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Climate Change

Connect any of the stories we’ve read this semester to the current global crisis. How does the story help us understand our time? How do current events affect how we understand the story?
The story “There Will Come Soft Rains” depicts a destitute, post-apocalyptic scenario: humans are presumably extinct. The house, which represents the last trace of humanity on Earth, begins to deteriorate, breaking down and eventually being consumed by fire. It’s a bleak scene, as nature reclaims what ultimately always belonged to it. Based on the historical context, this story, which was written in 1950, can be interpreted as a criticism of the tensions of the Cold War. It illustrates the potential future of humanity wiping itself out through nuclear war, leaving nature to slowly reclaim the Earth, until the last house which represents millions of years of our civilization turns to dust.

This story presents the idea of nature being a higher power which is above petty human conflict—it’s a force that will continue to move regardless of what we humans do. The global crisis we face immediately is a plague, but an even more pressing issue we face currently is climate change, which can release many plagues far worse than this one. As permafrost melts, diseases we thought we had eradicated and conquered will return, and ancient diseases we’ve never seen will come back to plague us. When addressing the climate change crisis, we often talk about how we are destroying the planet. The idea presented in “There Will Come Soft Rains” that nature transcends humanity can give us a new perspective when looking at the crisis. Rather than thinking we are destroying the planet, we should take the perspective that we are destroying ourselves. The plagues, wildfires, floods, and myriads of other natural disasters are just that: natural. They are a part of nature. No matter what we do, nature will be ever present, even if it is to consume the last house which stands as evidence of our civilization.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 11, 2020 at 12:05 PM

    Great overview of “There Will Come Soft Rains” in your opening paragraph! Your discussion in the second paragraph uses the story to offer an insightful reframing of the climate crisis: you point out that the story shows that nature will outlast humanity, so in altering the planet (through our behaviors that are causing climate change) “we are destroying ourselves.” Your final point—“No matter what we do, nature will be ever present, even if it is to consume the last house which stands as evidence of our civilization.”—brings the post to a strong and striking conclusion. Thanks for this thoughtful post! - Ms. O'Brien

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  2. Nicole SoutheyMay 13, 2020 at 12:17 AM

    I really like your analysis. I have definitely heard something about how ultimately in time the planet would recover it would take a crazy amount of time and all of humanity and what we know would be long gone. I wonder if this idea that we are saving ourselves rather than the planet would inspire more people to act on climate change.

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