Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide

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The plants and vegetation evolved so greatly that many lifeforms mirrored and imitated animals from our time-period, not only in behavioral patterns and functionality, but in many cases, even in their physical description. Hothouse is a bit of an oddity and unlike anything else I have ever read. And because of that, and for the themes it explores, I recommend it to those that are looking for something a bit different.

Hothouse Earth Inhabitant S Guide - AbeBooks Hothouse Earth Inhabitant S Guide - AbeBooks

Man (or what's left of him) has forgotten his history, though the memories of his erstwhile greatness remain deeply rooted in his DNA. These memories can be accessed by parasitic fungus that lurk in the deadly greenery, and they are ready to latch onto the brain of an unassuming tree-dweller. And this is where the story gets interesting and turns on itself developing splendidly. Certainly, as it stands, Britain – although relatively well placed to counter the worst effects of the coming climate breakdown – faces major headaches. Heatwaves will become more frequent, get hotter and last longer. Huge numbers of modern, tiny, poorly insulated UK homes will become heat traps, responsible for thousands of deaths every summer by 2050. Literally. Also - the earth doesn't spin on it's axis anymore is tidally attached to the sun so that one half is perpetual day and the other perpetual night. Also, there are HUUUUGE spiders that spin webs between earth and the moon. o_O I kid you not. My fruit skin chafes my thighs,' Poyly said, with a womanly gift for irrelevance that eons of time had not quenched." And this book never lets up on the crazy vegetable creatures and pitiful rat-like humans. The main characters are continuously fleeing from one crisis to the next, and never have the upper hand. They encounter the most annoying creatures ever created, including the tummy-belly men, whose speech mannerisms make Jar-Jar Binks sound like Shakespeare. Then there is the fish creature carried by a crippled human called the Catch-Carry-Kind, a prophet who knows the sun is dying and Earth is doomed. He has great wisdom but meets his match with an intelligent, parasitic fungus called a Morel. In fact, the fungi is really a pretty fun-…no, I won’t go there. But, Aldiss was definitely tripping on some fecund and fertile thoughts.

But hothouse Britain is about far more than insufferable summer heat. Progressive climate breakdown will affect everyone and insinuate itself into every aspect of our lives. Transport and energy infrastructure will succumb repeatedly to the onslaught of extreme weather, making otherwise straightforward journeys increasingly problematical, and power outages a normal part of daily life. That is until the fungus comes along and increases the mental faculties of the protagonist, Gren. And with his new cognitive abilities, comes a sense of superiority and command. He seems greater than before, as he remembers what humans once were, and as such finds himself inspiring awe in other tribes. Despite this, his interactions are rarely successful and beings that live close by are all radically different and have adapted in strange and complex ways. It becomes impossible for him to exist and function normally. The five Hothouse stories were collectively awarded the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction. [1] The bottom line is that 1.5°C is dead in the water. As if to underline the point, the latest findings from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that the global average sea surface temperature hit a record high of 21.1°C on 1 April. Only five great families survived among the rampant green life; the tigerflies, the treebees, the plantants and the termights were social insects mighty and invincible. And the fifth family was man, lowly and easily killed, not organized as the insects were, but not extinct, the last animal species in all the all-conquering vegetable world."

Hothouse Earth - Rex Weyler - Greenpeace International Hothouse Earth - Rex Weyler - Greenpeace International

To have a hardy and evolved fungus drop upon you in the middle of the jungle to give you heightened intelligence, you'd think that would be a good thing, right? The plot itself is mostly an excuse to travel the planet and observe and comment on the strange new world the Earth has become. The main character, Gren, is part of a human tribe that decides to seek a better, safer place to live far from their current home. While plants have grown bigger, stronger, smarter and more aggressive, humans are now only one-fifth of their original size and live on the edge of extinction. Some characters had really annoying YA-ish - well, bad YA-ish - names that grated on my nerves to NO END, like, Poyly and Veggy (which made me constantly axe myself: Veggie as in veg·e·ta·ble? or more like as if you put a V in front of egg, throwing a Y on the end of it? Arrrghhh! In spite of all our efforts — decades of environmental action, legislation, investment in renewable energy, electric cars, and those 29 climate conferences — total global carbon emissions continue to rise. Since the year 2000, solar and wind have added the equivalent of about 300 million tons of oil (MTOE) to annual energy consumption, a hopeful sign. However, during that same period, fossil fuel consumption increased ten times faster, by over 3000 MTOE, which explains why carbon emissions continue to rise.The opening sequence and subsequent introduction to this world comes in the form of the most basic unit of humanity at the time - a matriarchal family unit of several adults and their offspring. Their forays brought to mind scenes from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" with the climbing of giant stalks and nightmarish giant insects - but with, more often than not, less forgiving and more lethal repercussions - one wrong move equals death (and there are deaths aplenty).