A World Before Bacigalupi's

“As the global community sank deeper into a new age of post-development, the last remaining tribes native to the jungles of the Amazon found themselves forced to face the harsh realities that those living in the outside world had already become accustomed to.  Over the course of the twenty-first century, the rainforest had been rapidly hacked away until it was nothing more than scattered patches of woodland, some completely out of sight from one another.  The once mighty Amazon River now barely reached the Atlantic, as much of it had been diverted to quench the thirst of cities hundreds of miles away.  Ironically enough, many of those rich enough to afford convenient access to safe, clean drinking water had come to envy these tribes, despite the fact they could not drink from the water source that their ancestors had relied on for centuries without the fear of contracting illness or disease.  At least they could still experience what was left of the natural world.  Trees had seemingly become a lost aspect of towns and cities, and were now simply thought of as a crop, harvested to meet the growing demands of an overpopulated world.  While the months were quickly approaching the beginning of a new century, the year 2200 seemed to bring nothing worth celebrating.”

Although this mini future scenario seems extremely bleak, I really do not feel this pessimistic about the future, especially in terms of how environmental issues might be dealt with down the road.  However, I felt that it could potentially provide a possible description of how the world might have been before the one that Bacigalupi imagines in The Windup Girl.  While I will admit that I was unable to reach the end of the novel by the time I started writing this blog post, while reading it I could not help but feel that the theme of the story was quite pessimistic, and offered a pretty ominous outlook of what the world will become.  Many of the fears that we have in concern for environmental issues today seemed to become a reality in the book, and in some cases seemed to exceed them.  Sea level rise had reached the point where coastal cities required flood gates, GMOs had gotten way out of hand, and resources that are heavily relied on today had been completely depleted.

These are all obviously valid concerns, and arguably possible scenarios of the future, but in coming across them throughout the story, I could not help but question whether any effort had been made to stop these issues from occurring before Bacigalupi’s world.  Although efforts of environmental conservation are made apparent in the present tense of the novel, is it possible that previous generations had simply given up in their efforts to combat these problems?  This question may possibly deal with pessimistic views held by society in concern for pursuing environmental efforts.  It may also center on the argument that people are not willing to work on solving issues that do not have immediate impacts, and do not start until it is too late.  While I feel that it definitely important to maintain a level of caution in regard to what the future might hold, I also believe that optimism will be a valuable tool in helping to combat environmental issues, and ultimately get things done.