From the beginning of the planet, we have always been here from the start of it all. Evolving from bacteria to humans was a process that took a long time to happen but as we evolved so did the planet. As time goes by the planet and everything on it develops a bond with each other whether it be the planets, humans, animals, everything is connected to each other. But as everything developed together, some developed at a faster pace than the others which were humans. The constant change and developmental pace for humans caused change in the world as a whole too because of how many advances were being made and because of conflict too.

The definition of kinship is “a sharing of characteristics or origins”(Oxford Dictionary) but can that idea still be held up when humans as a whole are destroying the same origin’s that everything on this planet came from? “what comes after will not be like what came before”(Haraway) The idea of being able to fix what we have done to the planet as humans as a whole is something that is reaching the point of being irreversible as not everything can be brought back to normal or brought back from extinction. From mass hunting to deforestation, humans have done it all, Destroyed the thing that gave it its life. Ruined the forests of the world which provide us with the oxygen to live by processing the carbon dioxide that we let out.

As all the forests in the world are ruined that causes the life in them to be killed too. Many animals and organisms lose their natural habitat and have to go to other places to adapt to them like refuges. “Right now, the earth is full of refugees, human and not, without refuge.”(Haraway) As humans are misplaced and have to seek refuge in other places far from their homes, so do many animals, plants, and insects because of how as the days go by the earth is getting worser and worser to live on. Everything on the planet came from the same origin and have a kinship with each other but humans have strayed away from that path.

As the years go by and humans make more technological advances a part of the planet is always sacrificed for that. The relationship between the planet and us gets worse and worse and harms everything we know. There should be a urgency to fix or try our best to repair the environment to help it but it doesn’t seem like a concern for the masses because of how disconnected we have gotten from the planet and strayed away from our kin, Instead of helping what we came from, we have brought it to almost complete destruction beyond repair.

In the reading “The Great Derangement” the author Amitav Ghosh argues that literature has failed to address climate change in a meaningful way. Ghosh believes that modern novels which focus on personal and individual experiences which struggle to capture the global and collective nature of the climate crisis. Ghosh argues that this failure is not just a problem for the writers but a part of a larger cultural issue. And our inability to fully grasp the scale and urgency of the issue of climate change.

Ghosh points out that most novels are based on everyday events and predictable plots but climate change is unpredictable and overwhelming. He calls climate change “unthinkable” because it is so far from the reality of the normal. (Ghosh) Storms, floods, and droughts caused by climate change seem unreal and making it hard to fit them into the conventional plots of novels. As a result climate change is often left out of literature even though it’s one of the biggest challenges of our time.

Ghosh also connects this problem to history. He says the novel became popular during the time of European colonialism. When western countries were taking control of land and resources in other parts of the world. Because of this novels have focused a lot on individual characters and their personal choices, reflecting the values of that time. Ghosh writes “similarly, at exactly the time when it became clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant cultural in which the idea of the collective has been exiled from politics, economics and literature alike” (Ghosh). Ghosh argues that this way of storytelling isn’t for the issue of climate change which involves large scale collective experiences and systems effecting everyone. He also highlights that most novels come from western perspective that often neglect the voices of people in the global couch who are most affected by climate change.

Despite these problems, Ghosh is hopeful that literature can a change. He believes that new kinds of stories can be written stories that deal with the global scale of climate change in literature, we might better understand the crisis and take action to solve it. In “The Great Derangement” Ghosh challenges writers and readers to rethink how we tell stories about the world. By finding new ways to talk about climate changed in literature we might better understand the crisis and take action to solve it.

In this world, a lot of things happen that are out of our control that we can’t change or redo. We often ignore the things we do have control over, and then act surprised when it is too late, as if the inevitable point of no return came out of nowhere.  Humans are contributing to ecological destruction through inaction and ignorance paralleling how Republicans often ignore the red flags of their chosen candidate just as many turn a blind eye to societal decay or political missteps. A lot of things in the world are changing and they are changing rapidly not for the better but for the worse we are facing a lot of climate changes, catastrophes, Wars, dangerous chemicals, deforestation, and industrialization all of which were caused by humans. This era of ecological devastation, often labeled as the Anthropocene, has been questioned by scholars like Donna Haraway, who argues that it’s not just humans, but specific systems and histories that are driving these changes. In Donna Haraway’s “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin she questions all living things (organisms), and their contribution to our ecological developmental historical events that have happened, and influenced our current situation. 

