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Before the climate crisis kills us all, we'd better listen to Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling is perhaps the most widely consulted and quoted futurist among present-day science-fiction writers. His finger always on the pulse of world affairs, trends in science and technology and the global zeitgeist, he brings uncommon topical expertise to his SF. Now he considers that most ominous of all crises, climate change, in his searing, yet very hip, new novel, The Caryatids.
Assessing the scale and urgency of global warming, Sterling says, "The wolf is at the door. With the possible exception of the nuclear arms race, this is the gravest emergency the human race has had in its recorded history." But humankind is not exactly responding with vigor: "I'd love to say we're 'facing' this crisis, but we're not facing it yet, we just 'have' it."
So should written SF do more to raise consciousness about the crisis and suggest strategies for climate mitigation? Sterling thinks this obligation extends far beyond genre fiction. "The climate crisis is no longer speculative. So the mainstream press should be doing this work. Everybody should be doing it. It's a universal problem; nobody will be spared the effects.
"Also, scientists and engineers should be taking direct action. Leaving this crisis to politicians, journalists and activists was an unconscionable dereliction of duty on their part. I hope the scientific community feels properly ashamed at their failure to grasp the full reality of climate events and the effect that lapse will have on their fellow citizens.
"Finally, anybody anywhere who digs up corpses and burns them for a living needs to wipe the fresh blood off their hands. I know that they excuse their actions as serving light and power to the rest of us. But they've committed a great evil, and their structure of justification grows more flimsy by the day."
But for all this polemical forcefulness, Sterling is writing SF, and he does so with inventive verve, a showman's dexterity, entertaining detail and deadpan humor. The chief viewpoint characters in The Caryatids are three mutually repellent clones of the same woman, with more variant selves lurking in the background. Considerable hectic fun is thus had as Earth totters on the ecological brink. "I do like to tinker with elements of narrative. I know it is somewhat outré and Oulipo to write a novel where the 'protagonist' is eight or nine people, four of whom are already dead. But we can pull that kind of stunt in science fiction; it's a little freaky, but there's nothing stopping us."
Much of the enjoyment in reading Sterling is owed to his expert, but at the same time hilariously irreverent, take on large organizations, whether corporations or governments. The two major bodies in The Caryatids that aim to rescue, or transform, the stricken Earth are the Acquis and the Dispensation. One relies on advanced, essentially posthuman, technology in its projects, the other on a more basic, profit-driven sort of redevelopment. Naturally, the groupings are in conflict: "I confess to a fondness for ideological cold wars. I grew up in the Cold War. The USA has a civil cold war right now.
"Obviously we need global-scale management of some kind, or the unaddressed global problems will do us in. But does that have to be a 'one-world government'—just a nation-state on a bigger scale? No. There doesn't have to be just one of these entities. And they don't have to be nations. Most effective global actors are not governments. The global market's not a government. Global regulatory boards aren't governments either. If the market was in the business of saving its best customers from extinction, then it might look like the Dispensation. If a global standards board existed, then it might look like the Acquis."
Sterling has spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe in recent years, and much of The Caryatids is set in Cyprus, renamed "Mljet" in its drastically altered 2060s configuration. "Well, I'm a disciple of Brian Aldiss there; Brian used to complain that science fiction writers wrote about Mars but had never seen Malaysia. That's a good comment, so I took it to heart.
"If I were writing contemporary realistic novels about Eastern Europe, I think my superficial knowledge there would hurt the feelings of the locals. When it comes to writing futurist scenarios, though, a broad, remote overview seems to help."
In Sterling's imagined future, China is the last surviving nation-state for most intents and purposes. But there's uncertainty in the prophecy. "The Chinese have had a good quarter-century lately, but when it comes to spectacular national turmoil, China's track record is second to none. Yet I'd also point out that, despite their many woes, the Chinese nation has outlasted other nations by millennia."
As for America, The Caryatids points to threats like the giant volcano in Yosemite, solar flares and Californian earthquakes, in addition to anthropogenic climate change. Sterling denies this is pessimism. "I don't think it's 'pessimism' to admit the possibility of supervolcanoes or instability in stars. Supervolcanoes aren't odd Lovecraftian fantasies, they're as real as dirt—ask any geologist. The stars don't exist in order to make us feel optimistic. Our flesh is made of blown-up stars. Ask any astrophysicist.
