Arctic Rising

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell is the story of an Earth where the arctic ice sheet has melted and the Northeast passage has opened - permanently. Massive oil companies are vying for the last few drops of oil left on Earth in the arctic waters, and people have colonized Thule, the name for the remaining mass of ice still remaining in the arctic. Smugglers routinely travel the passage and intentionally sink their ships full of radioactive waste made at the many nuclear power reactors that have been constructed across the world. Anika Duncan is in charge of an air ship that patrols the passage for these dirty boats to ensure that no more toxic waste can be dumped into the ocean (there are already exponentially high rates of cancer near bodies of water due to dumping). In the first quarter of the book, Anika and her copilot, Tom, are shot down by a smuggling crew and left to die in the icy waters they are eventually saved, but Tom later dies due to exposure. The smuggling crew is tracked down by the United States Navy (which is jockeying for dominance in the northern waters with none other than Canada) and taken into custody. Apart from being shot down, this all seems to be rather routine which is indicative of the new conditions that define this Earth.

This book presents and interesting take on the issue of climate change. Earth is certainly a different place, but it isn't necessarily uninhabitable or hellish. Turmoil is everywhere, no doubt, but, then again, that's true of Earth today. So far, this book has been quite enjoyable to read. It has dialogue that is honestly cheesy as hell, but the story has kept me interested.

Arctic Rising is a book about a climate changed Earth, but it doesn't go deeply into detail about the effects of climate change that have destroyed the planet. Instead, this book looks at the geopolitical and economic struggles that this new Earth has been enduring as a result of global warming. Thule, the lone remaining ice sheet that is being artificially held together by human intervention, is a colony of people from all over the world. It is experiencing many of the same issues that the original 13 colonies of the United States faced. Many many countries see this land as valuable due to the resources that remain there as well as the strategic benefits that come with dominating the top of the globe. The United States seems to have taken a back seat to Canada as a world superpower due to Canada's newfound economic activity in its once stagnant north. Many ports have been opened or expanded to accommodate for shipping traffic, making Canada the economic hub of the world.

Dust in the wind

For those of you who may have seen Christopher Nolan's recent sci-fi epic, Interstellar, you might remember seeing interviews of people who survived the actual dust bowl of the 1930's. In fact, drought and dust storms play a role in the early scenes of the film, which helps the audience to gain a grasp of what a climate changed world might look like. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck would then be the predecessor to Nolan's film. In the early pages of the novel, Steinbeck focuses on shaping the hellish alien landscape that the dust bowl transformed fertile farming ground into. Steinbeck meticulously details the land and yet his descriptions all revert to intricate means of describing different patterns of dust. Dust in the fields, dust in the air, dust in the kitchen, dust everywhere. Steinbeck's words bring to mind images of volcanic ash covering everything after a major eruption (like the recent eruption in Iceland).

Now, dust covering everything turned out to be a massive problem for people who lived in the dust bowl as it absolutely devastated crop yields and virtually hung farmers out to dry. Steinbeck describes fields of dust covered corn blown over by gusts of wind that persisted throughout the drought.  Sunlight was dimmed by the dust lingering in the air and plants were suffocated as a result. In reading Grapes of Wrath, one can see the potential for disaster that prolonged droughts will have on our planet. One of the details that stood out to me in reading this novel was Steinbeck's description of the exhaust fumes emitted by a truck that the character, Tom Joad, hitches a ride on early in the book. Of the truck Steinbeck writes, "The vertical exhaust pipe muttered softly, and an almost invisible haze of steel-blue smoke hovered over its end." If only he knew how important the "almost invisible haze of steel-blue smoke" would have on the planet in which he so painstakingly describes. Overall, Steinbeck's dust bowl ridden world is bleak, and its people are nearly hopeless.

Clean Energy For All!

The Future of Energy: Lateral Power to the People is documentary surrounding the budding green energy movement occurring across the United States. Its creators searched high and low for grassroots clean energy movements in a town near you, and what they found was rather exciting. Entire cities were going green, and it was happening at a local level -- exciting stuff.


How long have we been told that solar power was going to cut it, that wind turbines were never going to power our future? Consider this report from OPEC which predicts, "...renewable energy grows fast. But as it starts from a low base, its share will be only 3% by 2035." Are these confident words the death blow to the environment as we know it? Maybe not. This film would argue that members of OPEC should be very, very concerned about their liquid black gold. Same goes for big coal.

Take, for example, Lancaster, California, a town that mandated that all new buildings be fitted with solar technology. This city has been able to reach nearly net zero emissions in doing so and, as mayor R. Rex Parris puts it,"we now have the ability to save the planet, increase the standard of living and the well being of everyone." This film certainly argues that green energy isn't environmentally responsible, but also socially and economically viable. In fact, one woman in the film calls the green energy movement, "the largest social movement in human history." It seems, according to this film, that green energy will help stave off our environmental woes and help lift people out of the darkness of poverty.

This film seems to crescendo, building on all of the ideas that have emerged in the green energy movement. People are:

• building net zero emissions homes 
• crowd funding solar projects
• purchasing electric cars  
• Rallying for policy changes 

These and many more are what make up the green energy movement across the globe. This multifaceted effort to save the planet is happening all around us and it is being led by people very much like you and I. This film proves that the green energy movement is happening, it's gaining momentum, and it is going to happen whether government policies and the fossil fuel industry like it or not. 

Oil and Honey: A Call to Action

Somehow, after reading the first half of Oil and Honey, Bill McKibben makes jail seem not so bad. In the first half of his book, he describes how his involvement with climate change came to be on a more intimate level. The doom that defines the pages of Eaarth is still there, but there is more at work in his words. McKibben has come to be a leader of change and while reading this book it is quite apparent that he is fit for the job. He knows his audience and utilizes his resources better than nearly anybody else in the climate change movement. All of his skills helped to lead two weeks of consecutive protests on the White House, resulting in 1,253 arrests and a couple nights stay in jail. Throughout, he admits his concern about the methods they are choosing to get their point across and doubts the ability of small grassroots movements to excite any change. Despite his doubt, his organized protests sparked a wave of protests all across the United States and even overseas. His personal climate change organization, www.350.org, has reached out to people in countries all over the world and has been wildly successful in getting its message across: we want our atmosphere back! His concern about grassroots movements is no longer necessary, as this has now become a global effort. McKibben himself constantly remarks at his surprise at how effective his work has been. 

So why is this story personal for McKibben? Throughout his travels across the globe, he reflects on his desire to return to his home in Vermont. Working with a local beekeeper, Kirk, he discovers a new connection to the Earth which helps him to find meaning in his work. Though he misses Vermont, he realizes why his work is absolutely essential -- he has to fight for this cause to save the land he calls home. He talks about his decision to purchase a plot of land as an investment to leave for his daughter: "Given what I knew about climate change, the gift of productive land seemed like the best thing I could hope to pass on to her, an insurance policy worth more than money in some account." McKibben cares for nature and wants to do what is right for its survival, and, in the pages of Oil and Honey, he argues that we should too.