One could potentially add three more ideal types of doomer: The Unaware Doomer. Core Philosophy: Humans caused this mess. Humans…
Climate Casino
What is the Definition of a Doomer?
As Sam Mitchell famously said, if you ask 12 doomers to give a definition of what it means to be a doomer, you will get 13 different answers. Or 22. Or even more.
In this post I’ve listed many of the most well-known types of doomers. I am sure there are plenty more, and each would define yet another new category to extend this article.
And yes, this post is a reaction to some of the attacks against doomers in recently published books and articles, including the three types of doomers described in “The Language of Climate Politics” by Genevieve Guenther.
Note: In some cases, AI assisted in finding an example doomer, getting a relevant quote and/or finding a publication or other source.
1. The Social Media Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Social Media Doomer is a relentless online chronicler who dissects mainstream climate narratives with a sharp eye for inconsistencies and omissions. They document real-time environmental catastrophes—dying forests, vanishing species, erratic weather—as evidence that the tipping points have already been crossed.
Example: Gail Zawacki.
Quote: “Today, despite increasingly ominous warnings from the scientists, we’re not taking climate change seriously. In fact, we’re making things much worse.”
Article: “Why Are Climate Scientists Less Than Truthful?”
2. The Radical Ecologist Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Radical Ecologist Doomer sees climate change as the inevitable outcome of industrial civilization’s war on nature, advocating for the dismantling of oppressive systems through direct action and cultural revolution. This doomer type embodies fierce love for the more-than-human world, urging us to grieve and fight simultaneously.
Example: Derrick Jensen.
Quote: “They want us to believe that consumer choices are the only way we can change things. But if we accept that then it means that they’ve won.”
Book: “Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet.”
3. The Anti-Capitalist Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Anti-Capitalist Doomer believes that climate change is the death knell of neoliberal economics, where profit-driven exploitation has pushed the planet beyond safe limits. This doomer warns that without revolutionary change, we’ll face not just environmental ruin but the end of democracy itself.
Example: Naomi Klein.
Quote: “We are seeing the beginnings of the era of climate barbarism.”
Book: “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.”
4. The Ethical Pessimist Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Ethical Pessimist Doomer confronts the inevitability of climate catastrophe with stoic wisdom, urging us to find meaning in a doomed world rather than futilely averting it. They reject nihilism, saying that doom frees us to pursue authentic lives unburdened by consumerism. Their reflections humanize the apocalypse, turning terror into teachable moments.
Example: Roy Scranton.
Quote: “The bad news we must confront is that we’re all gonna die.”
Book: “We’re Doomed. Now What? Essays on War and Climate Change.”
5. The Gaia Hypothesis Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Gaia Hypothesis Doomer interprets climate change through the lens of Earth as a self-regulating superorganism, now rebelling against the “human cancer” with vengeful fury. Viewing the crisis as Gaia’s immune response, they foresee a die-off reducing populations to sustainable levels, with survivors in polar refuges. Ultimately, they find solace in Gaia’s resilience, even as we fade.
Example: James Lovelock.
Quote: “It will be death on a grand scale from famine and lack of water.”
Book: “The Revenge of Gaia.”
6. The Civil Disobedience Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Civil Disobedience Doomer believes mass nonviolent disruption is the only way to jolt societies from climate complacency, even as they acknowledge the crisis’s unstoppable momentum. They reject electoral politics as corrupted, pushing for citizens’ assemblies to enforce emissions cuts. They embody defiant optimism amid doom, believing that even in freefall, resistance builds solidarity and legacy.
Example: Roger Hallam.
Quote: “I’m going to tell you the worst-case scenario with climate change… we are looking at the end of most life on Earth.”
Book: “Common Sense for the 21st Century.”
7. The Near-Term Human Extinction Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Near-Term Human Extinction Doomer fixates on nonlinear climate dynamics, where small changes trigger cascading failures ending industrial society within decades. This doomer challenges scientists’ conservatism, accusing them of lying to protect careers. They urge facing oblivion with love, finding purpose in documenting the fall.
Example: Guy McPherson.
Quote: “I can’t imagine that there will be a human left on the Earth in 10 years.”
Book: “Going Dark.”
