Bill Clinton states that he believes that climate change is so hard for people to grasp because the concept of the future itself is “abstract”. This human inability to completely understand the seemingly unseen and unknown is a precise explanation as to why implementing personal level lifestyle changes has been such a challenge. Until climate change and all the resulting effects become an unavoidable truth in a person’s, it is quite impossible to move them to make changes. However, where I think this idea is lacking is assuming that once people grasp the future and accept climate change, then that will be all it takes to motivate them to change. Even in our class, a class full of people dedicated to learning about environmental issues plaguing our generation, it is hard make environmentally conscious decisions.

Along with having faith in the nearing future, it is also imperative that people are aware that climate change does not just mean a slight raise in their hometown’s temperature; the effects of climate change are unmeasurable. The human and environment not being connected was an idea that was quickly debunked by our course; however, it is still a very prominent thought that impacts the way in which common people and politicians view climate change. If they acknowledge climate change at all that is. Once people are able to see that the human and the environment are indeed connected, they will be able to not only accept that human action does in fact have an impact on the environment, but they will also be able to understand the a changing environment means changes for human society and culture. If we continue down the same path that we are on now, the effects of changing temperature will make natural disasters worse on human civilization, cities we know now will be underwater, displacing thousands of people, and the overall quality of life will decrease.

It is also important to highlight that the poorest people in each nation will feel the effects of these changes first. This is another reason governments and institutions have yet to make clear and powerful efforts towards making the environment a priority. While the poor will be hit first, due to the lack of money or resources to deal with the imminent natural disasters and rise in cost of resources, the effects will eventually reach the very rich. The earth is the habitat for ALL people and climate change and its effects do not care who you are or how much money you have. Money can only buy you so much time, but until people see that these effects are not poor-sensitive the current path of destruction will continue.

Reading stories about futures where humans have failed to take action against climate change are often frightening, but whenever I encounter such a fictional scenario, I worry that there is another side of the narrative that undermines its message about the necessity of saving the planet. Most of these stories depict the lengths that humans go to in order to continue surviving even when the natural world is dying. They retreat into cities and compounds contained within glass domes or walls of concrete; they construct fake landscapes that mimic what has been lost; they even flee to other planets in search of a new habitat. These solutions are costly and difficult and accessible only to a tiny percentage of people; yet, they show that our species can afford to continue ignoring the warning signs of our changing environment, only taking action when we are forced to by absolute necessity to ensure our own survival. In other words, a message is conveyed that runs counter to the author’s intentions: we don’t actually need to save the planet because we can find ways to carry on even when it has been destroyed.

This conclusion is not immediately obvious from reading the texts, and it is true that the characters are more likely to be shown as unhappy, unsatisfied, depressed, angry, and unfulfilled in their new way of living. Famine, pandemic, and war are not uncommon in these environmental dystopias. But the idea persists that we are not doomed forever if we do not take steps to reverse the effects of climate change and habitat destruction, and this presents a tricky challenge to authors. On the one hand, too many tales of utter devastation will eventually numb readers to the urgency of the issue; activists will be compared to the boy who cried wolf and taken less seriously because our society is not currently on the brink of crumbling entirely. On the other, presenting so many potential solutions to the survival of the human species allows audiences to relax knowing that we have options for self-preservation even if we fail to save the planet. The death of plants and animals is sad, but it rarely hits as hard as tales of the downfall of human society.

Writers must, therefore, tread carefully when they sit down to depict a post-climate change world. One potential way to avoid undermining their own message would be to begin their story at the beginning, rather than the middle. Start out by showing the path that society took to reach the point of retreating from the natural world and surviving day-to-day through a constant process of damage control and barely-stable coping mechanisms. If readers are dropped into a world where humans have already learned to survive in a way that is totally cut off from nature, they are unable to appreciate the difficult and terrible route that had to be traversed to achieve such a fragile existence. If our fiction makes survival look too easy, we risk creating an audience that lacks a necessary sense of urgency for saving the planet, and as a result, we may be underprepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

Note: Stories like Interstellar and Earth 2100 are particularly effective at depicting the journey from the beginning of the crisis to the “solution,” and consequently are especially successful at conveying the urgency of protecting our planet.

Another interesting point of discussion: If humans can survive despite being totally cut off from the natural world, do we actually need to do anything about climate change at all? Is there any point in protecting the environment when looking at things from a non-anthropocentric viewpoint?

