The Collapse of Western Civilization

The Introduction is an accompaniment to The Collapse of Western Civilization, and it addresses the unique blend of fiction and nonfiction elements appearing within the text. The fictional perspective allows the authors more freedom in addressing modern-day climate change denial. They can incorporate literary devices such as satire and sarcasm, which would be considered unprofessional and invalidating in a nonfiction text.

However, the fictional format does not prevent them from incorporating factual information supported by in-text citations or references to real-world individuals, places, and events. By discussing the mixed-genre of the text, and by describing its setting, the authors help readers to better delineate between the factual and fictional elements. The publication date of the text is also critical for proper interpretation. The text includes dated references to fictional events that take place in the mid-2000s; such fictional references may mistakenly be believed as fact if readers are unaware of the publication date of 2014. Any events described after 2014 are entirely fictional.

Chapter 1 serves multiple important purposes, including extending the setting development that was initiated in the Introduction, elucidating the primary themes, and demonstrating the purpose of the text. The setting development is particularly complex as it contains multiple layers. The time setting is not directly stated but can be inferred from the graphics appearing in the beginning of each chapter, which compare the sea levels of 2000 with 2300. The setting is further developed through the historian’s comparisons between past and present geography. Along with imparting setting-related details, these comparisons also introduce The Potential Consequences of Unchecked Climate Change.

This theme implicitly emerges through the idea that unchecked climate change will lead to the destabilization of multiple civilizations—particularly those like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, which are currently considered world leaders. This theme is further developed toward the end of the chapter, which details numerous catastrophic events caused by climate change, such as Russian heat waves and wildfires in 2010, flooding in Australia in 2012, and winter heat waves in the US in 2023: “[I]n 2023, the infamous ‘year of perpetual summer’ lived up to the name, taking 500,000 lives worldwide and costing nearly $500 billion in losses” (8). The first two references are factual and took place before the publication of the text, but the high winter temperatures of 2023 are fictional. This demonstrates how closely interwoven fact and fiction are in the text. They also emphasize the ominous mood of the text by suggesting extreme and detrimental weather events are a current rather than future concern.

While the potential environmental and weather-related changes are mentioned, the authors emphasize the social causes and implications of climate change through two other primary themes. Logical Fallacies of Neoliberalism and the Free Market is introduced through the discussions of climate change denial and elaborated upon in the second and third chapters. The Promotion of Interdisciplinary and Holistic Science emerges through the criticism of real-world norms in the science community, including that scientists specialize in certain fields rather than practice more general research and that scientists often take a reductionist approach.

The specification of “physical scientists” is intended as a criticism of specialization, and reductionism is blamed for delaying climate action: “The physical scientists studying these steadily increasing disasters did not help quell this denial, and instead became entangled in arcane arguments about the ‘attribution’ of singular events” (6). The authors are criticizing the tendency for specialists to examine the causes and effects of specific events, and in doing so they imply that a holistic approach would help people better understand the complex, interrelated social and physical factors of climate change.

Through the development of the themes and settings, it becomes apparent that the purpose of The Collapse of Western Civilization is to inspire social change and climate action. The authors criticize both socio-political and scientific practices, reducing the pro-science bias that often appears in information related to climate change. Furthermore, while satirical criticism is a main feature of the book, such criticism is not the overarching purpose. Rather, the purpose is to identify the real-world sociological features—including reductionism and specialization in science, capitalism, and the carbon industrial complex—that are preventing people from acting to mitigate climate change. By identifying the barriers to climate action, humanity has a better chance of overcoming obstacles. The emphasis on knowledge without action—“Indeed, the most startling aspect of this story is just how much these people knew, and how unable they were to act upon what they knew” (1)—acts as another source of motivation for climate action, as it may make some people uncomfortable to be caught in such logical fallacies.