Why the planet matters

If Arendt asked whether we love the world enough to take responsibility for it, today we must ask whether we love the world and the planet enough to take responsibility for both. This chapter extends her amor mundi to the obligation to care for our burning planet. Arendt’s love of the world is rooted in the recognition that our technological capacity for nihilistic self-destruction demands greater responsibility than ever. Returning to St Augustine, to love the world means to respect and preserve life in all its plurality: Amo: Volo ut sis . As Hannah Arendt, Pope Francis, Kelly Oliver, and Dipesh Chakrabarty argue, it is not only the world of human affairs that matters but the habitability of the planet.