Water Discipline: The Ecology of Dune

[Bryce watching the temperature rise higher than it’s been for years all over the west coast than it’s been for years]

It’s fineeee…everything’s gonna be finnnnnneeee…

The impending sixth mass extinction event kinda got me down. But then I got up and decided to read something I love, something I’ve read a thousand times, and something that always perks me up. Something that will be adapted into a full length motion picture for the second time since its been published.

Dune is a Science Fiction novel written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. It was the first in his 6 book series on Dune and after his death his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have picked it up and continued writing Dune books. Frank Herbert had the idea for Dune in 1957 when he went to Florence, OR to write an ecological piece on the dune preserves and the US Department of Agriculture’s attempts to stabilize them with certain spices of grass meant to hold the dunes in place.

It is the story of Paul Atradies, son of a duke and (…a space witch?) who has to move with his family to an inhospitable desert planet which happens to be the source of the most valuable substance in the universe. It’s called “The Spice” and it lets you fold space and time, see the future, and live hella long while tripping balls.

For more information on Dune please check out one of the videos linked below. Thug Notes does an amazing quick summary and Ideas of Ice and Fire and Comic Book Girl 19 have quite a few hours of content summarizing and analyzing the first Dune book. When Paul and his fam leave nice lush green-af Caladan he comes to the desert planet Arrakis where his house will be put in charge of mining “The Spice” making interstellar travel, basic medicine, and fortunetelling possible. He and his father meet the Planetologist Liet Kynes (a half Fremen employed by the empire) who informs them about life on Arrakis, some of the customs of the native people (the Fremen), and the sheer importance of water to their society (like there was ever a society where potable water wasn’t important). Arrakis is a harsh planet covered in desert and severely water deficient which sucks for the people but the rest of the ecology seems to thrive without it. In fact the giant Sand-worms which appear to be the dominant life form of the planet (and source of the entire planet’s economy) have a severe reaction to water. It was then that I realized that my good-time-forget-what’s-bugging-you read suddenly plunged me back into panic but then I realized Dune has a lot to teach us about the world we’re going into.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (an independent non-partisan organization) water scarcity is looking more and more like it can cause some serious problems down the road for national security and global stability.

Climate change, combined with increased and more diverse demands for water, makes disputes more likely. Moreover, many of the security problems associated with water will occur in areas where the United States has strategic interests, including the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific. Yet water as an issue for U.S. national security lacks sustained visibility and sufficient funding. (CFR)

“But what does a fictional book written decades ago have to do with what we’re experiencing now?” you ask.

You gotta speak up, I can’t hear you.

According to Ecological and literary critic and all around fascinating guy Timothy Morton we might be able to learn a few things about the future because, perhaps, we have been contemplating this scarcity for a while. In his book “The Ecological Thought,” Morton asserts that;

Studying art provides a platform, because the environment is partly a mater of perception. Art forms have something to tell us about the environment, because they can make us question reality. (Morton 8–9)

That’s right people. Art makes you smart. It’s like how Jesus spoke in stories instead of detailed law codices. If the lesson is in a story we are more apt to engage with it. And what better place to put our anxieties about the rapid destabilization of the environment than on a planet way in a galaxy far, far away.

Ecology talks about areas of life that we find annoying, boring, and embarrassing. Art can help us, because it’s a place in our culture that deals with intensity, shame, abjection, and loss. It also deals with reality and unreality, being and seeming. (Morton 10)

Instead of having to face the fact that human beings have a tendency to disrupt the environment and cause seemingly natural cataclysms we can pack that up, toss it onto a desert planet with space dukes and blue eyed insurgents and really get to the meat of the problem without having to face the real version of it. It’s like running a simulation of the possible end times. And what better simulation than this one?

[Sting steps out of the steam]

In all seriousness its a great work and it offers us a lot in the way of ecological thinking. According to the Imperial Planetologist/Leader of the Fremen;

“The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences.” (Herbert 177)

To think ecologically is to understand that our actions have consequences because everything is interconnected.

No, not like that,

There, that’s better.

You see we (and by we I mean humans, plants, bacteria, viruses, all manner of animals, and the oceans, rocks, minerals, as well as the structures and chemicals we produce) are all locked together in a system.

THE SYSTEM

Morton describes the system thus;

“It is a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge. It is radical intimacy, coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise — and how can we so clearly tell the difference?” (Morton 8)

The Fremen in Dune are not supper pumped about outsiders because they don’t seem to understand this. They don’t have the same values or goals that the Fremen hold and in-fact tend to throw their delicate ecology out of balance.

[Play the deleted scene with the spit take]

Dune does not quite end at the end. After the final chapter Herbert tacks on two appendices, the first one is an account of Kyne’s father upon coming to Arrakis entitled the “Ecology of Dune.” In it we see his treatment as an outsider and eventual acceptance into Fremen culture through their mutual understanding of the treacherous nature of the environment.

