Climate apocalypse


A climate apocalypse is a term used to denote a predicted scenario involving the global collapse of human civilization due to climate change. Such collapse could theoretically arrive through a set of interrelated concurrent factors such as famine, extreme weather, war and conflict, and disease. There are many similar terms in use such as climate dystopia, collapse, endgame, and catastrophe.

Meaning of the term

A climate apocalypse could theoretically arrive through a set of interrelated concurrent factors such as famine, extreme weather, war and conflict, systemic risk, and disease.

Scientific consensus regarding likelihood

Origin

Rhetoric and belief centered on apocalypticism has deep roots in religious contexts, and similar rhetorical approaches undergird secular apocalyptic interpretations of climate. Historical interpretations fall into two visions of apocalypse: the tragic and the comic. Tragic apocalypticism frames a clearly divided good and evil, with preordained events. In contrast, comic framing emphasizes flawed human agency, and it tends to be characterized by an open-ended, episodic, and ongoing timeline. Some of the most significant books in environmentalism make use of either the tragic or comic apocalyptic framing: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Paul and Anne Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and Al Gore's Earth in the Balance.
There is a Western world tradition of describing a climate apocalypse with images and descriptions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and other features of the apocalypse of the Christian faith.

Usage

In fiction

Reception

Some researchers have speculated that society cannot comprehend an accurate end of the world prediction, and instead, more governments would be willing to respond productively to prevent catastrophe if reports framed the matter as a smaller problem than it actually is. Talking about potential disaster can have a broad impact upon society by making many people feel that if the situation were truly horrible, then there must be good plans to prevent it so no further action is needed.

Related terminology

Climate endgame is a term used to refer to the risk of societal collapse and potential human extinction due to the effects of climate change. The usage of the term seeks to improve risk management by putting a higher priority on worst-case scenarios, to "galvanise action, improve resilience, and inform policy". The term endgame has been used in relation to climate change by other authors in the past, like in The Extinction Curve book by John van der Velden and Rob White, published in 2021.