A striking characteristic of the climate crisis is its gradual unfolding over an extended period of time. Although some of the harsh realities of the crisis are already here and becoming increasingly alarming, its more radical consequences and terrifying scenarios come into view the further we look into the future. For this reason, it is unsurprising that the ethical research regarding the crisis focuses on issues concerning the future – from taking responsibility for future consequences and the suffering those consequences are believed to entail, through the nature of justice in relation to those who will be affected by those consequences, to the anxiety and depression that attend the bleak future eventualities of the climate crisis. 

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In this paper I argue that there is a significant ethical aspect that has so far been neglected in the research: that the future the climate crisis holds for us produces increased alienation in several key areas of life. This neglect is attributable, on the one hand, to a decline in interest in the topic of alienation in ethical research, and, on the other hand, to the paucity of attention to the temporal aspects of alienation in the literature, in particular to how alienation is expressed in relation to the future. Such attention is crucial for understanding the links between the climate crisis and alienation, since the darkest consequences of this crisis belong to the future. 

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I begin by formulating a general account of alienation, according to which alienation consists in one’s failure to identify with an entity with which one is supposed to identify. I then propose an analysis of the future aspects of alienation that serve to explicate the ways in which the future, as perceived through the lens of the climate crisis, enhances alienation. I propose that the climate crisis thwarts our identification with many areas of our lives by its very nature as a harbinger of a future that is not only unpredictable and challenging, but one to which we – citizens of the developed world – bear responsibility as its instigators. 

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I argue that there are two main categories of alienation that result from living in the shadow of the future heralded by the climate crisis: (1) From the perspective of the bleak consequences of the climate crisis: Expected changes in both the natural and human environment paint an unpredictable, alien, and sometimes inconceivable future – one that threatens our identification with our plans, ends, and projects. (2) From the perspective of our responsibility for the consequences: Many of the integral components of the Western way of life – from leisure culture, to professional life and consumption, to family structure – are reflected through the environmental lens as a fundamental cause of the uncertain and bleak future. Recognizing this makes it difficult to continue identifying with these integral components of our way of life, including with the way they are manifested in our own psychology (our character, desires, emotions, etc.). In conclusion, I propose that the conceptual analysis presented here can inform research on the climate crisis in the social sciences and also, possibly, improve our own ability to cope with the crisis.