“Gaia’s Revolution”, Life After Capitalism: Will the Environment—And We Along With It—Survive?…

February 15, 2026February 12, 2026 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

“Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.”—Rosa Luxemburg, 1915

I wrote my first novel in 1969 when I was fifteen. Caged in World was a hundred-page speculative story about a world that had moved “inside” to escape the ravages of a post climate-change environment. It would later become Book 2 of The Icaria Trilogy. I was already disillusioned with my world. I saw how corporations and governments and society in general—individuals around me—‘othered’ the environment by either treating it with disrespect and apathy or outright ignoring it in a kind of torpor of obliviousness. As though it didn’t exist.

I remember being chastised by a school teacher for thinking globally about what was happening to the planet at our hands: worldwide deforestation (e.g., clearcutting the old-growth forests of Canada), infilling saltwater and freshwater marshes, massive use of pesticides and fertilizers, contamination of lakes, unregulated mining and toxic pollution, and ultimately climate change. Stick to local concerns, he advised me; recycling and such.

I remember wondering if I was just being weird. That my odd sensibility for the planet-entire was just a nina-thing. I prayed that I was not alone and it wasn’t just a nina-thing.

(Photo: Nina Munteanu, Salk Institute, California)

For a description of how the books of the trilogy came to be (for instance, they were published in backward order!) see my article entitled “Nina Munteanu Reflects on Her Eco-Fiction Journey at Orchard Park Secondary School”.

Throughout high school and university, I read scientific papers, news articles and books on revolution. I became a student of climate change long before the term entered the zeitgeist. I studied industrial capitalism and its roots in neoliberalism and colonialism. I noted how the post-war expansion of capitalism shifted from Fordist mass production to flexible automation, technology and AI. I saw the rise of multinational corporations, income inequality, and the commodification of everything—from water to human beings (Foucault’s homo economicus).

I pursued a university degree in ecology and limnology to study and help protect the environment and educate industry and their governments in the process. I became an expert on water. See my book Water Is…The Meaning of Water, which celebrates water from twelve perspectives (and got a shout out from Margaret Atwood!).

I soon concluded that a hegemony that follows the economic system of late capitalism inevitably commodifies and ‘others’ with ruthless purpose. Once something (or someone) is commodified, they are given a finite value and purpose outside their own existence. They become an object, a symbol to use and trade. They become a resource to manipulate, exchange, and dispose of with impunity. And through this surrender to utility, they become ‘othered.’ The consumer. The trees of the forest. Water. Homo sacer*. Each has a role to play in the late capitalist narrative of digital abundance and physical scarcity.

Capitalism hasn’t been kind to the environment. Economic pundits and sociologists insist that Capitalism is devolving. But what will replace it? Cloud capital? Technofeudalism? Something else?

Deep Ecology* & Gaia’s Revolution

*The Icaria Trilogy (Dragon Moon Press)*

My three Icaria novels—starting with Gaia’s Revolution, (the first of The Icaria Trilogy, releasing March 10, 2026, by Dragon Moon Press)—chronicle the collapse of a capitalist society in Canada as climate change, water shortages, habitat destruction, plague and a failing technology devastate the Canadian population.

Gaia’s Revolution (Book 1 of The Icaria Trilogy) explores a transition in Canada from semi-socialized capitalist system to a technocratic* meritocracy of technologists and scientists. Triggered by catastrophic environmental and sociological tipping points and following violent revolution, a dictatorship of deep ecologists* called Gaians seize power. By the end of the book, enclosed cities called Icarias* now populate North America. Separated from their environment, humans now live inside domes protecting them from a hostile and toxic environment.

In truth, the deep ecologists are keeping people “inside” not to protect humanity from a toxic wasteland but to protect the environment from a toxic humanity.

How realistic is this vision? Well, it is science fiction, after all, and though it takes liberties with its narrative, it is science-based and ultimately draws on precedent. As Margaret Atwood so astutely attested of her cautionary SF book The Handmaid’s Tale: “I didn’t put in anything that we haven’t already done, we’re not already doing, we’re seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress.”

Science fiction is itself powerful metaphor; it is the fiction of political and social allegory or satire and makes astute social commentary about a world and civilization: how it has come to be, how it works—or doesn’t—and how it may evolve.

So, it is visionary and predictive? I prefer to think as Ray Bradbury:

“The function of science fiction is not only to predict the future, but to prevent it.”–Ray Bradbury

*Jackson Creek in winter, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)*

References:

Angus, Ian. 1012. “The Spectre of 21^st Century Barbarism.” Climate & Capitalism, August 20, 2012.

Atwood, Margaret. 2004. “The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake ‘In Context'”. PMLA. 119 (3): 513–517.

Atwood, Margaret. 2018. “Margaret Atwood on How She Came to Write The Handmaid’s Tale”. Literary Hub. April 25, 2018.

Bradbury, Ray. 1991. “Yestermorrow: Obvious Answers to Impossible Futures” and “Beyond 1984: The People Machines” by Ray Bradbury, dated 1982, Page 155, Joshua Odell Editions: Capra Press, Santa Barbara, California.

Foucault, Michel. 2010. “The Birth of Biopolitics (Naissance de la biopolitique): Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-1979.” Picador. 368pp.

Luxemburg, Rosa. 1915. “The Junius Pamphlet: The Crisis in the German Democracy”, Marxist.org.

Munteanu, Nina. 2026. “Gaia’s Revolution, Part 1 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 369 pp.

Munteanu, Nina. 2010. “Angel of Chaos, Part 2 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 518 pp.

Munteanu, Nina. 2007. “Darwin’s Paradox, Part 3 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 294 pp.

Neuman, Sally. 2006. “‘Just a Backlash’: Margaret Atwood, Feminism, and The Handmaid’s Tale“. University of Toronto Quarterly. 75 (3): 857–868.

Sessions, George, Bill Devall. 2000. “Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered.” Gibbs Smith. 267pp.

Skinner, B.F. 1948. “Walden Two” The Macmillan Company, New York. 301pp.

Streeck, Wolfgang. 2014. “How Will Capitalism End?” New Left Review 2 (87): 47p.

