According to data surrounding the channeled scablands[0] in Washington state, the earth has been through at least 19 severe cooling periods in the past 2 million years, the approximate time homo sapian and our very close evolutionary ancestors have survived and, in our case at least, thrived beyond all possible expectation.
All this with mostly just the barest bits of technology...fire, sharpened flints etc etc. These cooling events have been massive in scope; Manhattan Island was under 2 miles of ice and glaciers came all the way down to north Georgia.
In other words, we are really good at dealing with a changing environment no matter what the cause could be.
As I read the article, this "philosopher prophet" seems to be nothing of the kind, unless you consider a religious-type zeal for a silly and pretentious prediction of the total destruction of the earth's ecosystem some sort of deep insight.
That's utterly preposterous. Ice core samples[1] of greenhouse gases (you know, actual data points not so-far-very-inaccurate computer models) show we seem to be right on cycle basically and show little scientific basis for the hysterics that this man is being genuflected for in the article.
Of course we should all be concerned about keeping a cleaner environment...who the fuck is for dirty water and air?
Others say the blame for the despoliation of the Earth
should be laid at the feet not of humanity in general, but
of (predominantly white, western and male) capitalism.
Aren't these the same "white men" who basically gave us the industrial revolution, anti-biotics and vaccines that have saved 100's of millions, and a global economy tied to the WWW that is lifting 100's of thousands out of poverty daily?
More to the point...would this be the same capitalism that is responsible in the US for an over 12% reduction in CO2 over the past 10 years?[2]
Yes I know..all this just becomes political in nature and I certainly am not going to change any minds here or anywhere, really. I just can't for the life of my understand why so many people feel the need to underestimate humanity's abilities to fix and deal with pretty much anything the environment throws at us.
Besides a huge meteor impact of course.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channeled_Scablands [1] http://cdiac.ornl.gov/images/air_bubbles_historical.jpg [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8714#results