Responding to Climate Crisis

Grounded in geologian Thomas Berry’s vision of hope, this volume argues that in spite of the global experience of climate and ecological crisis affecting all forms of life on the planet, hope prevails.

Berry maintains that all life is transitioning from a period of devastation in which we currently live to a period when humans will be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. He calls this new period the Ecozoic Era, one that the human community must help to usher in for the flourishing of all life, present and future. While some thinkers and environmentalists would say that hope comes from taking radical and decisive mitigative action quickly, pinning all hope to mitigation would leave life vulnerable if mitigative action does not create positive outcomes. For those who are already dealing with devastation and the loss of their traditional ways of life, there is need for other forms of hope. We suggest that one source of hope is to work towards community with non-human members of the Earth’s community. But there are no doubt other sources of hope as well. Hence, this volume focuses on responses of hope, broadly conceived, to the climate and ecological devastation crisis. The contributors reconceptualize hope, thereby challenging traditional ways of thinking about environmental devastation offered to our world.

Author Biography

Carol J. Dempsey is professor of biblical studies at the University of Portland.
Norah A. Martin is professor of philosophy at the University of Portland.