"The climate crisis is severe. Basically, we've fouled our nest so energetically that our nest is rapidly becoming one big foulness. We brought that disaster on ourselves. But we're not the source of all the trouble in a turbulent universe. If we pull ourselves out of this self-made climate tailspin, maybe we'll be a little less eager to flatter ourselves in the future. We need to become more watchful and alert, more aware that the Earth was not served to mankind on a silver platter. The Earth is a nice place, but Copernicus was right.
"Science fiction ought to be more open-minded toward uncomfortable realities than mysteries, westerns and romances. After all, we have the word 'science' in our name."
So Sterling sees The Caryatids as SF par excellence, yet restrained by some standards. "As a visionary text, my novel is mild stuff compared to Wells' War of the Worlds or Stapledon's Last and First Men. Our genre's best practitioners a hundred years ago were gutsy guys, willing to upset the paying customers.
"Maybe science fiction went a little fat-headed and numb from the End of History and the Washington Consensus. In the immediate future, though—after what just happened to our publishers and our bookstores?—I don't think complacency is gonna be a problem for us.
"I don't idealize science fiction: I know that it is what it is—but I know for a fact that science fiction can do things that other literary forms balk at, fail at, and just can't handle. And it should do those things—it's a moral responsibility."
By ScreenRant.com at 10:22 AM ON 03/16/09
Hey, but let's not be alarmist or anything.
I hope I'm still around in 40 years to laugh at all this ridiculous hysteria.
Vic
By Al at 11:34 AM ON 03/16/09
It's funny how everything is being promoted as a "crisis" yet every time the true scientists debate the issue few can provide any proof to support the "crisis".
As it is, I'd like to see everyone who is claiming the "coming global disasters" to put their carreers and reputations on the line each time they opened their mouths instead of playing the lawer game.
"The world will end...but may not...and if it does I am warning you to do what I say so we can save ourselves...if in fact we need saving."
By Al at 11:37 AM ON 03/16/09
Of course, I meant "Lawyer"
Where'd that Y go?
Now the planet's losing letters! Help!
By shroudedwolf at 12:14 PM ON 03/16/09
Yeah, because no one has checked arctic ice records or measured the amount of greenhouse gases. You know, people who don't "believe" in global warming are the minority and genearlly using it as a political point of contention. The next comment is "well Al Gore did that video!" Yes, but is he still in the political arena trying to gain mass support for a campaign? No. Granted, there are things that can still be debated, but there is plenty of evidence that something bad is happening to the environment and we need to do something about it.
By M at 12:57 PM ON 03/16/09
Nero continues to fiddle, typical short sighted fools. At best the high and holy "invisible hand" will fix everything, yes that's worked soooo well. Or at worst baby jezuz will drop down from heaven and make everything alright (unless you're, well... one of -Those people- )
By mijattarab at 2:18 PM ON 03/16/09
When Sterling refers to "a climate crisis", Is he talking about global warming or cooling, because no matter what we do, the sun has the last word.
No more Chicken Little Sterling for me...
By WHMacy at 3:53 PM ON 03/16/09
The greenhouse effect doesn't work, global warming is not real. This is scientific fact.
Its amazing the amount of hoopla one can create by spreading unscientific alarmist crap. Al Gores movie is a great example.
Few people will bother to check the basic science, notice that the core theory has been disproven, or notice that the earth is consistently getting cooler each year.
Anyone who supports the theory of global warming is someone who has let their religion overcome any belief in science they might have.
By NativeTexan at 3:53 PM ON 03/16/09
With all of the liberal actors, politicians, and so-called environmentalists screaming, "global warming" like crazy, it's scary how many areas are kow-towing to their screams! When all is said and done, we cannot create as much carbon dioxide as one active volcano. Looks like Ma Nature still rules!
By islesfan at 4:39 PM ON 03/16/09
Left Behind for the Global Warmists out there. It probably reads as cheesily too. (Yes, I got Left behind as a free e-book and I tried it. The books sound identical, but from a different theological background.)
By powerguy at 5:34 PM ON 03/16/09
ok so if us enginners are to save the planet by turning off the electricty and the wind stops blowing and the sun goes down at night. how do we power all the blogs that eveyone writes and the medical equipment that people need to survive and the factories that make the comptuers that we type on. So i say lets go back to the 1800 when we all lived on a farm and used horses to trave, and the biggest invention was the light bulb. the time when the man with the biggest gun always won the argument. Bring on the DARK ages.
By KC at 10:57 PM ON 03/16/09
>The greenhouse effect doesn't work, global >warming is not real. This is scientific fact.
Great. Thanks for clearing that up. I was worried there for a moment that' we'd have to do something.
