It would be nice to think that on my last day of life I’d be happy, able to look back at the events of my life and think that it all went right by the end, be able too to look at my loved ones and feel confident that their future would turn out well. Maybe it’ll be possible yet, but I have my worries and doubts about it. It is in the nature of the world that there are change and uncertainty in greater abundance than fixity and surety. Though stability may arise from chaos, chaos ultimately reclaims it.

Because I pay attention to a number of science blogs and read, often enough, about climate change, I have a strong sense that the world I will leave behind shall be one poised on the edge of, if not already falling into, a chasm of environmental—and therefore social and economic—instability. This worries me, personally, daily, continually. Now, as an atheist, I am aware that when I die I will not be worrying about anything at all, and some people might be inclined to state that I’ve no reason to worry now about what will happen after I die because it shall make no difference to me. However, I disagree.

To appreciate life is to love it, or so I have come to believe based on my experience by myself and with others. Every person I have known who has developed, for whatever reason, a sense of life as something beautiful, profound, meaningful, has expressed to me their love of it all. Though tragedy, pain, injustice and cruelty can mar the experience of life for any caring person, people seem to retain a sense of life’s value that transcends whatever would destroy it. I will not here hazard any in-depth opinions as to why that might be, but simply acknowledge it and say that, interpret it however you like, it’s normal to want one’s life and it’s natural to love the life that animates us. Is it so hard to see that such love as one feels will extend to life in general and particularly to the lives that meaningfully intersect with our own?

I care about a future I will not know, because I love and value life and especially value and love the lives of others who have been a part of mine. There is no difficulty projecting my empathy forward as far as I can imagine. So long as there is life, I hope it will prosper and know the kind of love I have known.

So, again, I worry. Far from being unconcerned with what may or may not transpire beneath the sun on this little world of ours after I am dead and gone, I feel a strong and urgent need to warn my fellows, to urge them to fight for the future of all life, to turn away from solipsistic, narcissistic, and foolishly short-sighted self-serving ways of living. I am willing even to applaud those typically myopic religious people who have recognized that they need to actively participate in ensuring the future knows a healthy planet. Even if they are only thinking about their progeny and ends, it serves us all equally well if they work toward keeping our world habitable for themselves. See, the lesson is easy: we live on one planet together and nobody’s fate is extricable from any other. Life on earth makes it as one or fails as one, however the initial disintegration happens. It does not serve anyone to rely on help from some higher power when it comes to the health of the planet. If you love and value life, you will find that you must act on your love’s behalf to take care of the life of the world.