Is Civilization Doomed?
A new novel from Rich Marcello offers an answer you may not like.
There certainly are people who believe that civilization is doomed. Sooner or later the damage we collectively are doing to our environment, and especially the climate, will lead to widespread loss of life. This will be the result of changed weather patterns, mass migration and resource wars.
Others view such predictions as fear mongering.
Between these two camps are people who argue that there is still time to adopt certain changes in our lifestyles that will slow the pace of change and ultimately, perhaps, reverse the most worrying trends. The Means of Keeping is about a group of people that fall into this last category.
Set approximately ten years in the future it features two people who have been close friends since school days but each of whom has married other people and had young families. Now middle aged they have been devastated by the loss of both families in a tragedy caused by one of the increasingly frequent freak storms. In dealing with their shared grief they set about adopting and proselytizing about an alternative way of life.
Are the current inhabitants of the developed world capable of making drastic changes?