The news about the health of the ecosphere is grim, and getting grimmer. This is on the minds of lots of people, but it’s often difficult to find places where others want to discuss this. Anyone who speaks bluntly about these threats risks being accused of being a downer.

Robert Jensen addresses this problem in a new Truthout essay, “Rationally Speaking, We Are All Apocalyptic Now.” The introduction puts it bluntly:

If we are rational and consider objective scientific evidence of environmental collapse including groundwater depletion, topsoil loss, chemical contamination, ocean dead zones, species extinction, bio-diversity reduction and climate disruption, we need to be apocalypticists.

This essay is drawn from a new polemic Jensen has published, We Are All Apocalyptic Now: On the Responsibilities of Teaching, Preaching, Reporting, Writing, and Speaking Out, which is available in print and on Kindle.