Terminology:

*Deep Ecology: An environmental philosophy and social movement advocating that all living beings have intrinsic value, independent of their utility to human needs. Coined by Arne Næss in 1972, it promotes a holistic, ecocentric worldview—often termed “ecosophy”—that demands radical, structural changes to human society to prioritize nature’s flourishing.

*Homo sacer: a figure from Roman law denoting a person excluded from society who is outside human law (can be killed) and divine law (cannot be sacrificed). The term represents “bare life”: stripped of political rights, legal protection, and social value. Philosopher Giorgo Agamben popularized the term to describe individuals excluded from the political community, such as refugees, stateless persons, or camp detainees. The term illustrates the power of a sovereign in deciding which lives are worthy of protection and which are not.

*Icaria: the name of Étienne Cabet’s utopia. Cabet was a French lawyer in Dijon, who published his novel Voyage en Icarie in 1839. The novel was a sort of manifesto-blueprint of utopian socialism, with elements of communism (abolished private property and individual enterprise), influenced by Fourierist and Owenite thinking. Key elements, such as the four-hour work day, are reflected in B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two. Cabet’s novel explores a society in which capitalist production is replaced by workers’ cooperatives with a focus on small communities.

*Letzte Generation: a prominent European climate activist group, founded in 2021, known for its acts of civil disobedience—such as roadblocks, defacing art, and vandalizing structures—to pressure governments on climate action. The term was chosen because they considered themselves to be the last generation before tipping points in the earth’s climate system would be reached. They are mostly active in Germany, Italy, Poland and Canada. In Germany, they have faced accusations of forming a criminal organization, leading to police raids.

*Technocracy: A form of government in which the decision-maker(s) are selected based on their expertise in a given area; any portion of a bureaucracy run by technologists. Technocracies control society or industry through an elite of technical experts. The term was initially used to signify the application of the scientific method to solving social problems.

Nina Munteanu is an award-winning novelist and short story writer of eco-fiction, science fiction and fantasy. She also has three writing guides out: The Fiction Writer; The Journal Writer; and The Ecology of Writing and teaches fiction writing and technical writing at university and online. Check the Publications page on this site for a summary of what she has out there. Nina teaches writing at the University of Toronto and has been coaching fiction and non-fiction authors for over 20 years. You can find Nina’s short podcasts on writing on YouTube. Check out this site for more author advice from how to write a synopsis to finding your muse and the art and science of writing.

Alien Landscape Reprinted in Your Sudden Flash

February 1, 2026January 12, 2026 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

My flash fiction story “Alien Landscape” was recently accepted by the online magazine Sudden Flash and released on December 30, 2025—making it my last story published that year. The story follows Blika who crash lands in potential hostile territory of an alien planet after responding to a distress call. What Blika discovers is not what she expected…

You can read Alien Landscape on Your Sudden Flash.

“Alien Landscape” first appeared in the 2019 celebratory ekphrastic anthology, edited by Karen Schauber and published by Heritage House: “The Group of Seven Reimagined.” The anthology celebrated the centenary of the formation of the Canadian iconic Group of Seven artists. Check my article which describes more about the Group of Seven movement. The Group of Seven movement “dragged Canadian art into the modern age,” writes Christine Sismondo of The Toronto Star in her review of “The Group of Seven Reimagined.” Sismondo astutely identifies and encapsulates the resonant meaning of the Group of Seven, then and now:

“A hundred years ago, seven Canadian painters got together and decided to start a movement. It was born out of the horrors of war. Now, the potential horrors of climate change are giving the movement an unexpected new life and meaning.”

I joined twenty other flash fiction authors who linked our flash fiction to one the Group of Seven’s works. My “Alien Landscape” was inspired by J.E.H. MacDonald’s Lake O’Hara.

Lake O’Hara by J.E.H. MacDonald

Karen had invited me to contribute a piece of flash fiction (a piece of less than 500 words), inspired by a Group of Seven piece I would choose to inspire me. I took my time; this would be the first flash fiction piece I would write. It was an art form I was not familiar with, but was happy to experiment with. But I waited too long to decide and when I finally submitted my first choice for a painting, Karen informed me that it had already been selected by another writer. To my great frustration, this went on for a few pieces.

I finally took a short trip to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg to find my piece. In the main hall, I passed the pieces already claimed by my twenty colleagues; I sighed that I had waited so long. By chance, a large selection of artwork by J.E.H. MacDonald—one of the founders of the group—was currently on exhibit on the second floor. That was where I first saw the original oil sketch called Lake O’Hara by MacDonald. It was perfect! My story “Alien Landscape” emerged from the sketch like they had always belonged together.

Christine Sismondo of The Toronto Star wrote: “while you might expect a lot of peaceful communing with nature on the page, a surprising number of the written pieces are actually dark tales of conflict and danger—forest fires, mining accidents, boat thieves and murderous plots in the woods.

Nina Munteanu, a Canadian ecologist and science-fiction writer, takes J.E.H. MacDonald’s Lake O’Hara in a novel direction in ‘Alien Landscape’ by reimagining it as a refuge for a space heroine fleeing a world that had destroyed nature in pursuit of progress and ended in post-apocalyptic chaos.”

*Nina Munteanu with cover and selected Group of Seven art to write about*

Book Review: “The Greenling”—When Nature Uses Biosemiosis To Change the World

November 2, 2025November 6, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

The Greenling by David Booram is an exploration of an intriguing ‘Nature evolving’ premise, told through a coming-of-age narrative.

Responding to continued human tampering, a growing sentient Nature calls a young environmental activist to action in a planetary reset. The main character is Noah, ostracized by her peers due to her unique perspective on the world and her activism for Nature. This makes her a candidate for Nature’s planetary reset.

While I felt that the story used over-simplified fantasm and eco-terrorism in a way not to my liking, I found most intriguing Booram’s use of biosemiosis, the notion that all life finds meaning.

