ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a key dilemma of political activism—how to combine thoughtfulness with conviction. It discusses one form of "conviction politics"—the apocalyptic response to actual or imagined disasters—and traces two variants of apocalyptic response, the redemptive and the survivalist. In short, J. Lovelock epitomizes the apocalyptic imagination. The apocalyptic survivalism of Lovelock could be dismissed if it weren't for the fact that it is already a detectable element in culture and within the "green movement" itself. The chapter describes subsidiary themes of apocalypse, survivalism, salvation, and redemption. There is a strong theme of salvation here and also of cleansing and purification. The theme of redemption here should give us pause for thought. Picking up where Garrett Hardin left off, a constant theme in Lovelock's book is a call to "man the lifeboats" by making those temperate islands such as ours self-sufficient in food and energy as quickly as possible.