8. The OG Doomer
Core Philosophy: The OG Doomer traces climate catastrophe to unchecked human numbers straining Earth’s finite resources, echoing Malthsian warnings from centuries past. They argue that population booms outpace food and energy supplies, amplifying emissions and deforestation to tipping points of famine and migration armageddon. This doomer is very similar to the “Population Bomb” doomer described below.
Examples: Thomas Malthus, Club of Rome.
Quote: “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”
Book: “An Essay on the Principle of Population.”
9. The Ecological Footprint Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Ecological Footprint Doomer quantifies humanity’s oversized impact, revealing how our global appetite exceeds planetary boundaries, dooming civilization to overshoot and collapse. They debunk green growth myths, insisting infinite expansion on finite Earth is suicidal. This doomer is similar to the “Overshoot Ecologist” doomer described below.
Example: William Rees.
Quote: “Not to worry, all we have to do is transition to green renewable energy!”
Book: “Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.”
10. The Deep Adaptation Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Deep Adaptation Doomer embraces societal collapse as inevitable, shifting focus from mitigation to resilience, grief, and mutual support in the ruins. They foster communities practicing non-attachment and solidarity, preparing for disrupted services and conflicts. Their framework empowers ordinary people to build antifragile lives, honoring the dying world with compassion.
Example: Jem Bendell.
Quote: “We gather and rebel not with a vision of a fairy-tale future where we have fixed the climate, but because it is right to do what we can.”
Article: “Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy.”
11. The Population Bomb Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Population Bomb Doomer argues that explosive human numbers, coupled with consumption, is the primary forcing mechanism for near-term collapse. They forecast civilization’s declining survival odds against resource wars, pandemics, and starvation as carrying capacity plummets. They warn that unchecked numbers spell extinction. This doomer is very similar to the OG Doomer described above.
Example: Paul Ehrlich.
Quote: “Surge in the world’s population means there is only a 10% chance of avoiding a collapse of global civilisation.”
Book: “The Population Bomb.”
12. The Collapsitarian WASF Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Collapsitarian WASF Doomer meticulously logs the unraveling of society through newsletters, videos, and social media posts, stripping away hopium to reveal humanity’s ongoing collapse. This type mocks cherry-picking optimists, insisting systemic failures interlock with climate shocks for total implosion. Their ethos: get out there and enjoy it while you still can.
Example: Sam Mitchell.
Quote: “Unapologetic Doomer, unrepentant collapsitarian, hopium-free for 20 years.”
Article: “You Cherry-Picking Doomers Are All the Same.”
13. The Data Analytics Doomer
Core Philosphy: The Data Analytics Doomer creates graphs and studies metrics, proving climate models underestimate the speed of doom through rising greenhouse gasses and the decline of aerosol masking. Their analyses track real-time horrors: record CO2 and methane, vanishing glaciers, loss of polar ice, decreased albedo, increasing Earth energy imbalance and more.
Example: Eliot Jacobson.
Quote: “The idea that climate change will just take off only a small margin of economic growth is not founded on anything empirical. It’s just a kind of wishful thinking.”
Blog: “Watching the World Go Bye.”
14. The Post-Doom Spiritual Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Post-Doom Spiritual Doomer transcends grief to “post-doom,” finding gifts in accepting climate apocalypse as a pathway towards self-realization. Their message is something like “beyond despair lies freedom, living joyfully in finite time, unburdened by saving the unsavable.” This doomer’s wisdom: embrace the end as teacher, foster compassion in chaos.
Example: Michael Dowd.
Quote: “Find the gift beyond mere acceptance that ongoing climate change and abrupt climate change are already underway.”
Article: “Post-Doom: Life After Accepting Climate Collapse.”
15. The Overshoot Ecologist Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Overshoot Ecologist Doomer elucidates how humanity’s drawdown of nature’s capital propels irreversible climate havoc and revolutionary upheaval. They anatomize “cargoism,” our delusion of endless bounty, leading to bottleneck of scarcity and conflict. They advocate ethical descent, stewarding the remnants of civilization with care. This doomer is similar to the “Ecological Footprint” doomer described above.
Example: William Catton.
