
Dark Thoughts

Time to Look Down (artwork from first Uncivilisation Festival 2010
How do we make sense of the world, as we start to disentangle ourselves from the stories we grew up taking for reality itself?
In this section, you’ll find Dark Mountain contributors thinking about the largest questions and asking what it means to live in times like these.





How A Dead Philosopher Saved My Life
Christopher Cokinos
26th December, 2019
As the year draws to its end, Christopher Cokinos contemplates the nature of will in a collapsing world by the grave of Arthur Schopenhauer.

Cowboy Nation
Henrik Olav Mathiesen
11th September, 2019
Norway’s state-owned oil and gas company is riding headlong into the world’s fossil-fuelled sunset. Henrik Olav Matthiessen goes in pursuit.

Dealing With Our Own Shit
Dougald Hine
26th June, 2019
To introduce our next Featured Mountaineer: Dougald Hine's conversation with the Mexican activist and intellectual, Gustavo Esteva, which originally appeared in Issue 4

Never Too Cold for Ice Cream
Siana Fitzjohn
21st February, 2019
Siana Fitzjohn talks to artist Carlos Zapata about ice cream and death

Ten Years on a Mountain
Dougald Hine
1st October, 2018
After ten years with Dark Mountain, co-founder Dougald Hine is preparing to move on.

Extending the Glide
Dougald Hine
29th March, 2018
What happens when a sustainability expert hits a wall of despair over climate change? Professor Jem Bendell talks to Dark Mountain co-founder Dougald Hine.

Coming Down the Mountain
Paul Kingsnorth
25th September, 2017
Even at the time, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. I had...

Taking Rewilding Seriously
John Jacobi
31st July, 2017
It is, it seems, our civilisation’s turn to experience the inrush of the savage and...