Environment & Climate

Read more about the article Spider the Artist

Spider the Artist

The story "Spider the Artist" portrays such a capitalist society as its extraction of oil hurts both humans and the nonhuman in the web of life. Jason W. Moore (2025) argues that humans and nature are interlinked in a web; in that sense, human-made nature and nature-made human. This interlink could account for this: in any political economy or ethics, humans adopt systems that harm nature; such a system invariably harms humans too. Capitalism, for instance, has been criticised for its harmfulness to nature; it has also, in turn, hurt humans.

Read more about the article More Sea Than Tar

More Sea Than Tar

"But sooner or later, we’re all going to fall, because we can only stand so tall before we’re sinking: to our legs, to our knees, to our torsos, to our heads. Till there’s nothing left and we breathe in particle dust and water that draws too much like ogbono soup. Water that’s mixed with the leaves and the soil and the garbage I didn’t throw away properly. Water that isn’t water."

Read more about the article Bat Monkey

Bat Monkey

"‘I don’t want you to fail. But…’ Kahindo pointed back in the direction of the huts where Priti would no doubt be drinking with Chase. ‘They know nothing about our people.’ He looked down at the floor and for a while neither of us spoke, then he said, ‘There are no flying monkeys.’ I glared at him. ‘So what the hell–’ ‘We needed the money. Without guards and bribes, the poachers would destroy everything. I won’t let that happen,’ Kahindo said. ‘So you made it all up? Is this some kind of joke to you?’ ‘It’s not a joke, they fly, but they’re not monkeys,’ Kahindo said. I stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "

Read more about the article A Lever is a Complex Machine

A Lever is a Complex Machine

"Being offline from Orisis, my artificial intelligence mother governing Pinaa, the inhabited moon of Mahwé, means I am unable to find a solution or explanation for this scenario. I cycle through microseconds of data, yet even with a world of knowledge built into my system, along with a billion iterations of an action, I cannot find a reason for my abduction mere hours ago."

Read more about the article The Algorithm

The Algorithm

"They called themselves the Gaia Accord. A group of elites and technocrats that pushed for global technocratic stewardship. Governments replaced by systems, presidents replaced by panels, parliaments by predictive models. The climate collapse had come faster than anyone expected, and in the aftermath of the Migration Years, the famines, the water wars, the pandemics that never ended, people were too tired to argue. That they controlled Lethal Autonomous Weapons through their monopoly over AI systems, meant arguing was futile anyway."

Read more about the article We Begin Where Infinity Ends

We Begin Where Infinity Ends

"We Begin Where Infinity Ends" is a Mundane science fiction (MSF). It is a term coined by the writer Geoff Ryman to describe science fiction set on Earth with a plausible extension of our current technology. It is a story of three young adults, Naeto, Gozi and River. The three friends built environmentally friendly fluorescent tubes to help save endangered fireflies. Ryman, arguing for MSF, believes “that much science fiction, employing far-fetched concepts and unlikely technologies, is simply escapist.” Ryman “felt that this new focus on the here and now would give science fiction more relevance and greater social and political power." (Mundane Science Fiction in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Edited by M. Keith Booker. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. P. 186). As an applied science fiction text, the interest in examining this story will be how it spurs the student's imagination to adapt our current technology in a way that makes it more environmentally friendly.

Read more about the article A Shadow in the Sun

A Shadow in the Sun

"Here we are. Six magnificent black rhinos, muscles rippling under thick, wrinkled hides – the first to tread this earth in more than a decade since the last beast died alone in a miserable British zoo. Granted, they’re all young still – mere babies, according to Theuns Theunissen, director of Houmoed Private Game Reserve. Dear god, I loathe that man with the power of a hundred suns going nova. He looks like he’s stepped out of one of those nature doccies on one of the major streaming services – all blond, with a tan out of a bottle, and his teeth so white they must’ve cost as much as a small car. Apparently, he’s eighty, but doesn’t look a day over forty. Amazing what money can do. Especially when it comes to scrubbing what he did to a young, upcoming influencer at a product launch five years ago."