How dystopia hammers home the reality of climate change

It’s so easy not to really listen when the media (and science teachers) go on about
climate change – but the cause of most dystopian societies in books, from The
Hunger Games to Divergent, is invariably huge environmental disaster. Time to read,
sit up, learn and then take action before its too late

Climate change. We learn about it in school. We see it on the news and nature
shows. We’re told it’s coming and it will be irreversible if we don’t do something. But
we’re young. Most of us don’t listen, do we? We’re the internet, smart phone,
computer generation and most of us aren’t clued up on renewable energy or carbon
footprints.

And even when we know all about them, we often don’t think they affect us. I was
like that, when I was younger. And then, then I read my first environmental disaster
novel - a dystopian.

The idea of a futuristic world devastated by the very things that are affecting the
environment now... It was terrifying - the idea that such horror and pain and fear
could come from too many cars and forgetting to turn the light off (and cows - don’t
forget cows guys: they produce loads of harmful gasses... via a fart!). It was like
being really scared in an incredibly vivid way, so unlike all the textbooks I read about
the subject before.

Yes, school teaches us a lot of things. Algebra. Science experiments. The difference
between affect and effect. But when it comes to current events in the world around
us, both environmental and political, does anything really beat a dystopian?Everyone
should learn from the mistakes made in books - especially dystopias. If you look at
the causes that lead to most dystopian societies, the catalyst is generally the
destruction of the environment, or a world war or a huge nuclear explosion. All
manmade problems - all things we could so easily stop.

The Last Wild
The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig: huge nuclear explosion that destroyed most of
humanity. Same disaster for The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood led to death
and sterilisation.

Mass murder and destruction (though rather unspecified) led to The Hunger Games -
and rea lly, who wants that to happen? Definitely not me, because seriously, if I was
in the Hunger Games, I would definitely die...

Another unspecified disaster created the world of Divergent - and while it looks not
too bad to begin with, hello Insurgent and Allegiant...