I don't think the world is dying

There’s a theme I’ve seen echoing around the digital void lately — “the world is dying.”
I get it. Climate anxiety is a thing. Late-stage capitalism is looking... well, pretty late. And if your feed is anything like mine, it’s a steady diet of heatwaves, plastic-filled oceans, political unravelling, and billionaires escaping into orbit like rats from a sinking ship.

But here’s my perspective:
I don’t think the world is dying.
I think the version of life that the Western world has come to know and cling to with white-knuckled intensity… that’s what’s in its death throes.

And maybe it needs to die.

Let’s be honest — humans have been a bit of a disaster in the “caretaker of the planet” department. Arrogance and self-importance have been our party tricks for generations now. It’s not that we’ve broken the world; it’s that we keep pretending we own it.

But the world?
She’s survived asteroid collisions, supervolcanoes, ice ages, and a whole host of mass extinctions without even blinking. We are, by comparison, a momentary blip — a flash of carbon-based confidence in the infinite expanse of cosmic time. And despite our best efforts to mess it all up, the planet isn’t dying. It’s adapting. It’s evolving. It’s shrugging off what no longer serves.

Including us, if it must.

Now before you reach for your compostable tissues — this isn’t a nihilistic rant. It’s a permission slip.
To breathe.
To let go.
To stop pretending that you alone are responsible for all of humanity’s mess.

We’re each just a single thread in this enormous, complicated, often absurd tapestry. What you can do (what it’s my intention every day to do) is live with integrity and joy in your own corner of it. Do the best you can, and be kind to your small ecosystem of people, places, and passing moments.

Because here’s the truth I’ve landed on:
If I’m doing the best I can, then carrying daily negativity and self-blame doesn’t serve anyone — least of all the world I do want to help.

I can’t control others’ choices. I’m not responsible for the whole system. I didn’t ask to be born into late capitalism, climate chaos, or whatever season of global collapse we’re in.

But I can choose my response.
And today, I choose peace. I choose joy. I choose to keep showing up with awareness, action, and a little grace for myself and others.

The world isn’t dying.
But the illusion of what we thought the world was?
That’s a different story.