It's disingenuous to claim Tim is an "arsonist" in this analogy.
It's also not a good example to say Umair is a "fireman". I'm sure he thinks of himself as one. I see him more as someone who cries "a fire is coming to the village" (valid) but then goes "better send the firemen right away, however just so you know the fires are too big to put out now, and will come and destroy the village, and not just our village but all villages and all forests, and while firemen should still try and put it out it's too late, the village will burn anyway".
In this fireman analogy a firefighter might be forgiven for saying "well if nothing I do will put out the fire, why should I go to it and be burned sooner? Might as well spend my short remaining life with loved ones".
As for Tim in this analogy, I see him more as a someone who goes "why should we rely on just firefighters to fight the fire, if everyone in the village brought a bucket, and we sent messages to everyone in all the other villages as well, we could all do our part to put out the fire". Or someone who goes "if you are successful in making money in a way that isn't destructive to the environment, you can then invest in technologies and causes that can help mitigate climate change, and your impact on society can be greater than if you don't earn money". (Which is true for most people, and is my main motivation for earning money).
Activism requires HOPE to actually inspire action. Despair leads to apathy OR hedonism.
It could well be that civilisation will collapse and there is nothing I can do about it, but if that's the case, why should I spend my few years remaining in a continual state of depression?
And yeah I used to subscribe to Eudaimonia, I've read dozens of Umair's articles, they are all on an "inevitable doom" theme. The doom part isn't the problem, it's the "nothing you do can stop it" part.
Because I reject despair. If I truly believed nothing I do in my life will have any effect to mitigate or prevent climate catastrophe or for that matter civilisational collapse, what would my meaning in life be? There would be no future, thus no purpose in life, and so I would spend the rest of my days with my loved ones probably getting high to distract myself from existential dread.
That's precisely the attitude NOT to have, yet it's a very reasonable response to despair.
"Keep making me laugh, let's go get high, because you and I we were born to die".