Coincidently, I had agreed to read Booram’s eco-fiction novel (without knowing much about it) after a social media conversation we’d had during a time when I was working on my most recent novel, tentatively called (Re)Genesis. My novel relied heavily on the concept of biosemiosis. Its premise of dark karma—when Nature learns to reflect back what we send out—made use of real examples of learning, pattern recognition, anticipation and adaptation in non-human life. (Another coincidence at this same time occurred when another author approached me to read their work on coincidence, which I am currently reading).

In the 1930s, Jakob von Uexküll coined the term Umwelt (species-specific reality or subjective environment) to define a life process that involved semiotic interactions. He argued that an organism’s behaviour results from activity that attributes meaning to the world around it, rather than merely mechanically reacting to stimuli. Building on this notion, Friedrich S. Rothschild coined the term “biosemiosis” in 1962 to postulate that life has its subjective interpretation of the world around it (its Umwelt), a segment of the world that has significance and meaning based on that life’s biology and needs. Developing biosemiosis further, Thomas Sebeok later contended that all organisms are enveloped in a cloud of messages about themselves and their situation, which they constantly transmit, receive, and interpret. Life itself is a process of signification and meaning-making, from bacteria and plants to mammals and birds. Biosemiosis involves pattern recognition, anticipation, flexibility, goal-directed movement, memory, and learning.

Perhaps most intriguing is how The Greenling touches on humanity’s growing zeitgeist of not just planetary awareness but of sensibility, a sense that we are interlinked with all other life and nonlife, that we are all more than the sum of our parts. And only then—when we make meaning of our Umwelt—can we transcend from our toxic insecurities and bullying ways.

The Greenling is worth reading for how it weaves climate facts into compelling personal story. I also find refreshing that Booram gives full agency to the environment, Nature, and its nonhuman representatives.

I have been writing, reading, and studying eco-fiction for several decades and what I found noteworthy is how agency of the environment, as character, has changed over the years and how Nature’s portrayal has evolved from ‘other’ with little agency to ‘not other’ with much agency. For more on this concept and change, I urge you to read my two essays on this evolution:

“The Use of Character-Coupling in Eco-Literature to Give Voice to the Other, Part 1: Introduction”

“The Use of Character-Coupling in Eco-Literature to Give Voice to the Other, Part 2: Types of Character-Coupling in Seven Examples of Eco-Literature”

David Booram is the cofounder and director of Fall Creek Abbey, an urban retreat center in Indianapolis, where he and his wife Beth lead The School of Spiritual Direction and offer individual and group spiritual direction. He is the founder of Direction 4 Life Work, through which he is a career counselor.

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series—Part 2, Shows that Touch on Climate Change, Resource Allocation and Environmental Justice: #9 — “SILO”

September 21, 2025March 12, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

I’ve selected ten TV series that have intrigued me, moved me, and stayed with me for various reasons that touch on: abuse of justice, including eco-justice and environmental abuse; technology use and abuse; and the effects and horrors of climate change.

Some are well known; others not so well known. All approach storytelling with a serious dedication to depth of character, important themes, realistic world building, and excellent portrayal by actors. The world-building is extremely well done—in some cases rivalling Ridley Scott’s best—with convincing portrayals of worlds that are at times uncanny in their realism. Worlds that reflect story from an expansive landscape to the mundane minutiae of daily life: like the cracked phone device of Detective Miller in The Expanse or the dirty fingernails of engineer Juliette Nichols in the Down Deep of Silo. Stories vary in their treatment of important themes from whimsical and often humorous ironies to dark and moody treatises on existential questions. In my opinion, these TV series rival the best movies out there, often reflecting large budgets (but not always) and a huge commitment by producers. The ten TV series I’ve selected in this series come from around the world: Brazil, Germany, France, Norway, Canada and the United States.

In Part 2, I focus on five TV series that explore issues to do with resource allocation, adaptations to climate change and corporate / government biopolitics.

SILO: An Underground Murder Mystery & an Engineer’s Search for the Truth

This science fiction thriller is a dark cautionary tale based on Hugh Howie’s bestselling trilogy Wool, Shift, and Dust about a population living in an underground silo, humanity’s last refuge from a toxic outside world. Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) is a humble and gutsy engineer in the Down-Deep who is relentlessly motivated in her journey to seek the truth. When Juliette inexplicably lands the job of sheriff of the Silo, she treats her new position as a tool to seek the truth about the suspicious death of her lover, George—a collector of illegal relics (artifacts from before the rebellion which precipitated the destruction of all information prior to it). In fact, no one seems to recall anything about before the rebellion some 140 years ago.

*Juliette fixing the huge generator that keeps the Silo working*

At her own peril, Juliette pulls on threads that ultimately reveal a greater conspiracy surrounding the Silo. For instance, why technology is restricted, why relics from the past forbidden, and why all behaviour is closely surveyed and judged through “the Pact,” the arcane bible written by the founders. Questions leading to more questions. For instance, who built the Silo and for what reason? Does it have to do with why it is so toxic outside? Questions point to the egregious actions and tragic circumstances that led to its origin. Actions and circumstances of the ‘before times’ that ultimately point to political intrigue, biological warfare and social oppression.

Juliette’s literal and metaphoric rise from the Down-Deep to the Up-Top is a feminist’s journey that transcends intersectional barriers as she battles small-minded men of power and maintains her integrity by refusing to abide by the inhumane Up-Top rules of order. By the end of Season 1, I sensed a victory for humankind through womankind, as Juliette’s relentless search for the truth disclose lies at all levels of Silo society. Juliette and others who join her unravel a horrific tale of deception, self-serving manipulation, power abuse and genocide that is relevant to the present day we are experiencing now.

Authentic world building, rivalling the best of Ridley Scott, is matched by superlative acting by a very talented cast. Main character Juliette was played by Rebecca Ferguson with incredible nuance and genuineness as both vulnerable and heroic, shy and assertive, kind and bossy. Silo demonstrates through every scene a meticulous attention to detail that commands a sense of reality. We truly experience the grubby machine room of the Down-Deep, the bustling cafeteria in the Mids, or the posh interior of Judicial chambers in the Up-Top. Reflecting the vertical class hierarchy, characters are dirty, wear worn and repaired clothing, and are attentive to recycling and conservation as befits an enclosed society with limited resources.