I remember when people came to see me hundreds of times a day. I could proudly fill up thousands of car gas tanks in a week. Now, no one sees me anymore. The government announced that the world has ran out of oil, which renders me obsolete, me and all the other millions of pumps world wide.

The owner of this stations talks with his friends about how the government will be creating new stations and that these stations would be power by “renewable energy.” But I do not think that people will like these stations. Over a hundred years ago the owner bought one of those electric charging stations, it could fill up a car faster and chapter than any other pump, but no one used it. Everyone still came to me.

I miss Jim. I used to be his main man – taking him wherever he’d want to go, as fast and comfortably as possible. I was there for him everytime he went to work. I was there for him when he needed to pick up his kids from school. I was there when he needed to go home. That all ended about 20 years ago though. Jim never gives me anymore attention. I am no longer Jim’s number 1, it is clear. I can’t understand even why Jim prefers to go to work in what I’d call a small eggshell on wheels. It was incredibly ugly. It was so compact, it would barely carry Jim and his wife, let alone his kids. When he turns it on, and leaves for work, I grimace at the sight and smell of the slightly metallic , white water vapor coming out of the eggshell. The eggshell mobile made no noise at all – that’s no fun. It was also slow as hell. I’d remember Jim laughing every time he’d push me to my limits – the loud roar of the engine was enough to wash all of his worries away. Those were the days where 0-60 in below 5 seconds was enough keep everyone happy. But things have changed. I am no longer in style…and I can’t quite understand why.

The steam around me dissipates as a hand reaches through the hot cloud and grabs me firmly around my cylindrical body. The cycle wasn’t quite finished, and as a result I was still covered in hot water, but it was evident that this Supreme Being’s thirst had to be quenched immediately. I was placed on the counter next to an assortment of appliances, still hot. The being opened the fridge, which was directly opposite to me. Then, I felt a cool rush air as the door was shut. A jug of cool, Brita filtered water now felt that firm grasp and was approaching me. Once above my opening, the Being tilted the jug with ease and poured the liquid until I was brimming. The contrast of the cool water and my warm body sent a crack down the side of my body. It grew and grew until the glass finally gave, and I shattered into pieces. The being angrily grabbed the trashcan from across the room and in one swift sweep cleared the pieces of me off the table into the bin. The Being shut the lid of the trash, and almost immediately, I heard the sound of the dishwasher open again.

Phone in the Anthropocene

Brandon Foreman

When they think of me

they think of despair

Oh, how can this be?

I was always there

They say it was radiation

A blessing turned to assassin

Now, all I know is stagnation

Once a third arm, I’m unfastened

Always hot, never warm,

I am but a fixture,

a part of the norm.

Bound by my maker,

robbed of control,

always hoping

to dim my glow.

Darkness has come,

yet my light still shines.

Just flip my switch

and let me die.

I am an airplane in the Anthropocene. Everyday I fly back and forth between an island off the coast of Madagascar and any one of the world’s twenty mega-cities, picking up nostalgic passengers yearning to see the last bit of conserved nature on the planet. Today, I departed from New York City. On board is a middle-aged father and ten year old son. The father appears concerned and weary, perhaps guilty. He was warned about this – about the time that his kids would lose the natural world he loved, yet treated with hatred. His son is thrilled for this trip and ironically thanks his father, but he swiftly waves off the appreciation and wonders what had been missing from the warnings. Why did he not change his ways to preserve nature all those years ago?

Computer in the Anthropocene

I am a computer living in the year 2217. My owner Kevin used me today to see whether it was ok to go outside as the air quality has been exceptionally poor recently. I recommended not to go just to be safe. However, at the very least he will have to go outside for a second to put me in the sun to charge. It’s the only source of power nowadays as the fossil fuels of old are a distant past. Later, he turns me back on to hang out with his friends. The idea of driving over and hanging out in person at a bar or someone’s house is no longer feasible as electric and solar powered cars have become far to expensive to own in the new global climate. He does this everyday, as the only representation and interaction people now have is the holographic images I portray of them across the internet. It is a fascinating life, far different from what people used me for hundreds of years ago to aimlessly watch videos, play games, keep informed on the current news, and more. Times were simple then, but for rather different reasons, they are even more so now.