![]() As COP26, the delayed 2020 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, approaches we urgently need more of this imaginative impulse. This is why authors of science fiction are consulted by organisations and governments: to help us think about the risks and challenges of the future in ways inaccessible to other disciplines. If there is something that we can be fairly sure of, it is that the future will be radically different to what we had imagined, and that it will demand adjustment. From Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour to Omar El Akkad’s American War, people are clearly interested in imagining possible futures as a way of considering how we are going to get ourselves out of this mess. And so it is no surprise that climate fiction – or “ cli-fi” – has quickly become a recognised genre in recent years. It was during my childhood in this city, part of which was so recently submerged beneath the ocean, that I first began to speculate about the drastic ways we transform space – and the unforeseen impacts this has.Īs a child immersed in science fiction classics such as Frank Herbert’s Dune, I quickly realised that fiction can help us consider, imagine, and work through these unforeseen impacts. But this has come at a cost to people, biodiversity and the integrity of wildlife habitats alike. Housing and infrastructure on the scale seen in Hong Kong is only possible because of how much land – over 70km² of it – was reclaimed. Land reclamation involves the filling of water bodies with soil to extend land or create artificial islands. This is the real story of land reclamation in 1980s-90s Hong Kong, where I grew up. ![]() But what kind of future is being built, and at what cost? This is a society that is being transformed for a particular vision of the future: to build new worlds able to meet the challenges of a soaring population, more space and new modes of living. Those in power push ahead with their enduring programme to reshape the world by building new land. You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here. ![]() ![]() It seems the whole city takes its cue from the coast – there is always so much being built, demolished and rebuilt. Beyond the construction site, the sea sparkles under the Sun, traversed by ships old and new. In the heat’s haze, machinery resounds in the middle distance, shifting and tamping dirt with earth-shattering force. Chris Pak, Swansea UniversityYou see the forest of cranes before you reach the coast. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |