“Do you think we’ll need to buy guns?” The student’s question seemed to drop the temperature in the room by several degrees. I was at a dinner with fellow academics, a few college students and a guest speaker who had just delivered an inspiring talk about climate justice. Sensing confusion, the student clarified: Planetary catastrophe was inevitable in the near term, which means people would soon be living behind walled communities. The guest speaker took a moment to process this information, then suggested that the student worry more about growing vegetables than about buying guns. That conversation has stuck with me over the years not because the student’s views were unusual but because they’ve become commonplace.

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Persons: they’ve, Paul Saint, Amour, — Locations: OpenAI