Quote: “Our misunderstanding enabled us to overshoot carrying capacity. If misunderstanding persists, it can turn the ecological kind of antagonism into the emotional kind.”
Book: “Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change.”
16. The Bunker Building Billionaire Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Bunker Building Billionaire Doomer believes civilization is on the brink of collapse due to pandemics, nuclear war, climate chaos, social unrest or whatever. Instead of trying to prevent the crisis, they quietly buy remote land in New Zealand or maybe their own island and construct luxurious underground fortresses equipped with hydroponics, armories, geothermal power, and years of supplies.
Example: Peter Thiel
Quote: “I think the most likely outcome is that we do have some kind of collapse… I think New Zealand is a good place to be if things go really badly.”
Book: “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires” by Douglas Rushkoff
17. The Doomsday Prepper Doomer
Core Philosphy: The Doomsday Prepper Doomer stockpiles food, water, ammunition, medical supplies, and off-grid gear in anticipation of societal breakdown. They practice bushcraft, run drills with their families, and sometimes form mutual-assistance groups. Their worldview blends deep distrust of government with religious or conspiratorial elements.
Example: James Wesley Rawles
Quote: “When it all hits the fan and the grid is gone for whatever reason … we are now all equally being given a ride back in time … a time of no lights to just switch on, no medical life sustaining devices, and now it’s ‘game-on’, folks.”
Blog: Survivalblog.com
18. The Peak Oil Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Peak Oil Doomer is convinced that global oil production has peaked or will soon peak, triggering an irreversible energy descent and collapse of industrial civilization. They dismiss renewables as insufficient, and predict a die-off of humanity as food production and transportation fail. Many moved to rural land, learned low-tech farming, and awaited the “fast crash.”
Example: Michael Ruppert
Quote: “Until you change the way money works, you change nothing… We are on the cusp of a global die-off because of peak oil and gas.”
Book: “Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak-Oil World”
19. The Black Hat Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Black Hat Doomer not only foresees the collapse of human civilization but actively desires and advocates for the total extinction of humanity. This doomer views humans as an irredeemable cancer, responsible for environmental devastation, overpopulation, resource depletion, and endless suffering. They see human extinction as a compassionate act.
Example: Les Knight
Quote: “May we live long and die out”
Website: Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, vhemt.org
20. The AI Doomer
Core Philosophy: The AI Doomer is a new type of doomer, growing in popularity in just the last few years. AI doomers are convinced that superintelligent artificial intelligence will escape human control and either deliberately or accidentally extinguish humanity. They are prone to detailing scenarios where misaligned superintelligence rapidly dominate and destroy humanity.
Example: Nate Soares
Quote: “We’ve run out of time to implement sufficient technological safeguards—the industry is simply moving too fast. All that’s left to do is raise the alarm.”
Book: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies”
21. The Idiot Conspiracy Theorist Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Idiot Conspiracy Theorist Doomer is a self-appointed prophet who combines low-resolution geopolitical takes, cherry-picked data, obsessive pattern-matching, and apocalyptic deadlines into a worldview that is simultaneously paranoid and strangely comforting—because if everything is secretly controlled and about to collapse, then at least someone understands what’s really going on. Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, right?
Example: Jack (full name not given)
Quote: “They’re not just spraying the skies with barium—they’re prepping the grid for a false-flag EMP to reset the debt clock. Congress knows; that’s why the chemtrail bill’s DOA. Wake up before the blackouts hit!”
Book: “Nuke the Narrative: Exposing the Doomsday Deep State”
22. The Religious Prophecy Doomer
Core Philosophy: The Religious Prophecy Doomer mixes old religious predictions about the end of the world with a very negative view of today’s society. They believe their version of God will soon destroy most of the world, punish sinners (or whatever their word is for a bad person), and save only a small group of true believers.
But are they really doomers? Is the belief in an invisible friend who wants to kill lots of people the same as believing the consensus scientific knowledge that we are destroying the habitability of the planet?
Example: Rabbi Jonathan Cahn
Quote: “We are racing to the end of the age faster than ever before.”
Book: “The Dragon’s Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days”
What type of doomer did I miss?
