Humanity has had thousands of years of written history, and tens of thousands of years of oral history prior to that. Countless charismatic spiritual leaders of all beliefs have created religions and cults of all sizes and traditions. A common factor in most of them has been their belief in an "end time" within the lifetime of a believer, at which time a Divine Power descends onto our Flawed Earth and brings the true believers into The Promised Land (whether literal or figurative). It would be a moment in history where truth becomes clear to all, believer and non-believer alike, and the spiritual leader is vindicated.

Of course that has never actually happened yet, or we wouldn't be chatting about it on an internet forum.

But unlike every single one of those spiritual leaders, we really are seeing a sort of end-times. The great climate change catastrophe unfolding before our eyes, the ur-catastrophe that all other future catastrophes are either a component of, or have contributed to. We are the first to actually witness something akin to what all those false prophets of centuries and millennia past had claimed would happen in their lifetimes. Why would I not want to witness something completely unprecedented in the history of our species?

And besides, when the shit really hits the fan, my parents will be into "living independently but will need help with physically-demanding tasks" age. I want to make sure I'm around to help them out.