Abolishing Wilderness and Ten Things You Can’t Say About Climate Change

For most animals, life in the wild is “one overwhelmingly characterized by fear, predation, stress, disease, parasitism, exposure, hunger, infanticide, cannibalism, and early death.” And there is an active human quest to protect and create more wilderness where those animals live. So here’s a mind-bending moral question: to protect animals, should we be abolishing wilderness?

That’s just one of the contrarian ideas that comes up in this edition of the Breakthrough Journal which explores “ten words you can’t say about climate change.” It’s an intellectual and somewhat dense collection of essays, but interesting to read if you’re a fan of having your assumptions challenged in fundamental ways – or perhaps having them reinforced (depending on your perspective). Either way, this series of articles are good reads if you can find some time for thoughtful media in your week.