Halting global warming and keeping the planet on sustainable tracks is not something that can be obtained just through technological fixes. Technology is very important, but it cannot be the only response, and not even the most relevant. If a future zero-carbon society has to be stable and long-lasting, it is mainly a change in worldviews that has to accompany this epochal transition. As humanity at the end of the Middle Age, we face today a critical moment when a deep re-thinking of the complex root reasons that led us to the climate emergency – and to the connected social ones – has to be carried out.
I plea for a new humanism, intended as a deep faith in the capacity of humanity to critically review the incredible richness of its accumulated knowledge in an anti-dogmatic perspective and to become responsible for a democratic, peaceful, gender-equal and just future within our planetary boundaries.
Andrea Tilche, UiT The Arctic University of Norway – Worldviews and the climate emergency