Despite broad public and scientific consensus, why have the western nations and global institutions, which addressed prior environmental crises, proven incapable of halting anthropogenic climate change? This heuristic inquiry explores the development of the scientific, social, and cultural phenomena of climate change to better understand how culture, universalism, power, and history shaped the dominant worldview, which currently defines public debate and limits the range of solutions considered. Perhaps solutions to climate change lie not within the same narrow worldview from which it emerged, but within a contrary worldview that proposes to both address multiple crises and answer humankind’s universal quests for meaning, purpose, community, and nature. Perhaps the solution lies in resituating humankind's place firmly within the natural world.