As with Snowpiercer (another enclosed environment), the people of Silo live highly conscious of their limited space and supplies. Everyone is convinced that they or their group is ultimately most important in maintaining the Silo. Freedom Day, which celebrates freedom from the last rebellion (which existentially threatened the Silo with threats to open the doors to the outside), is followed by Forgiveness Day, in which citizens are encouraged to turn in illegal relics (e.g. any technology, books, or other artifacts from the ‘before times’) without reprisal. But, like a hamster on a wheel—or the generator in the down deep—eventually a wobble is introduced, threatening to crash the silo and put all in perpetual darkness with eventual flooding. It is no coincidence that, before taking on her role as sheriff, engineer Juliette (who refuses to use a band-aid approach) imposes a temporary black out to fix the generator to prevent the Silo’s eventual destruction.

*Lukas Kyle and Juliette Nichols wonder at the stars*

In that one act, her archetype is cemented: she is the herald of change, a disruptive force that, though at some cost, will reveal the greater truth for the greater good. Like a good catalyst hero, she stirs everyone and everything up to dig up the truth. She delivers the call to adventure to Lukas Kyle, who refuses at first, but finds his way. She inspires an entire population to seek the truth.

*One of the truths Juliette finds at the end of Season One*

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series—Part 2, Shows that Touch on Climate Change, Resource Allocation and Environmental Justice: #10 — “EXTRAPOLATIONS”

September 14, 2025March 13, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

In Part 2, I focus on five TV series that explore issues to do with resource allocation, adaptations to climate change and corporate / government biopolitics.

EXTRAPOLATIONS: A Journey into A Climate Changed Future

Extrapolations is an intelligent and vividly filmed mini-series of eight interconnected moral tales told over thirty-three years that extrapolate how our planet’s changing climate will affect family, work, faith, and—ultimately—our survival. Each episode focuses on the perspective of a few key characters whose choices often have significance consequence: from the myopic exploitation of greedy corporate moguls and feckless concessions of bureaucrats to the solidarity of common folk breaking the law to survive and scary solutions of eco-terrorists with messianic complexes. Emotions run raw and these characters you will either love or hate.

*Rebecca Shearer (Sienna Miller) braves a wildfire in “A Raven Story”*

Each episode adds its own installment of personal choice and tragedy. The first episode takes place a decade from now and is named “A Raven Story.” This first installment sets the tone of the entire series with an unsettling tirade of self-serving human actions to a sweeping tide of brewing climate disasters. What follows is a bleak procession of climate change calamity from growing wildfires and powerful hurricanes to sea level rise, melting glaciers, species extinction, and acidifying oceans. A few characters, trying to address environmental disaster, struggle with choices to either gamble the present for the future or gamble the future for the present. In the last scene, a climate activist Carmen Jalilo (Yara Shahidi) sums up the trajectory of the entire series. “What does an increase in global temperatures by two degrees Celsius mean to you and to me? It means that when the temperatures go up, our imagination must increase even more. It means that when the sea level rises we must rise up as well. It means that when forest fires obscure the horizon we must look toward each other and find our way forward. We cannot give up and go home for one simple reason. We already are home; this is our only home.”

Each episode in the procession of climate change is both a literal and metaphoric fable of our relationship to our environment, the creatures that live with us—our nonhuman relatives—and to each other: the real cause—and potential solution—to the calamities of climate change.

Episode 2, “Whale Fall”, features a beautiful heartfelt interaction between marine biologist Rebecca Shearer (Sienna Miller) and the last humpback whale in 2046. It is a solastalgic dirge on the sixth extinction event. When the whale asks the biologist “how might it be different” Shearer answers simply: “It will only change if we do, if we stop lying about the world, if we stop expecting the ones who come after us to fix it because we did not.”

*Gurav (Adarsh Gourav) buys a puff of clean air in Mumbai*

Episode 4, “Nightbirds”, oozes with such vivid visuals and angles, you can almost smell the stink in the air of Mumbai in 2056. Venders on the streets sell oxygen masks by the puff and real rice doesn’t exists; just the “synthetic, processed crap.” Driver Gurav (Adarsh Gourav) and handler Neel (Gaz Choudhry) flout the daytime curfew to transport illegal cargo (stolen seeds free of corporate branding) and a crazed geneticist to where they can be used in Varanasi. The drive becomes a nightmarish journey that touches on many aspects of ordinary life under the heel of climate change and the lengths that people will go to simply survive.

In Episode 6, “Lola”, the metaphors continue as this episode in 2066 explores the devastating memory loss of a main character through vascular dementia brought on by excessive carbon dioxide and heat. In the end, he has forgotten enough to forget that it even matters.

In 2017, I wrote an article about environmental generational amnesia. A term coined by Peter Kahn, professor of psychology at the University of Washington to explain how each generation can only recognize—and appreciate—the ecological changes they experience in their lifetimes.

In witnessing the collapse of large fish populations on the west coast, University of British Columbia fisheries biologist, Daniel Pauly observed that people just went on fishing ever smaller fish, resulting in what he called a “creeping disappearance” of overall fish stocks. He called this impaired vision “shifting baseline syndrome,” a willing ignorance of consequence based on short-term gain. This is because we are not connected. And because we aren’t connected, we simply don’t care. Environmental generational amnesia is really part of a larger amnesia, one that encompasses many generations; a selective memory driven by lack of connection and short-sighted greed.

Extrapolations ends in 2070 as Crypto mining has radically increased carbon output, higher temperatures are killing and disabling people en masse, and the weight of water in the higher oceans has altered the tectonic plates. While an element of hope glimmers in each episode, even if just through personal triumph and resilience, it is particularly notable in the last episode for reasons you need to watch to understand.

Each episode showcases an intimate personal journey woven into the larger story and strung in an anthology driven by a relentless changing climate and unruly environment. Make no mistake; the planet Earth, in the throws of climate change, is the main character here. This ambitious series dared to be more than human-centric, transcending beyond anthropocentric and androcratic worldviews in an attempt to elicit empathy for our entire world particularly the non human world. The series pointed to a more eco-centric view of this precious and beautiful world we live in. As a result, it suffered criticism.