I suspect that most doomers see a bit of each of these categories in themselves. But I suspect you missed a category. The realist doomer. This type of doomer sees that humans are damaging the environment that supports them because, as a species, they act like all other species but have evolved dangerous capabilities that will ultimately lead to the extinction of many, or most, of those other species as well as putting itself at extreme risk of extinction. This doomer sees collapse as inevitable because humans can’t become a non-species. They can’t really change the essential behaviour of all species, to maximise the throughput of resources and energy. And to reproduce.
I would just need an example of an individual who has written from this perspective that I could quote and cite. It is certainly valid, but I was looking for confirmation for each type by reference.
Perhaps Lyle Lewis, author of Racing to Extinction subtitle Why Humanity Will Soon Vanish
Lyle Lewis is a great suggestion & his “Racing to Extinction” is full of good quotes. I just came across this interview with him – bookmarked, haven’t yet read it:
https://www.hawaii.edu/vice-versa/interview-tsakraklides-lewis-3-0/
Good suggestion Deborah!
Yeah, Lyle Lewis would probably be an example. I regard myself as another. Eliot even linked to one of my posts some time ago. It may have even been my very first post: https://mikerobertsblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/humans-are-a-species/
I’m with Mike.
“evolution has not equipped Homo Sapiens to recognise and deal effectively with a diffuse, future treath”
I’m an OG doomer…..
I’m in that category!
Me too. I do believe Doomers are like wine, there’s bad not worth it, and for just a few $ more there’s good wine, good doomers.
Bad doomers exclusively would be the ‘lazy doomers’, which I’m not certain is in the list yet. The lazy doomer is the predictor of catastrophe combined with doing absolutely nothing except continuing to voice… t h e e n d.
I think the label “The Know-it-All Doomer” is too disparaging. I’d choose the “Data Analytics Doomer.”
The Necroeconomic Doomer
George Tsakraklides
His book –
Beyond the Petri Dish: Human Consciousness in the Time of Collapse, Apathy and Algorithms
– a truly original work which posits that our economic system evolved symbiotically around our brain, gradually implanting itself into our neural structures, and effectively zombifying us.
Recent Blog –
https://tsakraklides.com/2025/09/04/delusion-is-the-ultimate-renewable-energy-source/
You forgot about the type that’s closer to reality than all the others combined. And it’s simply because they have mastered their denial control. The doomer nihilist.
Thomas Ligotti is the best example. His masterpiece is ‘The Conspiracy Against the Human Race’. Here’s a couple quotes.
“For the rest of the earth’s organisms, existence is relatively uncomplicated. Their lives are about three things: survival, reproduction, death—and nothing else. But we know too much to content ourselves with surviving, reproducing, dying—and nothing else. We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones.”
“As history confirms, people will change their minds about almost anything, from which god they worship to how they style their hair. But when it comes to existential judgments, human beings in general have an unfalteringly good opinion of themselves and their condition in this world and are steadfastly confident they are not a collection of self-conscious nothings.”
Excellent, thanks!
I suspect that our supposed intelligence is just an illusion. We can be termed “clever” by an outside observer, if that means anything, but intelligence is something we ascribe to ourselves though there is little evidence that what even we think of as intelligence is something we possess.
Misanthropic doomer – humans (Homo sapiens) are shitbags, what else do you expect?
Details – like yeast in a petrie dish; cognitive biases, cognitive dissonance; loss aversion (no, not my car!); inherently irrational; just read history, Tainter and collapse of civilisations; live according to their *stories*, etc, etc.
Add “myth of the noble savage” (one of Sam Mitchell’s favourites) –
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440325000901
For-Profit Doomers. The diverse class of powerful players in the global economy – primary holders of vital processes & resources, who most certainly know what is coming (it’s their business to know) and are working every angle to protect and expand their assets. Because as the world slowly goes bye those assets will exponentially explode in value and increase profit taking to a whole new level. While it lasts.
Examples: FF industry owners, producers & investors. The mining industries & their investors. The ailing insurance sector. Development banks. Oligarchs with enormous political % market influence. War-dependant manufacturers. The US President & his family. The US Congress. And let’s not forget the “green” energy industry, milking the myth that their products are a critical climate solution.
These people & organizations are body & soul into profit–taking at any cost, knowing doom is inevitable.
