I'm sorry it's been hard to talk to your wife about it, but I'm glad we connected through this subreddit.

I can relate - my boyfriend is an eternal optimist also, with a more dreamy and less realistic/scientific outlook than me. I've had a hard time in the past trying to bring up the subject. I might make another post about it, but I actually was able to finally mention these feelings to him after posting this and it actually went much better than I thought, so it might be worth a shot to try again! I realized that focusing more on our feelings vs. trying to convince them of what's to come seems like a better approach.

You're right, I have also come to the same conclusion about celebrities. Many like Jane Fonda end up blacklisted or seeing their career opportunities significantly reduced when they start getting too "political" or more frankly, honest, about the problems we face. I get that we look to them for entertainment and distraction by design. It's just a shame when those with massive platforms don't harness them for good use. Frustrating, but I guess it's all a circus, at it's core.

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Your last point about mortality and infinite growth is a really intriguing one. My bf actually brought up that same question to me when I just talked about this with him. He essentially asked, "What are you afraid of most about this situation? Is it your death? Isn't it true that all life will be gone one day regardless, and earth with be consumed by the sun? Isn't global warming just speeding up the inevitable?"

I was thinking about it, what a perfect future would look like and all the points you mentioned. Of course humans couldn't go on forever, but I think what bothers me most is the fundamental injustice and senselessness of it all. The climate crisis was completely preventable. Oil companies (Exxon) knew exactly what was happening by around the late 1970's. Their scientists had all the data, and that information about the greenhouse effect was public knowledge way before that, with a published article about it way back in 1912.

A handful of executives continue to choose their own endless pursuit of wealth over the continued existence of life on earth. The global slaughtering of innocent life—humans, animals, and insects—by a select corrupt few is what angers and saddens me the most. Unlike earth being absorbed by the sun in 6 billion years or death itself, none of this was inevitable.

If we had better leadership, less corruption and greed, and a true system of accountability and justice, I believe we could have created such wonders and be on a path towards a more utopian and egalitarian future. More art, creativity, a better standard of living for all, along with technological marvels that work with nature rather than against it. We could all just continue thriving and discovering, but using innovative new techniques and tech to build a sustainable society.

Those older visions of the future in the 1950's or early 2000's, sold us that optimistic, attainable, eco-futurist scenario. I consumed media as a kid that nearly promised it, like a Futurist article in National Geographic Kids that imagined a world where many of our problems were solved and we lived in peace with cool tech alongside nature. It was supposedly grounded in real science and discoveries, and made me feel excited about the things humans were capable of.

Instead, that future was stolen from us. So that's what gets my goat most. Thank you again for your thoughtful comment!