Hurricanes continually pummel the coasts of the United States, we had record high temperatures across the country this summer, and we are biting our nails waiting for what winter may hold. When you really think about it, there is only one logical explanation for the extreme weather we have seen over the last decade: The government. 

Or at least that is what I saw some people saying on social media. 

While it may have been appalling to see people say that, it unfortunately isn’t a new train of thought. Climate change is a topic that has been debated for as long as I can remember and people around the world have always come up with any possible explanation that points the finger away from the human race’s involvement in it. If it is even a real thing at all, that is. 

However, as we continually experience record high and low temperatures almost every year, it seems like it should get harder and harder to deny the changes in our climate… but it clearly isn’t. Considering that, I can’t help asking: Why? How do people see what is happening around them and NOT worry about the health of the planet?

Although he uses a vocabulary that isn’t exactly suitable to the casual reader, Michael Marder thoroughly discusses possible philosophical and theological explanations for the existence of climate change deniers in his book The Phoenix Complex: A Philosophy of Nature.

For those who are not familiar with the myth of the phoenix, it is a mythical bird who bursts into flame at the end of its life cycle and is then reborn from its own ashes. As Marder describes in depth in the first few chapters of The Phoenix Complex, the phoenix is mentioned in some of the earliest texts in Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Stories differed early on as some included a sudden, fiery death while others described a long, slow death and a rebirth from the actual corpse but they all held the same general theme: something new reborn from the remains of its predecessor (Marder 32). As time has gone on, we have come to pretty much exclusively associate the phoenix with a fiery death and rebirth cycle.

Considering we are talking about a mythical bird, you may be thinking: What does this have to do with the environment? Although it may have just been my Western plains upbringing, I am relatively sure that all of us were taught at a young age that forests and fields often become healthier after a fire due to the fact that all of the dead brush that may have been blocking new growth are burned into nutrient dense ash. I’m also sure that many of us remember some sort of TV show or movie that showed a little sprout or tree rising up through the ashes after a devastating fire.

With that context in mind, think of what the phoenix represents: a renewal of life from the destruction of the old. That idea in itself may be beautiful, but the association between the phoenix and nature can be dangerous. While it may be true in many cases that new life is able to grow after a devastating event, it is dangerous to assume that something new will always come after the destruction of what came before it. 

Therein lies what Marder warns about throughout his book and dubs “the phoenix complex.” The phoenix can be an empowering symbol for growth and change, but it can also become the cause of a mind-numbing assumption that both life and death have no real meaning. If something new will come from the ashes, why should we care what burnt away in the first place? Marder explains that, after a phoenix regenerates “the changes and metamorphoses that took place along the way are no longer visible and are deemed insubstantial compared to triumphal self-regeneration.” (40). If the environment will regenerate to be the same as, if not better than, before, we do not need to worry about the state of the planet now.

Another key term to pull from the previous quote is the notion of “self-regeneration.” No one causes the rebirth of the phoenix or tries to prevent it, it simply happens. Under that assumption, the Earth, like the phoenix, becomes “replaceable–by no one but… itself” (Marder 10). This allows humanity to take another step away from responsibility or care about the environment since only the Earth can regenerate itself from the ashes. If the Earth is going to regenerate in a fiery blaze, it is simply the natural way of things. In reality, however, the human race’s presence and lack of care for the environment is quickly degrading the planet to a point where it will never be truly healthy again.

But what about the implication of what will happen to the human race in the event of a mass extinction? Well, we live in a world where many people believe that they will continue to live past the life of their physical body. That is not to say that belief in reincarnation is inherently negative by any means, everyone should believe in and worship who/what they want. However, without being tempered by some sort of care for the environment this belief can morph into ambivalence towards the possible mass-extinction-event-causing impacts of climate change. If your soul will continue to live on anyway and the Earth will eventually be reborn, nothing is really dying in the first place.

While all of this may seem inherently negative and apathetic, it is important to know that Marder notes an undercurrent of hope in all of these ways of thinking. As I noted previously, the myth of the phoenix is more often than not seen as a positive thing to compare others to. People see the phoenix as a symbol of new beginnings and resilience. So, while it may not be a conscious decision, people who are impacted by the phoenix complex have an inherent hope that everything will live on. Their apathy towards destruction hinges on the hope that there is a place for their soul to live on after death. Their ignorance to the rapid decline of the environment hinges on hope that the Earth will eventually regenerate itself. Just like the phoenix, hope can be a wonderful thing. However, it can lead to disillusionment. As Marder so aptly puts it in the introduction of his book: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the road to environmental destruction is paved with hope, which is shaped like a phoenix” (3).

All in all, “the phoenix complex” is ultimately a dangerous thing. The earth is not a phoenix, and as the years pass it is becoming more and more obvious that our lives will be fundamentally different even within the next 50 years if we do not make an effort to change. We are already starting to see the catastrophic impacts of the “small” changes we have been seeing over the last decade in the increase through the increases in hurricane severity, droughts, and wildfires to name a few. Even the smallest of shifts can be an indicator of something bigger on the horizon.

If we want to leave behind a future worth living in, we need to tear ourselves out of the phoenix complex. We can no longer stand to the side and expect the Earth to regenerate because we as a society have done too much damage for that to be possible anymore. It may seem like it is too late to turn things around, but we need to have hope that our efforts to slow or reverse climate change will have some meaningful impact in the long run.

 

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