Extrapolations was generally panned by critics and viewers alike as less than potent or even uninteresting and “flat” because it apparently traded character depth for scientific extrapolation and exposure. I couldn’t disagree more. I was gripped from the start by this large story. Characters throughout the episodes provided a panoply of understated archetypes to represent a cross section of humanity in the throws of climate catastrophe. Characters I either loved or hated or wanted to smack to wake them up. And I couldn’t help cheering when a certain miserable cruel human was offed by, of all things, a walrus mother protecting her pup.

I found the series incredibly potent for its realistic portrayal of a tortured environment at the hands of human apathy and fecklessness. I felt solastalgia creep into my bones as I witnessed this bleak future. There was something utterly tragic about a young corporate executive escaping her stressful job by retreating to a pretend autumn forest in a virtual chamber—when the real thing was no longer available. The loss of our wildlife and trees. Pure fresh air. Blue skies. Healthy oceans and freshwater. These are all things most of us still take for granted or don’t even care about.

Individual scenes lingered long after they were gone: people wearing galoshes to attend a drowning synagogue in Miami; two seed smugglers defying day curfews against overwhelming heat and noxious air quality to deliver contraband seeds to farmers in Mumbai; a news reel listing the extinction of the Polar Bear and the African Elephant as a young boy cuddles his stuffed animal version. I cried for these majestic creatures, fallen at our hands. And I cried for us at our great loss.

Ultimately, this series is all about the choices we make for this planet and our survival on it. Extrapolations makes it clear that choices, any choices, can be key to saving life on this planet. This series is not just a clear clarion call but a heartfelt exhortation for us to be brave and act now. In any way we can.

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series:

Biohackers (Germany)
Orphan Black (Canada)
Occupied (Norway)
Missions (France)
Expanse (USA)
Incorporated (USA)
3% (Brazil)
Snowpiercer (USA)
Silo (USA)
Extrapolations (USA)

Nina Munteanu Identified as a Leading Voice in Eco-SciFi Fiction

September 7, 2025June 11, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

Inventor/author Kyo Hwang Cho recently identified Nina Munteanu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeff VanderMeer, and Richard Powers as Leading Voices in Eco-Science Fiction in an article on the LinkedIn Skyhome Newsletter.

Cho wrote:

Kim Stanley Robinson: Robinson is renowned for integrating ecological themes into his narratives. His works like The Ministry for the Future and the Mars Trilogy explore climate change, sustainability, and alternative socio-economic systems. His stories often centre around scientists striving for environmental reform.

Jeff VanderMeer: Best known for the Southern Reach Trilogy, beginning with Annihilation, VanderMeer delves into a nature-reclaimed mystery zone called Area X. His work blends ecological concerns with surreal and speculative storytelling, offering a unique lens on environmental collapse.

Richard Powers: While not strictly a science fiction author, Powers’s novels such as The Overstory and Playground revolve around nature’s impact on human lives and vice versa. His writing emphasizes the deep interconnectedness of species and ecosystems.

Nina Munteanu: A Canadian ecologist and writer, Munteanu’s stories explore how humans interact with the environment. Her narratives often examine the intersection of science, climate crisis, and spiritual transformation.

Cho included the following Noteworthy Eco-Science Fiction Works:

“The Ministry for the Future”: A speculative exploration of global climate crisis responses through policy, activism, and emergent technology.
“Annihilation”: A surreal expedition into a wilderness zone that defies scientific explanation, echoing the unpredictability of nature itself.
“The Overstory”: A web of interconnected lives bound by trees, showing how the natural world can act as both witness and protagonist. [Inclusion of this book in the eco-SciFi subgenre is a stretch: however, like my own book, there are elements of speculation, and some subtle fantastical elements that one can argue place it in a scifi setting]
“A Diary in the Age of Water”: A dystopian look at a future shaped by water scarcity, societal collapse, and ecological memory.

Cho defines Eco-SciFi this way: “Eco-SciFi is a subgenre of SciFi that foregrounds ecological consciousness, blending speculative fiction with climate science, ethics, and planetary survival.” He includes a table that distinguishes Eco-SciFi from traditional Sci-Fi in several core areas from core theme, tone and motivation to protagonists and ‘message.’

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series—Part 2: Shows that Touch on Climate Change, Resource Allocation and Environmental Justice: #8—SNOWPIERCER

August 31, 2025March 12, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

In Part 2, I focus on five TV series that explore issues to do with resource allocation, adaptations to climate change and corporate / government biopolitics.

SNOWPIERCER: Capitalism is a Perpetual Motion Train in a Frozen World

Snowpiercer is an American post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller that reboots the 2013 film Snowpiercer by Bong Jooh-ho. Snowpiercer is a perpetually moving train that circles the globe carrying the remnants of humanity seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, thanks to a botched climate fix. The train is divided up by class – first class, where all the wealthy people live; second and third class where the workers reside, and the tail – the end of the train, where the poor starve, live in total darkness, and are exploited for sex and labor.

The train, of course, serves as a metaphor for class struggle, elitism and social injustices. The train’s self-contained closed ecosystem is maintained by an ordered social system, imposed by a stony militia. Those at the front enjoy privileges and luxurious living conditions, though most drown in a debauched drug stupor; those at the back live on next to nothing and must resort to savage means to survive. The TV show, as with the film, isn’t so much about climate change—as a study on how society functions—or rather copes—within a decadent capitalist system, based on an edict of productivity: serve the machine of “life” and keep the order at all cost. Chief of Hospitality Melanie Cavill (secretly chief engineer of the train) as much as tells this to homicide detective Andre Layton (from the back of the train) when she enlists him to solve the first murder in the elite section of the train.

*Melanie Cavill, head of Hospitality, enlists Andre Layton as detective to investigate a murder on the train*

The TV show diverges from the film in several important ways.

My original review of the movie touched on style and political agenda:

Bong Joon-Ho’s 2013 motion picture Snowpiercer is a stylish post-climate change apocalypse allegory. A dark pastiche of surrealistic insanity, welded together with moments of poetic pondering and steam-punk slick in a frenzied frisson you can almost smell. Joon-Ho casts each scene in metallic grays and blues that make the living already look half-dead. The entire film plays like a twisted steampunkish baroque symphony. Violence personified in a garish ballet.

