The Current

'We need to accept that we failed on climate change,' says Roy Scranton

Author of "Learning to Die in The Anthropocene," Roy Scranton believes the world has passed the point of no return with climate change. At this point, civilization is doomed and we need to learn how to have a good death.
The Spegazzini glacier stands next to exposed rock, where the glacier once stood, in Los Glaciares National Park, part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest ice field in the world, in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The majority of the almost fifty large glaciers in the park have been retreating over the past fifty years due to warming temperatures, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The United States Geological Survey reports that over 68 percent of the world's freshwater supplies are locked in icecaps and glaciers. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Roy Scranton believes that no matter what comes out of the Paris conference, our civilization is likely already doomed. 

Roy Scranton is a former US soldier who served during the second Iraq war. He is also a journalist whose articles have appeared in the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine.     

His new book is called "Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization."

Roy Scranton was in Princeton, New Jersey.
 

As the Paris summit continues, how much do you know about climate change?Take our quiz to find out!
 

 This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.