Climate Change Makes a Thanos of Us All

One of the great joys of dramatic fiction is found in its villains—the dark lords, evil geniuses, and monstrous beasts serving to thrill, terrify, and ignite conflict in our favorite stories. We love to hate them, but often, we enjoy those antagonists most who challenge our very conception of good vs evil—those who, through their ideas and characterization, make us pause and consider: what if they’re right?

It’s a common device of late, not because of any notable increase in clever character writing, but because it is particularly well targeted towards an unsure audience. In our current climate, where competing ideas and world views create high levels of argument and confusion, an encroaching self-doubt is on the rise in the West. And as often is the case, when the prevailing narrative is particularly pessimistic, that modicum of self-doubt can metastasize to a comprehensive, defining masochism.

So, what is to be done? Malthus would say nothing, and Thanos would merely snap his fingers. But they are pessimists; destruction is all they know. The key is in understanding that this has never been about our resources—but, rather, our resourcefulness.

Such is the case with the current climate change debate. We as a society—a species! a planet!—face one of the greatest problems in our history, and the anxiety born from its influence bleeds into every facet of our culture, including popular media.

Possibly the biggest cinematic event this year (perhaps ever), the release of the saga-concluding super-epic Avengers: Endgame sees the return of its antagonist Thanos, the Mad Titan and cosmic eco-terrorist. In last year’s installment, Avengers: Infinity War, we were introduced to Thanos’ character and motivations in his quest to collect all six “Infinity Stones” (weapons of cosmic power) in an attempt to rid the world of 50% of its inhabitants. “It’s simple calculus.” he says, “This universe is finite, its resources, finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting.”