Climate change and complacency
With this blog, I wanted to periodically talk about my progress with my novel and some of the more fun things about writing.
Leaving You For Mars isn’t quite a sci-fi. I wanted to make the story about climate change, complacency, and what “survival” means to each of us. In this story, climate change has done a real number on the planet and climate disasters have been killing off a lot of humans already. And yet, complacency is still engrained in the average citizen, and most especially, in the status quo of the rich and powerful.
If you haven’t read about my novel yet and want to know more, check out this page.
Climate change, for me, has always felt more urgent than for the people around me. I think a lot of people in my generation and younger feel like they’ve pulled up to a show that’s already almost over.
Various data show that the world’s climate is rapidly destabilizing. Why aren’t people more concerned about it all? This is something I wanted to explore and then (*somewhat*) exaggerate the absurdities of complacency. Even when the going gets tough, we like to snuggle into our duvet of capitalism and pretend the world will right itself without us.
I believe the intervention of government and organizational structures is necessary. Corporations can, and should, also do their part (*side-eyes Amazon*), but this is too big of a responsibility to trust with each individual corporation.
In my novel, the governments of the world are quiet. I exaggerate their inaction to the point of giving up. They are too afraid to intervene. Too complacent with the structures that make them comfortable.
So, they let capitalism fend for itself. It’s a story we already know. The rich know their money will get them out of whatever situation they find themselves in. Look at the way black-market COVID vaccines were purchased with exorbitant amounts of money. Or the fact that the rich often have more than one mode of transportation. Got a helicopter? It’ll get you out of earthquakes, wildfires, floods…pretty much anything short of a hurricane.
In this case, the rich can buy the super-expensive tickets to go live on Mars. Got a spaceship? Let’s get off this planet and head for the next one.
Climate change is a huge topic to boil down, so these are my crude brushstrokes. The urgency I feel around climate change drove me to this topic, and in turn, I felt I needed to write sooner than later.
