Five Stories about Climate Change Hitting Europe
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| Brighton Pier, for reasons explained below - picture by Jean Housen (Wikimedia Commons) |
By Péter MARTON
Science fiction would not be what it is today if it wouldn't deal with the topic of climate change as a very prominent subject.
Many stories address Europe's future as it may be impacted by related processes, and to do a comprehensive review of all those that are relevant in this respect would be... wonderful!
For lack of time, and in appreciation of all the collective wisdom out there, however, this brief post only looks to sow some seeds, mention a few works, call attention to the issue, and, basically, invite others to point out further, other works that pertain to our interests here, in the comments... if there are other survivors out there ready to make such comments.
For lack of time, and in appreciation of all the collective wisdom out there, however, this brief post only looks to sow some seeds, mention a few works, call attention to the issue, and, basically, invite others to point out further, other works that pertain to our interests here, in the comments... if there are other survivors out there ready to make such comments.
(1) One of the first authors who come to mind, historically speaking, is J. G. Ballard (a.k.a. James Graham Ballard) of Britain, who wrote his second novel, The Drowned World (1962), a real classic of story set in (or, rather, above) a London submerged under water because of sea level rise that took place due to rather strange reasons (solar storms affecting the Van Allen radiation belt) that also produced climatic changes on the grand scale (warming). Decades of decay have thus resulted in a dwindling human population on Earth, with United Nations-led efforts to colonise Antarctica, Siberia and Greenland (where the main protagonist, Dr. Robert Kerans was also born). This is a novel more memorable perhaps for the characters and its melancholic post-civilisational mood than its premise. With that caveat, it is highly recommended reading. The last sentence of the story is so strong that it basically burned into my mind, and most likely will burn into your mind, too, with the power of a reborn Sun, if you fancy giving it a chance.
(2) Due to the popularity of dystopias, which I sometimes refer to as the dystopia bandwagon (certainly a sign of the times), there are many weaker pieces on the market, too -- in this blogzine we have already written about Memory of Water, a novel (2012) by Finnish author Emmi Itäranta. Water is scarce, and villagers in Finland are thirsty. The only person who could give them water is really keen on -- you surely wouldn't guess it -- getting tea ceremonies right, most of all. Having said that it is a weaker story, it is still not invaluable to read. In terms of thinking about the future, even such reference points can be interesting to consider.
(3) Part of the challenging nature of collecting the stories that touch upon climate change in Europe in one way or another is that not only European authors address such issues. Of course, US authors' works are usually more easily available. Three examples of this (all of them short stories) include, firstly, Catherynne Valente's The Future is Blue (available in Strahan's 2016 best-of), where water covers much of the planet and the people of Garbagetown (on a floating island of trash) encounter Brighton Pier, only not the Brighton Pier you might be thinking of, but the same Brighton Pier now at sea, navigating around the globe.
(4) Calved (2015) is brilliant drama set in a future Greenland by Sam J. Miller. The setting and the premise of the story are not the most important here, yet even so they are very interesting. Ice workers on ships work on captured pieces of calved glacier chunks to export drinking water to the rest of the big barren world, and the major powers, including Asian nations, are present around the island on floating grid cities, with their own police acting as parallel authorities in these special new multicultural entities.
(5) Finally, I would make mention here of Kim Stanley Robinson's 1981 story Venice Drowned. KSR wrote about Greenland, too, so it makes sense to bring up this other story from him, set in the southern part of the continent, for the sake of variety. Extreme Weather Events, that is, major storms, have gradually caused the flooding of Venice and other nearby vulnerable settlements. Rich tourists flock to the area to try their luck at raising artefacts from under the water. A story whose foresight was amply illustrated by the storm that caused major flooding there this year, with this video famously capturing how people continued livin' la dolce vita, eating out, with waiters serving them pizza and wine like... hold it... like there is tomorrow...
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