“The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem,” Kynes said, “is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.” (EoD: Herbert 323)

The ecology of Arrakis, just like all ecologies, are dependent upon various elements, lifeforms, and conditions. Misreading or disrespecting anything in that sphere has consequences.

“The Arrakeen environment built itself into the evolutionary pattern of native life forms,” his father said. “How strange that so few people ever looked up from the spice long enough to wonder at the near-ideal nitrogen-oxygen-CO2 balance being maintained here in the absence of large areas of plant cover. The energy sphere of the planet is there to see and understand — a relentless process, but a process nonetheless. There is a gap in it? Then something occupies that gap. Science is made up of so many things that appear obvious after they are explained.” (Herbert 179)

Ecology is not just about seeing the environment but the gaps in the environment, the things that inhabit those gaps, and most importantly how to survive within them.

The system is set but how can I be expected to look after an entire planet’s prosperity myself? You didn’t say but I’m gonna pretend you did anyway.

Through education and innovation. Though Paul and the gang are new to Arrakis they hear a lot about how inhospitable it is, both physically and personally (considering how the Fremen keep to themselves).

“There’s little to tell them from the folk of the graben and sink. They all wear those great flowing robes. And they stink to heaven in any closed space. It’s from those suits they wear — call them ‘stillsuits’ — that reclaim the body’s own water.”

Paul swallowed, suddenly aware of the moisture in his mouth, remembering a dream of thirst. That people could want so for water they had to recycle their body moisture struck him with a feeling of desolation. “Water’s precious there,” he said. (Herbert 20)

After a lifetime of ease on Caladan surrounded by water Paul comes to anticipate the ecology of what lies before him and how tough things are going to get. Next to that severity what we experience here on earth.

My home state of California has struggled with droughts and inadequate water supply for decades. In Porterville in 2017 emergency rations of bottled water were brought in for cooking and drinking while bailing buckets were used to keep toilets functioning.

Oh, and by the way Flint, MI still doesn’t have clean water

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times in November of 2018 based on the consensus of climate research;

The assessment paints a dire picture of the worsening effects of global warming as nearly every corner of the country grows more at risk from extreme heat, more devastating storms, droughts and wildfires, waning snowpack and other threats to critical infrastructure, air quality, water supplies and vulnerable communities. By century’s end, the report projects thousands of additional deaths annually from worsening heat waves and air pollution, as well as declining crop yields and the loss of key coral reef and sea ice ecosystems. (LA Times)

But what to do, Oh my goodness?! Well Kynes had a pretty good idea but we’ll get to that later. As you may remember about the Fremen water is kinda a big deal to them. The native folk realize the best way to stay alive is to save water in anyway possible. Their settlements hold regulated reservoirs with a token redemption system and even their clothes are meant to save and process as much personal moisture as possible. The enemy to these people, except for the damned Harkonnen is waste. And Dune has some interesting things to say about waste.

WASTE

When Paul’s bad-ass-martial-artist-space-witch Mom Jessica (seriously you guys Jessica is amazing) gets to Arrakis she gets to take a tour around her new house. It’s a palace to be sure and in one room she finds something alarming;

“A wet-planet conservatory,” she breathed: Potted plants and low-pruned trees stood all about. She recognized a mimosa, a flowering quince, a sondagi, green-blossomed pleniscenta, green and white striped akarso . . . roses . . . Even roses! She bent to breathe the fragrance of a giant pink blossom, straightened to peer around the room. (Herbert 47/115)

Sure sounds nice huh? Sucks to be stuck on the most gnarly planet in all of creation but at least there is a garden you can chill in, take a book, sip some tea, get your reading done.

The thing is, that’s not so chill, and Lady Jessica understands right away;

Water everywhere in this room — on a planet where water was the most precious juice of life. Water being wasted so conspicuously that it shocked her to inner stillness…Leto had said it was a deliberate statement of power and wealth for this house to ignore such precautions, its doors and windows being sealed only against the omnipresent dust. But this room embodied a statement far more significant than the lack of waterseals on outer doors. She estimated that this pleasure room used water enough to support a thousand persons on Arrakis — possibly more. (Herbert 47/115)

Booooommm! The decadence of the occupiers suddenly comes into full view as the threat to human life it actually is. Failing to save water for the sake of pleasure and status while others must go without.

The Fremen don’t waste water. In fact, the water is reclamiated from the bodies of the dead and are shared with the tribe. It is total and complete immersion into a hostile system. Unfortunately we in California have been a little behind with our conservation efforts. Despite our state legislatures efforts at water conservation we had an estimated 18 trillion gallons in rain come down on California this year 80% of it became run off.