.

*Poster for the movie version of Snowpiercer*

I drew on Aaron Bady’s commentary on the film in The New Inquiry which discussed reform capitalism* to conclude that the movie “Snowpiercer is about hard choices and transcendence. Save humanity but at the consequence of our souls? Or transcend the machine that has robbed us of our souls at the expense of our mortality? The film continually questions our definition of what life is and what makes life worth living … Ultimately, Bong Jung-Ho’s message with the ending of this baroque political allegory is the vindication of a choice against reform capitalism for something new, that there is indeed “Life after Capitalism”, not easy but worth living…”

The Snowpiercer TV series takes a different approach to the end of the world and capitalism metaphor, weaving in more intrigue in its plot (a murder) with elements of detecting by the only homicide detective left on the train and in the world—a self-styled revolutionary from the back of the train. Much of the entertaining tensions arise from the interactions of Detective Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) and Hospitality head Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) and second in command Ruth Wardell (Alison Wright); there are also strong performances by the train’s Breakman, Bess Till (Mickey Sumner) and later Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean) who was supposedly running the train but had been secretly thrown off the train by head engineer Cavill.

*Snowpiercer crew prepare to encounter another train in the freeze*

The focus of the TV show has been more on the potential survival of a handful of what’s left of humanity with competing agendas on how this is best achieved, whether the freeze is indeed unfreezing and some part of the world has become hospitable or at least livable. Trading the film’s baroque metaphors to capitalism for a more literal approach to climate change and living in a post climate change world, the TV series focuses more on real questions facing this ragtag of humanity. How to keep it together when rifts naturally form based on unequal resource allocation and space in the limited ecosystem of the train. Given that the show plays out in several seasons, there is room to expand and further explore socialism, democracy, fascist rule and environmental activism. Class divisions are explored through a large cast of morally ambiguous characters, each with a plot arc, and more opportunities to explore not just first class but second and third class, showcasing more nuanced and varied elements to the class struggle and ambitions of people.

*Reform Capitalism: “Reform and revolution are shibboleths that distinguish liberals from radicals,” explains Aaron Bady of The New Inquiry. “While liberals want to reform capitalism, without fundamentally transforming it, radicals want to tear it up from the roots (the root word of “radical” is root!) and replace capitalism with something that isn’t capitalism…If you’re the kind of leftist who thinks that the means of production just need to be in better hands—Obama, for example, instead of George W. Bush, or Elizabeth Warren instead of Obama, or Bernie Sanders instead of Elizabeth Warren, and so on—then this movie buries a poison pill inside its protein bar: soylent green is people.”

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series:

Through the Portal Anthology Wins BC Writers Award

August 28, 2025August 26, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / 2 Comments

On August 23, 2025, Through the Portal: Tales for a Hopeful Dystopia, edited by Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteanu for Exile Editions, won the BC Sunshine Coast Award for 2025.

The fiction prize was award to Exile Edition’s 20^th anthology along with three other fiction works that include Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson, The Cipher by Genni Gunn, and Inside Outside by Faye Arcand.

Here is what the judges said about Through the Portal:

“Every story in here is a delicious short gem.”

“An ambitious project with an unusual slant of positivity in the face of a dystopian future has turned into a solid piece of work, incorporating a good range of stories, some very literary and abstract, others simple tales of destruction and regrowth or the hope of regrowth.”

“Characters and situations in the selected stories show optimism and the power of the human spirit across a wide array of possible near- and far-term futures.”

“Most of the situations are inherently believable based on what we know about climate, industry, and the powerful politics of denialism.”

What Genre Is My Story? Is it Eco-Fiction or Something Else?

August 24, 2025June 29, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

*Illustration depicting Ray Bradbury’s ‘Rocket Summer’ in The Martian Chronicles (image from The Black Cat Moan)*

Twenty years ago, when I started seriously publishing short stories and novels, the environment was not recognized by the public or writers as an entity that deserved a literary category. Nature and environment were mostly portrayed and viewed as passive entities, to conquer, subdue, exploit and destroy at will (particularly in science fiction—with some notable exceptions such as The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury). Environment and Nature were not generally considered characters on a journey like the progatonist and other major characters; the environment lacked agency and was often ‘othered’ as dangerous, treacherous and unknowable.

Despite the fact that eco-fiction has in fact been in existence for centuries, use of this literary term is quite recent. Its first recognized use was in 1971, appearing as the title in John Stadler’s anthology published by Washington Square Press, which compiled environmental scifi works from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Defining Eco-Fiction

Author / scholar Mary Woodbury defines eco-fiction as “made up of fictional tales that reflect important connections, dependencies, and interactions between people and their natural environments.” In her article “Eco-Fiction—The SuperGenre Hiding in Plain Sight”, Judith defines eco-fiction as literature that “portrays aspects of the natural environment and non-human life as an evolving entity with agency in its relationship between and interaction with human characters.” In the preface to his 1995 book Where the Wild Boks Are: A field guide to Eco-Fiction, Jim Dwyer provides four criteria for eco-fiction:

The nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history
The human interest is understood to be not the only legitimate interest
Human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation
Some sense of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text.

These designations could be easily met by prehistoric cave art and first nations artwork and storytelling. These definitions also allow for the inclusion of many classics defined as eco-fiction from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native to John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids.

Evolving Eco-Fiction & Eco-SciFi

Like the environment it describes, Eco-Fiction is changing and evolving as a genre. Inventor/author Kyo Hwang Cho used the genre designation of Eco-SciFi when he recently identified me along with Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeff VanderMeer, and Richard Powers as Leading Voices in Eco-Science Fiction. Cho defines Eco-SciFi as: “a subgenre of SciFi that foregrounds ecological consciousness, blending speculative fiction with climate science, ethics, and planetary survival.” He includes a table that distinguishes Eco-SciFi from traditional Sci-Fi in several core areas from core theme, tone and motivation to protagonists and ‘message.’ The table can also be used to distinguish this sub-genre from other sub-categories within the umbrella term eco-fiction.

