our actions as the norm and explaining the grossly disproportionate human impact as a minor, and necessary, residual effect of society. The attitudes and actions that initiated the beginning of the Anthropocene persist today in ways more destructive than ever before: foundationally unsustainable, our capitalist economy is based on growth, our agriculture depends on artificial farming technology, and our consumer culture understands value and worth in terms of fleeting material possessions. The discussed ideas of Hans Jonas’ heuristics of fear, Mike Davis’ belief in “over-urbanization as the end of urbanization,” and Jared Diamond’s four reasons that humans make disastrous decisions all serve as vessels through which one can, and should, re-conceptualize how humans exist in our deteriorating environment. As these theorists communicate, if we don’t immediately begin to acknowledge and work towards solving the environmental impacts of our actions we will destroy both our social society and our global environment, resulting in widespread catastrophe. Our Anthropocene is a reality, and it is one that will not exist idly as a concept for humans to merely contemplate and then continue merrily on; our continued denial and inaction further compounds our destruction. The obstinacy of our anthropogenic ignorance ensures a ecologically disastrous and unfixable future.