Nature in Crisis: ‘Impasse’ by Roy Scranton
About this episode
The episode discusses Roy Scranton's analysis of climate change and societal collapse through the lens of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization at Chaco Canyon.
At Chaco Canyon in the New Mexico desert lie the ruins of a once vibrant and extensive Ancestral Puebloan civilisation. Sometime in the 12th century the society fell into decline, as a fifty-year drought may have helped to push the settlement to collapse. ‘How is it that a complex society like Chaco could survive one drought but not another?’ Roy Scranton asks near the start of ‘Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress’ (2025). For Scranton, the fate of the civilisation at Chaco Canyon is a microcosm for the crisis now confronting humanity. The challenges we face, from climate change to political instability, are so intractable in part because of their complexity. In this episode, Meehan and Peter discuss Scranton’s analysis of our predicament and his proposal for ‘ethical pessimism’, based on resistance to our bias for optimism, as a way of coping with an uncertain future. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrnature In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsnature Further…
People in this episode
Host: Meehan
Guest: Peter
Topics covered
- climate change
- Ancestral Puebloan civilization
- ethical pessimism
- political instability
- complexity of societal collapse
Keywords
- climate change
- Chaco Canyon
- Roy Scranton
- ethical pessimism
- societal collapse
- Ancestral Puebloan
- political instability
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress
Places: Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
More episodes of Close Readings
- London Revisited: Coffee, Satire and Bubbles
- Narrative Poems: ‘Childe Roland’ and ‘The Pied Piper’ by Robert Browning
- Nature in Crisis: ‘Lessons for Survival’ by Emily Raboteau
- Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Pnin’ by Vladimir Nabokov
- London Revisited: Pepys, Plague and Fire
- Narrative Poems: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by John Keats
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Close Readings podcast page.