Cho described me as a Canadian ecologist and writer whose “stories explore how humans interact with the environment. Her narratives often examine the intersection of science, climate crisis, and spiritual transformation.” He described A Diary in the Age of Water as a noteworthy work of eco-science fiction: “a dystopian look at a future shaped by water scarcity, societal collapse, and ecological memory.”

Categories of Eco-Fiction

Partially due to this literature’s growing popularity there are currently many categories within and overlapping with eco-fiction; these include: climate fiction or clifi; solarpunk; eco literature, eco-horror, eco-punk, hopeful dystopia, mundane science fiction, speculative fiction, and weird fiction. Each of these focuses on particular idiosyncracies within the literary form that uniquely identify a work.

For instance, A Diary in the Age of Water has been variously described by reviewers and readers as eco-fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction or scifi, Fem-lit, mundane science fiction, hopeful dystopia, hopepunk or solarpunk, ecological science fiction or Eco-Sci-Fi. All to say that these designations and sub-genres are somewhat arbitrary and overlap; they may ultimately depend on the reader’s expectations of the work, and their own worldview and predilections. Given the still relevant reason for genre identification (to be able to best find the book in a brick and mortar or virtual bookstore), this makes sense; a work may easily satisfy several reader perspectives and therefore merit many sub-genre descriptors.

Eco-SciFi and mundane science fiction can be viewed this way. In an interview on Solarpunk Futures, I describe mundane science fiction as a sub-genre of science fiction that is very much like speculative fiction in that this sub-genre focuses on scenarios on Earth and involves matters to do with everyday life—hence the term mundane. Given the speculative aspect of mundane science fiction (e.g., set on Earth, often in the near-future), much of what Cho describes as Eco-SciFi also fits the designation of mundane science fiction. in my article “The Power of Diary in Fiction,” I describe Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water and my own novel A Diary in the Age of Water as examples of mundane science fiction. Other good examples of mundane science fiction or Eco-SciFi include Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2041, Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s Bangkok Wakes to Rain and Michelle Min Sterling’s Camp Zero. These can all be labelled clifi as well. Min Sterling’s book also fits well under Femlit, Feminist Eco-Fiction, and Hopeful Dystopia.

The determining features provided by Cho that distinguish Eco-Sci-Fi help distinguish works that fall more easily into science fiction from those that better fit within the category of literary fiction or climate fiction.

Eco-Fiction—like Science Fiction—is a large category and provides a kind of umbrella term for all environmental fiction in which the environment plays a central role that informs the plot, theme and character-journey. In literature, it serves many literary works that do not include scifi aspects (e.g. fantastical or speculative); because of this, reserving the sub-genre of Eco-SciFi for those that do include fantastical elements makes sense. For non scifi works of Eco-Fiction, I would suggest using the term Eco-Lit (ecological literature), a term already in existence that incorporates the word ‘literature’ to suggest a type of literary fiction.

Ecological Literature or Eco-Lit

Eco-Lit—unlike Eco-SciFi—tends to restrict its narrative to the current time, does not include fantastical or speculative elements, and tends to use the ecological or climate elements more as metaphorical setting to examine personal drama. In all eco-fiction, however, the environmental setting/characteristic remains central to the story—as theme and/or premise— which would not work without it. Good examples of Eco-Lit include Migration and Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy, Flight Behavior and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, and Greenwood by Michael Christie. In each of these works, the environmental characteristic sparks, motivates, and helps direct the actions of the main protagonist. For instance, in Flight Behavior, if the protagonist Dellarobia Turnbow had not encountered the changed migration of the monarchs (as a result of climate change), she would not have taken a drastic turn in her own journey.

Thomas Hardy’s 1878 Return of the Native was a work of powerful literary eco-fiction (Eco-Lit) that gave Egdon Heath powerful agency over the other traditional characters: destroying, enabling, enlightening, strengthening, isolating.

Eco-Fiction as Hyperobject

Some have suggested that eco-fiction be considered a supergenre, given that it defies strict boundaries. Elements of eco-fiction can be found in many other genres, from romance or thriller to science fiction or historical, suggesting that it is more a state of being than a category with static boundaries; more like a door or a window than a room. In my opinion, eco-fiction encompasses more than a genre or category; it is a hyperobject that has been with us since storytelling was born. In his book Hyperobjects, philosopher Timothy Morton attempts to synthesize the still divergent fields of quantum theory (weirdness of tiny objects) and relativity (weirdness of large objects), inserting them into philosophy and art. According to Morton, a hyperobject is an entity that is massively distributed in space and time, making it difficult to grasp its totality or experience it as a single, unified object. Morton argues that the hyperobjects of the Anthropocene, such as global warming, climate or oil that have extensive time/space presence, have newly become visible to humans—mainly due to the very mathematics and statistics that helped to create these disasters. Glimpsing them through our copious data, hyperobjects “compel us to think ecologically, and not the other way around.”

I think that much of the fiction that authors write touches on climate and environment, whether they realize it or not, whether they are conscious of it or not. Climate and environment are both large, yet penetrating at the cellular level—influencing us in so many ways from obvious and literal to subtle and visceral. Try as we might—and we have for centuries tried—to separate ourselves and ‘other’ environment, we can’t escape it. “We are always inside an object,” says Morton. Hyperobjects show us that “there is no centre and we don’t inhabit it.”