Yes — the most cynical class of doomers.
I fit into every single one of those categories lol
A jack of all trades, Doomer…
Derrick Jensen’s book is subtitled “strategy to save the planet” so by definition he can’t be a doomer.
And Bill Rees’s quote is clearly sarcasm, i.e. the opposite of what he really believes. AI reflects human weaknesses, such as inability to detect sarcasm. Moral of the story: if you use AI, go over it carefully.
Hello from Germany, you may find this interesting: a recent – little doomy – statement by the German Physical Society and the German Meteorological Society:
https://www.dpg-physik.de/veroeffentlichungen/publikationen/stellungnahmen-der-dpg/klima-energie/klimaaufruf/
“Global warming is accelerating – a call for decisive action
It can no longer be denied: climate change is advancing unabated and accelerating. In 2023 and 2024, global average temperatures were 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for the first time. It is even possible that the 1.5-degree limit for global warming agreed in Paris may already have been permanently exceeded.
3-degree limit could be exceeded as early as 2050
Meanwhile, even the commitment to keep global warming well below 2 degrees can only be achieved with significantly increased efforts by the international community, and there is a growing risk that this target will not be met. Global warming has entered a phase of acceleration. By 2050, warming could even reach 3 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels, with the temperature increase in Germany being significantly higher than the global average. Results from climate models indicate that warming of up to 5 degrees is likely by the end of the century. This can only be prevented by humanity changing course.”
The Entropic Doomer relies on the second law of thermodynamics in the (perceived) knowledge that the disorder in our closed Solar system cannot decrease, resulting in heat death. As the question is not if, but when he/she/they/ will not say sit back and enjoy the ride.
Nuclear Winter/ Snowball Earth Doomer ?
Nice list! Given his shear volume of books on the topic I think John Michael Greer may warrant his own category. I leave it to others to suss out the specifics.
The Move to Mexico and fugettiboutit Doomer.
Me
Hi Eliot, now this I think should be worth a look:
https://adrianlambert.substack.com/p/why-some-people-see-collapse-earlier
Maybe we are not doomers afterall, just varying forms of autistic.
One could potentially add three more ideal types of doomer:
The Unaware Doomer. Core Philosophy: Humans caused this mess. Humans can solve this mess. Just a little more science. Just a little more effort. And we’ll climb this hill. Never reveal any self-doubt on podcasts or in public addresses. *What makes them unaware? We can’t even raise the federal minimum wage $1. How are we going to rejigger and rewire the entire planet? Examples: Bill McKibben (Green Tech) and Kim Stanley Robinson (SRM). Books: “Here Comes the Sun” and “The Ministry for the Future”
The Geopolitical Doomer. Core Philosophy: Empires run on petrofuels. Our use of energy has never been based on what’s cheapest. We can green up somewhat domestically, we can be more efficient, but in the end all the benefits accrue to the empires’ polluting war machine. At the same time, the more dire the effects of global warming, the more political denialism grows. Example: Andreas Malm. Book: “White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism”
The Environmentalist Doomer. Core Philosophy: Since the 1970s and the creation of the EPA we’ve cleaned up oil spills, toxic plumes, herbicides, DDT, rotting cars, and plastic bottles. We created Earth Day and sent the schoolchildren out to pick up trash. If only we hadn’t forgotten those early successes and replicated them endlessly. *In reality the American environmentalist movement ended up becoming the largest NIMBY effort in human history, coinciding with the deindustrialization of the US, along with the outsourcing of polluting industries to the rest of the world. Yes, America became cleaner and nature bounced back, but the world system did not change. Maquiladoras in Mexico. Palm oil in Indonesia. Tire manufacturing in Thailand. Rare earths in China. Soybeans in Brazil. Batteries in Vietnam. Lithium in Congo. Even worse, because the environmentalists focused on visible pollution and depredations, they forgot about carbon, the silent killer. Nail in the coffin: The removal of aerosols from the air has sped up the worst-case warming scenario by 50 years. Now that warming is no longer linear, neither will any of the incremental solutions work (see McKibben above). Example: Myself. Quote: “This could be the most perverse case of the law of unintended consequences in human history.” Book: Yet to be written