       Haraway analyzes how our species and every other living organism have played a role in the conditions we live in today. She writes “No species, not even our arrogant one pretending to be good individuals in so-called modern Western scripts, acts alone, assemblages of organic species and abiotic make history, the evolutionary kind and the other kinds too” (DH article) showing that our era is not only dominated by humans but also other living organisms which forces together with humans impact the Anthropocene. Anna Tsing argues that it doesn’t matter how much money, and technology we use to try and fix the problem by delaying it we are only putting off the inhabitable, and we will be doomed by our actions. Our actions have caused significant problems also on animals forcing them out of their habitats, but how would they look for refuge in a world that is ceasing to exist by the day? 

           DH thinks that instead of calling this era the Anthropocene it should be “Antgripocene, Platationocene, and Capitalocene” because now not only humans are causing the effects but also other causes such as the role of the capitalist system of production, consumption, and extraction s causing the degradation of our planet. Industrialization has had a major role in polluting our air, and prioritizing profits such as cheaper ways to obtain oil or airplane emotions instead of finding better ways that would benefit the planet. Beyond pollution, capitalism also perpetuates inequality and resource exploitation, where the most vulnerable populations often bear the brunt of environmental degradation. This is why Haraway highlights capitalism as a central force in the degradation of our planet. Also, our history of colonialism, plantation-based agriculture, and slavery were contributors to the ecological devastation we see nowadays. Haraway emphasizes how plantation economies created hierarchies between humans and other living, beings separating nature from culture and contributing to the environmental crisis. The exploitation of land and people in plantation-based economies continues today, with global agriculture and monoculture practices depleting biodiversity and damaging ecosystems. DH introduces the idea of looking forward to “Chthulucene” envisioning how we can learn to live with other species and emphasizing the need for mutual survival and collaboration. The Chthulucene asks us to embrace our entanglement with other species, recognizing that our survival depends on theirs. Haraway suggests that we need to rethink our relationships not just with the planet but with all living beings, moving away from domination toward collaboration, and it demonstrates what the Anthropocene failed to do. Understanding Haraway’s alternative frameworks forces us to rethink human relationships with the earth. If we are to move beyond the Anthropocene, we must prioritize mutual survival, collaboration, and sustainable living practices. The future depends on whether we can adapt to these principles before it is too late.

In Octavia Butler’s novel “Parable of the Sower”, we as readers get to dive into Lauren’s world, where she lives, how she feels and thinks as well as getting to know her hometown, Robledo and the way her family and other families live in the town. As we get to chapter 2 of the novel, Lauren explains that she “…Three years ago, my fathers god stopped being my god. His church stopped being my church….My god has another name.” Lauren is very bright, she’s intelligent but she is a realist as well. Although, she may cherish her father and what his beliefs are, she doesn’t see it that way.

In her hometown Robledo, it is full of people who are on the edge of survival, who make just enough to have food and a shelter over their heads. These people live in a constant edge of life, where they have to be aware of thieves, threats to their homes and a threat to their garden which is where they also get their nourishment. In such an environment, parents, or all household tenants have to have weapons on them in case anything may happen. Even in this town, it’s dangerous to travel alone, it’s insisted that people go together in a pack to survive and to make sure no one gets hurt. Octavia Butler, intended for the reader to feel all the emotions with Lauren, to experience her life and the way her and her people have to live day by day. However, Lauren doesn’t seemed determined to stay, she strives for survival. In the text it states “I’m trying to learn whatever I can that might help me survive out there…I think we should make emergency packs-grab and run packs…I intend to survive.” Lauren proves that she won’t let her situation get the best of her, she emphasizes it throughout the first few chapters. She wants to live better, and she will find ways in which she can not only help herself but also alert others on what goes on in the world that they live in. Although, she may be a teenager, she knows what the world consists of, the hardships of life, and she wants to make sure she can strive past these obstacles to reach a better living.

Lauren’s belief system is that “God is change”, in the novel it states “The particular God-is-Change belief system that seems right to me will be called Earthseed…where plants seeded themselves and grew along before any humans arrived…we’ll have to seed ourselves farther and farther from this dying place.” This demonstrates how her belief is their is consistent change, and it’s the form that the way we are shaped, god is shaped as well. To put it in better terms, the way we change, god changes as well. Lauren has a strong belief that the way life was perceived 20 to 30 years ago is no longer the same in the present time, everything is changing, there will always be a constant change. In this sense, if we think about this now in present times, in our reality, the way we live is also changing. One of our important factors in our lives is Climate change, we as humans we can predict how bad climate change can get,  but we truly won’t know the actual horrifying effects climate change will leave on our planet. In the same way, that’s how Lauren feels about the way they live in their hometown. Her thought process is if they don’t create change, if they don’t help themselves out more by being ready in case of an attack or by being prepared in any way, there won’t be a change in their lives.