Environmental Heritage and the Ruins of the Future

Environmental Heritage and the Ruins of the Future Erich Hatala Matthes, Wellesley College, Draft 10/31/18. Forthcoming in Ruins, Monuments, and Memorials: Philosophical Perspectives on Artifact and Memory, ed. Carolyn Korsmeyer, Jeanette Bicknell, and Jennifer Judkins. Routledge. Please cite final verison. Abstract: We now have good reason to belief that many coastal cities will be flooded by the end of the century. How should we confront this possibility (or inevitability)? What attitudes should we adopt to impending inundation of such magnitude? In the case of place-loss due to anthropogenic climate change, I argue that there may ultimately be something fitting about letting go, both thinking prospectively, when the likelihood of preservation is bleak, and retrospectively, when we reflect on our inability to prevent destruction. I then explore some of the ethical complications of this response.