Thinking from the Future

The impact of a meteorite sweept the dinosaurs from the surface of Earth 65 or 66 million years ago. 70,000 years ago, the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia came close to ending the human species (only between 15,000 and 40,000 individuals were left to repopulate us all!)

Alterations of equilibrium like those have dramatically affected life on the planet, with more or less harmful consequences depending on the species, and the question now is how should we react while witnessing the sixth mass extinction, knowing this time that the cause (and the victims somehow) are us.

What to do, then? Climate change is everywhere (we see it) and nowhere* (its real dimension escapes us). The (geological) scale of its consequences surpasses what humans in our cities are used to deal with. In the middle of this global crisis, science fiction is a great analytical tool, because it takes us away from the center of the conflict and puts us in a privileged situation: it lets us think from the future.

So take a pen and a recycled paper, look at the bases of the contest and start imagining a scientifically consistent future that will help us get out of this.

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Notes
(1) Sheila Jasanoff, A New Climate for Society