Conservationist prescribes hope in the horror
23 October 2024<p>Neil Vora isn’t just an expert on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/opinion/the-last-of-us-fungus-climate-change.html" target="_blank">infectious diseases</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01312-y" target="_blank">pandemics</a> and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01599-X/abstract" target="_blank">nature conservation</a>. He also considers himself something of a savant on dystopian fiction. </p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;">When Vora, an epidemiologist at Conservation International, isn’t treating tuberculosis patients or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFRzeYCk8MI" target="_blank">speaking to audiences</a> about human health and deforestation, he spends his time watching movies and reading stories about contagions and other doomsday scenarios. </span></p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;">It might seem odd to seek distraction in horrors. But in a new essay published this week in Atmos, Vora explains how the history of doomsday narratives illuminates something surprising for our future: hope. </span></p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;">Vora writes in Atmos: </span></p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"><em></em></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"><em>“As much as I enjoy these modern dystopian depictions, I admit, they’re misleading. While they help us diagnose the threats we face, they fall short on remedies even when they exist. They present the end of the world as inevitable. They feed a pernicious, centuries-long theory some hold about human behavior: that the ‘thin veneer’ of order and governance keeping society afloat can shatter at any moment, giving way to innate, brutish human tendencies. This nihilist impulse is a bigger threat than any ghost, werewolf, or other terror — because hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” </em></span></p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;">Read the full essay <a href="https://atmos.earth/how-zombies-and-vampires-help-me-grapple-with-disaster/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></p><p><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;">Further reading:</span></p><ul><li><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"></span><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"><a href="https://www.conservation.org/blog/news-spotlight-nature-s-decline-is-driving-a-surge-in-diseases">Nature’s decline is driving a surge in diseases</a> </span></li><li><span style="background-color:initial;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"><a href="https://www.conservation.org/blog/as-planet-warms-pathogens-on-the-march">As planet warms, pathogens on the march </a></span></li><li><span style="background-color:initial;color:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;text-align:inherit;text-transform:inherit;word-spacing:normal;caret-color:auto;white-space:inherit;"><a href="https://www.conservation.org/blog/in-the-last-of-us-a-warning-for-future-pandemics">In ‘The Last of Us,’ a warning for future pandemics</a></span></li></ul><p><em>Max Marcovitch is a staff writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? <a href="https://www.conservation.org/act/subscribe">Sign up for email updates</a>. Also, <a href="https://www.conservation.org/act">please consider supporting our critical work</a>.</em></p>