Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 15, 2015 - 6:28am

I had a prompt to write about environmentalism (how the future will look like if we put in the effort to save the environment), but I'm having such a difficult time to stay positive. 

Have you got any ideas how not to dwell into the abyss?

Vonnegut Check's picture
Vonnegut Check from Baltimore March 15, 2015 - 2:33pm

Imagine a dystopia in which environmentalism goes too far. Taxing every toilet flush. Arresting those who compost improperly, etc. etc. Think Draconian liberalism.

 

EDIT: My example isn't "positive," however. The positive would be a cleaner planet.

Nick's picture
Nick from Toronto is reading Adjustment Day March 15, 2015 - 5:36pm

I think VC has the right idea, "positive" environmentalism tends to come off as banal or didactic. To me, it always looks like this...

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 16, 2015 - 6:15am

Yeah, that's the problem. It looks like writing about positive environmentalism is only possible in a stupid way. Or perhaps I can put a misbehaving character in a utopia? Every story needs to have a crisis/problem, right?

Actually, this whole prompt seems a bit trite.

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 17, 2015 - 9:14pm

Honestly there is so little reason not to be postive. The idea that we're going to so badly hurt the environment is ridiculous. Oh sure, there are conservationist causes worth mentioning, but the entire idea of global warming is such horseshit it's laughable. People were saying the planet was going to be overpopulated at one billion people... are we at seven yet? Remember that gulf oil spill? Oh yeah, everyone forgot because in the end it did basically nothing, nature gobbled it up like a cookie dipped in milk.

Go watch George Carlin on netflix talking about the same thing maybe.

Or just realize that the alarmists be damned, even those dirty red states take pretty good care of the place, not that we could really screw things up anyway. Unless we detonated ALL our nukes at once. I don't think we're going to do that.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 20, 2015 - 11:39pm

Well, solved problems provide a conflict to base a story on, so fixed problems won't be the focus of the story. If you want to show how environmentalism is positive you need to reference it as history. X is trying to do Y, so Z brings up how A was a problem until environmentalism fixed it.

Jose F. Diaz's picture
Jose F. Diaz from Boston is reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel March 21, 2015 - 9:14pm

Even if all environmental issues were taken care of, there would be plenty of other issues. I'm sure the patriarchy would still reign; capitalism would still have a stranglehold on the world; nations would still war; teens would still get bullied; romances would be had and lost; children would be born and die; we would lose parents to diseases; friends would commit suicide; artists would starve; religions would founded and plague nations; the poor would still be poor; and most importantly, we would still keep trying to live good lives that we can be proud of. 

So, either way, environmental utopia or dystopia, we would still have plenty of conflict that would need to be worked out.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 22, 2015 - 1:55pm

Without getting into details I don't think anyone is saying that human ills would go away.

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 23, 2015 - 1:33am

As "research" I read a story where this man is living in an environmentalist (yet dystopian) society, but to keep his job running, he contributes to the destruction of nature. Since then it is hard to think of something else and write another story. It was too good.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 24, 2015 - 4:34am

Well, dystopian seems a bit overdone to be honest. Maybe set it in a golden age? Someone isn't afraid to do a little strip mining that will make people sick because it isn't that big deal to treat cancer? So what they'll suffer for a few months he'll be rich! Just a thought.

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 24, 2015 - 6:22am

Interesting idea! :D

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 24, 2015 - 10:06pm

To add to the thought, maybe the people who suffer through cancer for a few months are considered oh-so-lucky because the rich guy pays them off handsomely? The victims now get to share in the fortune.

Oh, did you hear? Billy got lung cancer from the smoke stacks by his house.

He did? Luckyyyyyy....

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 25, 2015 - 4:51am

Yeah, but that kind of kills the conflict right?

"Yeah, this summer is going to suck and then I'm set for life." That is hard to drag out into a book or short story.

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 26, 2015 - 5:57pm

Depends on who's point of view it's from.

Maybe the cancer boy doesn't feel so lucky about it at the time.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 27, 2015 - 2:45pm

That is the opposite of what you just posted man.

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 28, 2015 - 7:40am

No no, society's general view is that the victims are lucky. And maybe most of the time the victims agree. Then one day one victim goes against the norm.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 29, 2015 - 6:23am

Everything else aside, that does feel a bit overdone. If I read one more 'evil rich X' oppressed 'small good Y', but 'small good Y' still finds a way to victory propaganda I will vomit. 

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 29, 2015 - 7:21am

I agree with you on that one. Probably why it came to mind so fast.

But then, I'd also apply it to the whole "we're ruining the planet for our children!" thing. 

...

Am I digressing, or getting back to the original point?

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 30, 2015 - 1:36am

I'm thinking about a family that finds a dog (something like an English Bulldog or so) and the kids don't know what it is, since racial breeding is forbidden for quite some time now. The father then tells a story about breeding/reservations (indian or other)/etc.. and how restricting or limiting nature leads to birthdefects or something. Nature should run wild.

 

What do you think?

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated March 30, 2015 - 3:25pm

Then how are there English Bulldogs?

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee March 31, 2015 - 2:19am

There's one who was bred illegally by some non-environmentalists. The dog can get put to sleep. I'm not sure yet.

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal March 31, 2015 - 8:45pm

I'm not quite following, what do you mean by making racial breeding illegal?

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated April 1, 2015 - 5:30pm

I think he means that it is illegal to deliberately create subspecies of animals, or continue with artificial ones that already exist like dog breeds? If so, have a working breed that the breeders legitly need be what they are working with to minimize enviormental impact? "We can have near zero impact if you let me guard these goats with a few great pyr you bastards!"

Tucson's picture
Tucson from Belgium is reading Late Essays - J.M. Coetzee April 1, 2015 - 11:41pm

What we see in today's breeding programmes is that dogs are bred in a way that causes them to have greater birth defects. (Think of the English buldog, which can't breathe through his nose, has an immense risk of arthrosis, bad eyesight, etc.. because we don't let nature do her thing but tell dogs to mate with certain other dogs.) The same happens with crops. Selective pairing of crops (to make them more resistant to diseases) is making them stronger in the short term, but weakens their molecular structure in the long rung. We're just not as evolved with crops as with dogs.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated April 2, 2015 - 3:42am

Your statements are true, but it is a bit of a overstatement.  Working breed dogs tend to be much healthier, because duh, sick dogs don't work much. There are of course exceptions, but it could be important to your plot line.