PROMOTING ECOLOGICAL LITERACY

Before you go dusting off the old motorcycle helmet and trying to figure out ways to kill it in the Mad Max post apocalypse that is certainly coming our way I’d like to point us back to the Ecology of Dune where daddy Kynes sees the planet for what it really is and how it can function, how it can change.

the planet was merely an expression of energy, a machine being driven by its sun. What it needed was reshaping to fit it to man’s needs. His mind went directly to the free-moving human population, the Fremen. What a challenge! What a tool they could be! Fremen: an ecological and geological force of almost unlimited potential. (EoD: Herbert 319)

The Fremen people themselves. A population so well adapted for thriving in hellish conditions, for self control, and constant awareness could absolutely change the course of ecology and history. Kynes gave the Fremen an imperative to “cultivate ecological, literacy” (Herbert 178). We even get this adorable scene when Paul and his mother first visit one of their settlements after besting one of their most fierce fighters in a duel.

He slowed his pace, staring in at a room crowded with children sitting cross-legged on a maroon-carpeted floor.

At a chalkboard against the far wall stood a woman in a yellow wraparound, a projecto-stylus in one hand. The board was filled with designs — circles, wedges and curves, snake tracks and squares, flowing arcs split by parallel lines. The woman pointed to the designs one after the other as fast as she could move the stylus, and the children chanted in rhythm with her moving hand. Paul listened, hearing the voices grow dimmer behind as he moved deeper into the sietch with Harah.

“Tree,” the children chanted. “Tree, grass, dune, wind, mountain, hill, fire, lightning, rock, rocks, dust, sand, heat, shelter, heat, full, winter, cold, empty, erosion, summer, cavern, day, tension, moon, night, caprock, sandtide, slope, planting, binder . . . “

“You conduct classes at a time like this?” Paul asked. Her face went somber and grief edged her voice: “What Liet taught us, we cannot pause an instant in that. Liet who is dead must not be forgotten. It’s the Chakobsa way.” (Herbert 226)

The thing the Fremen have that makes them so tough is that they are taught, from an early age, exactly where they are, what is important, and what they need to do to survive. In the Ecology of Dune appendix we are treated to Pardot Kynes and his revelation for the future of Arrakis;

When she gives you a Fremen son, you begin with him, with Liet-Kynes, and the other children, teaching them ecological literacy, creating a new language with symbols that arm the mind to manipulate an entire landscape, its climate, seasonal limits, and finally to break through all ideas of force into the dazzling awareness of order. (EoD: Herbert 319)

It’s stunningly simple in a revolutionary way. By building the language of the youth and the concerns of the everyday around scarcity and conservation some form of order can be achieved inline with the ecological surroundings. Unfortunately this grand plan works in the short term and for more on that I’ll have to cover some of the sequels at some point;

THE BEST LAID PLAN?

According to the CFR our issues with water scarcity aren’t going anywhere any time soon and more active steps are needed, a good-ol’ Fremen refocusing of priorities;

Pragmatic policies are necessary to address global water issues, such as elevating the importance of water at the highest levels in the U.S. government; supporting enhanced data collection, analysis, and early warning efforts; investing in building institutions to manage trans-boundary rivers and domestic water supplies; and developing public-private partnerships to in-crease water supplies, water conservation, and to waterproof at-risk infrastructure. (CFR)

Humans have the power to change their environment, and the social/ecological machine Kynes developed falls into pauls hand at the end of the novel and he has some ideas, ideas that Pardot had. He promises the Fremen people;

“There will be flowing water here open to the sky and green oases rich with good things. But we have the spice to think of, too. Thus, there will always be desert on Arrakis . . . and fierce winds, and trials to toughen a man. We Fremen have a saying: ‘God created Arrakis to train the faithful.’ One cannot go against the word of God.” (Herbert 318)

Before you go thinking it’s all pie in the sky consider what he promises to set about doing…consciously changing the ecology to suit the people instead of adapting to the ecology in question. You may think I’m being alarmist but look at how the Ecology of Dune appendix ends;

The son had been trained to follow the father. The course had been set by this time, the Ecological-Fremen were aimed along their way. Liet-Kynes had only to watch and nudge and spy upon the Harkonnens . . . until the day his planet was afflicted by a Hero. (EoD: Herbert 324)

Paul is the hero they were afflicted with. The machine fell into the hands of one man. The loose set of customs that kept them safe in the desert are out of the hands of the many and put into the perogitive of the one. If you think that’s a problem and if you’re either or also worried about our situation here on planet earth, don’t despair, there are things you can do. In the description you can find a great list of ways to help conserve water. Also induced are all of the articles cited and if you’ve got a problem with that perhaps you should write your local elected officials. This has been “Green Shade” and I’ve been Bryce Skidmore

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