By Ian Sales at 4:58 AM ON 03/17/09
Gah. Mljet is NOT Cyprus. This is the third review of The Caryatids I've read that makes that mistake. Mljet is a small island, some 37 km long, off the coast of Croatia.
By Artifex at 9:27 AM ON 03/17/09
Glad to see so many that aren't buying the alarmism.
Doomsday predictions have a historical success rate of zero percent. :]
By kds at 6:57 PM ON 03/17/09
Doomsday predictions have a historical success rate of zero percent. :]
So said the last dinosaur to it's alarmist friends.
By IsoTek at 9:31 PM ON 03/17/09
So sad to see a once revered innovator suddenly accepting the pap directly from the teat of the ill-informed. Essentially he is chastising all of us for being users of the only infrastructure we really have, the oil based economy and the coal used to power our homes. High drama to be sure and who needs that from someone who uses the same gas and light and power for his own needs. I don't need Sterling to save me from me obviously. What's the matter Bruce, you not really ready for the world in which you used to write about? After all this time are you once again afraid of dying? Thank God Gibson hasn't sold us out.
By Ian at 6:53 PM ON 03/19/09
Wow. Climate change has been dis-proven. Someone let all the people who study it know! The Internet has spoken!
Dis-proven? Its fallacy a scientific fact? Cite sources or go home, newb. Actual research findings to-date say you are woefully misinformed.
By Asdfa at 1:59 AM ON 03/20/09
@Kds....If its an asteroid created climate change you got it!
@IsoTek...I hears ya chummer.
@Ian..There are plenty of scientists out there that say manmade climate change is a fallacy. Natural climate change is real but what are you gonna do about it. You cannot stop nature. BTW I didn't see you citing any sources that prove conclusively that global warming is all mans fault. So, why don't you put up or shut up too, after all you have something to prove too.
By Ldyheat at 4:26 AM ON 03/20/09
In the essence of us humans on the planet, we are but a micro footprint. One should remember that we have only been around for a few thousand years. Earth has suffered through billions of years! Two major extinction events took place on this planet wiping 99% of the living organisms from its surface. So what does that tell us? Unless we leave this rock, mankind will probably face an extinction event some time in our future. The next ice age, which will happen in 10,000 years, could help along those lines unless we become so technologically advanced we can transcend and master the climate on this planet. But one way or another, this lovely planet will die eventually when the sun burns itself out. I doubt an extinction event will be in our lifetimes but I guarantee, due to our planet's wonderful history, humanity will get their due soon; perhaps by our own destructive hand bringing on nuclear winter or further climate degradation (yes, global warming is happening!) No matter what happens, humanity (us) needs to get it in our tiny brains that in the greater scheme of our planet and the ever-expanding, daunting cosmos, we are but an insignificant speck of dust. If humanity was wiped out tomorrow, the earth would quickly and greedily take back the structures we find so important to our survival. Everything that we find important: our family, feelings, relationships, money, power grabbing, advancements; all of it means nothing when we become no more and that day WILL come….eventually.
By ackman81 at 1:23 AM ON 03/22/09
Haven’t you global warming drones heard the news? It’s now climate “change” because the warming stopped years ago and we are now in a cooling period. That is a fact. The temperature of the planet is never the same, it changes constantly, always has, always will. Mankind is too insignificant to alter the temperature of the earth. Get over yourselves, you don’t matter. Carbon makes life possible on this world, the more the better. There was a five to eight hundred year gap between rising temperatures and THEN rising carbon levels. Gore got it backwards because he is an idiot. Decaying plant matter, the oceans and volcanoes produce the vast majority of carbon. Even with all of that carbon is less than a percent of the “evil” green house gases.
By DEL at 2:49 AM ON 06/16/09
Where the hell did all these head-in-the-sands come from?
Someone had a email activist list.
Global Climate change is a settled scientific fact. Period. Literally thousands of studies, reams of data, Data correlates from ice-cores, tree rings, historical observations from china, satellite data , are all direct data that supports anthropogenically caused climates change. Sure there are some feedbacks mechanisms that are incompletely understood but the vast preponderance of evidence is in agreement.
I have yet to see even a single white paper that stands up against the idea that, as a direct result of human actions, we are continuously modifying our global climate.
A few groups actually look forward climate change looking forward to the retreat of the arctic icecap. This is an economic and resource driven motive to deny climate change. After all there are huge profits to be had up there.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
DEL:
Where the hell did all these head-in-the-sands come from? Someone had a email activist list. Global Climate chang...More »