I’ve created my own table, fashioned after Cho’s, and adapted to include Eco-Lit with pertinent examples:

Categories of Fiction Genres Related to Ecology and Environment
	SciFi	Eco-Fiction
	SciFi	Eco-SciFi	Eco-Lit
Setting	Science, technology, space, time travel, AI, aliens, etc.* driven by elements of science fact or fiction	Ecological systems, environmental collapse, climate change, sustainability.* Some element of science fact or fiction; speculative fiction	Ecological systems, environmental effects, climate change, sustainability
Tone	Often futuristic, space-based, dystopian, or technologically advanced societies*	Earth-centred or near-future settings deeply affected by ecological factors*	Earth-centred, mostly current settings, affected in some way by ecological factors; celebrates Nature in some way
Motivation	Curiosity, innovation, power struggles, survival in altered realities*	Preservation, adaptation, environmental justice, ethical stewardship*	Environmental awareness and action, human justice, introspection, reflection, identity
Story	Can be optimistic, dystopian, neutral, techno-utopian, or apocalyptic* often focussing on human justice, alternative civilizations; allegorical	Often cautionary, reflective, grounded in real world environmental urgency* often extrapolating into dystopian future, optimistic dystopia; metaphoric	Grounded in real and usually current world with undertones of environmental urgency, reflective, illuminating; literary
Protagonists	Scientists, explorers, rebels, AI, aliens, engineers* others	Environmentalists, ecologists, farmers, indigenous communities, climate activists* others connected to environment	Ordinary people, often linked in some intimate and actionable way to Nature
Examples	Dune (Herbert) I, Robot (Asimov) Neuromancer (Gibson) 1984 (Orwell) Brave New World (Huxley) The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury) Childhood’s End (Clarke)	The Ministry for the Future (Robinson) Annihilation (VanderMeer) A Diary in the Age of Water (Munteanu) The Windup Girl (Bacigalupi) Memory of Water (Itaranta) Waste Tide (Quifan) Camp Zero (Min Sterling) Bangkok Wakes to Rain (Sudbanthad) Lost Arc Dreaming (Okungbowa)	Flight Behavior (Kingsolver) Migration by (McConaghy) Greenwood (Christie) Barkskins (Proulx) The Overstory (Powers) Oil on Water (Habila) Where the Crawdads Sing (Owens) Return of the Native (Hardy) Moby Dick (Melville)
Message	Broad speculative insight into human potential* & survival, future tech, and evolution of civilization	Warns pf ecological degradation, offers alternative visions of coexistence* often through personal or community perspective	Exploration of the human spirit, growth and inspiration through personal environmental awareness and action
Structure	Often premise-based or plot-based; environment often ‘othered’	Theme-based and character-based; environment often with agency	Character-based; environment may be metaphoric character with or without agency

*descriptions taken directly from Cho’s article

References:

Morton, Timothy. 2013. “Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World.” University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 240pp.

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series—Part 2, Shows that Touch on Climate Change, Resource Allocation and Environmental Justice: #7 — 3%

August 10, 2025March 12, 2025 / thealiennextdoor / Leave a comment

Some are well known; others not so well known. All approach storytelling with a serious dedication to depth of character, important themes, realistic world building, and excellent portrayal by actors. The world-building is extremely well done—in some cases rivalling Ridley Scott’s best—with convincing portrayals of worlds that are at times uncanny in their realism. Worlds that reflect story from an expansive landscape to the mundane minutiae of daily life: like the cracked phone device of Detective Miller in The Expanse or the dirty fingernails of engineer Juliette Nichols in the Down Deep of Silo. Stories vary in their treatment of important themes from whimsical and often humorous ironies to dark and moody treatises on existential questions. In my opinion, these TV series rival the best movies out there, often reflecting large budgets (but not always) and a huge commitment by producers. The ten TV series I’ve selected in this series come from around the world: Brazil, Germany, France, Norway, Canada and the United States.

In Part 2, I focus on five TV series that explore issues to do with resource allocation, adaptations to climate change and corporate / government biopolitics.

3%: Living with Scarcity and Uncertainty

This Brazilian dystopian thriller was created by Pedro Aguilera and directed by Cesar Charlone. It is set in the near future after the planet has fallen into a divided haves and have-nots through some calamity. Three percent of the population live well on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, called Offshore (Mar Alto). The remaining 97% struggle Inland with poverty and scarcity. A selection process lies between them.

Every year the 97% send their 20-year olds to undergo The Process, a grueling Hunger Games-style contest run by the Offshore elite to replenish their numbers. Only 3% of the candidates will be considered worthy. They must pass psychological, emotional and physical tests to earn a place in Mar Alto. Candidates cheat in self-service; others violently impose Darwinian entitlement and survival of the fittest; yet others rely on reciprocal altruism.

*Candidates undergo a test in The Process*

By the time Season 1 is over, candidates will have committed a full range of desperate and unsavory acts to make the cut—the stakes are high, after all: secure a position in the 3% elite or die in squalor and poverty. After being eliminated during the interview process, one youth throws himself off the balcony of the testing centre.

Inland is valued by the elite only for its reserve of youth to recruit Offshore’s strictly controlled population (you only find out how in the last show of Season 1). As for what personality and fitness The Process tests for is also uncertain. “You each create your own merit,” says Ezequiel, who runs The Process, to the candidates. “No matter what happens … you deserve this.” The corollary is that if they don’t have merit—value, as determined by Ezequiel’s Process—they don’t deserve to move Offshore. There is, of course, a resistance to The Process, called The Cause. They cause stirrings of unrest and may even be responsible for the first murder in Offshore in over 100 years—which puts Ezequiel’s Process under question. Ezequiel dismisses The Cause by suggesting that it operates “in the name of a false or hypocritical equality.”

There is no inherent equality or fair entitlement in a land of scarcity; there is only proof of merit to a limited resource. This meritocratic notion—and the need to prove one’s worth to be accepted—is so ingrained in society that not even the poor question it. It was American writer John Steinbeck who argued that socialism would never take off in America because the poor see themselves as “temporarily embarrassed capitalists.”

“3% is a brutal commentary on the world’s rising income inequality and the lengths we’re all willing to go to improve our lot,” writes Matthew Gault of Motherboard. “It’s a world of extreme income inequality where techno-fascists rule with an iron fist.”

With each episode, 3% examines the motivations and paradoxes of heroism and villainy, sometimes turning them on their sides until they touch with such intimacy you can’t tell them apart. At its deepest, 3% explores the nature of humanity—from its most glorious to its most heinous—under the stress of scarcity and uncertainty. How we behave under these polarizing challenges ultimately determines who we are.

*Two 3% candidates navigate the slums they are trying to escape with The Process*

Ten Significant Science Fiction TV Series: