{"id":43970,"date":"2019-01-29T16:51:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=43970"},"modified":"2019-01-30T23:32:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T22:32:58","slug":"richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/richard_smith_2014.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-33037\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/richard_smith_2014-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"richard_smith_2014\" width=\"128\" height=\"128\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading John Lanchester\u2019s chilling dystopian novel <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Wall<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about how the world will be after climate catastrophe I had the unsettling sense for several days that the world he describes is the real world and the world I\u2019m inhabiting now the sham. We fly around the world, queue at the butchers, drive our Range Rovers, turn up the central heating, text our chums, have more children, and watch rom-coms on giant flat screens as the world literally begins to burn and flood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Wall, where \u201cnews any news is bad,\u201d surrounds Britain after the Change and keeps out the Others. There are no more beaches, and it\u2019s intensely cold on The Wall. (A likely consequence of climate change is that the Gulf Stream will divert and Britain become as cold as Alaska.) The Defenders, of whom the novel\u2019s narrator is one, must spend two years on The Wall and must kill the Others or be killed. If Others manage to get into Britain then an equivalent number of Defenders are put to sea\u2014that is, become Others. Everybody has a chip in their bodies, and to merge into the population Others must quickly find somebody to insert a chip. If caught, as they are likely to be, Others have the choice of being put back to sea, euthanised, or becoming Help. Help are slaves. Most Others who are caught chose to become Help. The Elite, who go to \u201cconferences or talks or meetings\u201d and have \u201cbig discussions about the Change,\u201d (that\u2019s me) have Help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an interview in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guardian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lanchester quotes William Gibson\u2019s famous line that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/jan\/11\/john-lanchester-interview-the-wall\">The future is already here\u2014it\u2019s just not evenly distributed.<\/a>\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walls are very much part of our world, and an argument over a wall, a big \u201cbeautiful\u201d wall, has shut down the American government. Migrants, let\u2019s call them Others, are crossing and drowning in the Mediterranean\u2014and now are coming closer, crossing the English Channel. Every day in Britain\u2014and many other rich countries\u2014the Others become more Other. In the novel it\u2019s government policy to shoot them, and it doesn\u2019t require a big imaginative leap to that becoming policy now; already there are many who favour not rescuing drowning migrants for fear of encouraging others. A politician in the novel deplores that there are people in Britain who take the side of the Others, \u201cnot of the ordinary decent people of this country.\u201d This is the language of the Brexit crisis. Many of the migrants who are resident in Britain are already Help: my mother\u2019s nursing home with mostly white residents and black staff makes me think of Apartheid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Defenders are young people, and all young people, men and women, must serve on the wall\u2014apart from the young Elite. The Wall<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> becomes their life: \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I realised that even though I was on the Wall, a part of me had been assuming there were still small human margins here and there, room for interpretation, space for forgiveness or acceptance or, less nobly, the chance to talk yourself out of any trouble you might have got yourself into. I now saw that that was wrong.\u201d The Defenders feel cut off from the rest of the world, unable to communicate the horrors of The Wall. That made me think of First World War soldiers, and the drunken behaviour of the Defenders as they started their fortnight\u2019s leave is to be seen today among young soldiers who have completed a tour of duty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">People in the novel don\u2019t want to have children \u201cbecause the world is such a horrible place.\u201d The main reason to become a Breeder is to escape the full horrors of The Wall. There are people now who refrain from having children for fear of what the future will bring, and I feel pain about my grandchildren for the failure of my generation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BMJ<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> readers will not have to serve on The Wall, but their children and grandchildren will. This will create a huge generational divide. Joseph, the narrator, finds he cannot feel anything for his parents, who keep their distance: \u201cThe diagnosis [of the parents\u2019 shame] isn\u2019t hard\u2014the diagnosis isn\u2019t even controversial. It\u2019s guilt: mass guilt, generational guilt. The olds feel they irretrievably fucked up the world, then allowed us to be born into it. You know what? It\u2019s true. That\u2019s exactly what they did. They know it, we know it. Everybody knows it\u2026.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who broke the world? They wouldn\u2019t say that they did. And yet it broke on their watch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lanchester doesn\u2019t give dates in his novel, but this future may not be far away. In the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guardian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> interview he says: \u201cIn economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.\u201d The same goes for the environment. We have known about global warming for 30 years, but have failed to mount an adequate response. \u201cWe have an amazing talent,\u201d says Lanchester, \u201cfor being oblivious, we are really, really good at it.\u201d British politicians, enmeshed in Brexit, tell us that it is the most important political question of their generation, but of course it isn\u2019t: Brexit may create chaos and exacerbate poverty, but it won\u2019t cause extinction of our species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Wall<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is already in the bestseller lists, can create an emotional response to climate change that government and scientific reports and statistics have failed to do. George Monbiot, the environmental campaigner, in 2008 called Cormac McCarthy\u2019s novel <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Road<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8220;the most important environmental book ever written.&#8221; That novel was further in the future than <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Wall<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and more extreme in that there were only small bands of people left roaming a burnt out land and resorting to cannibalism. Perhaps Lanchester\u2019s novel will have more impact by being less extreme and so cleverly relating the future to the issues of today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/aa8ac620-1818-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3\">in the <\/a><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Financial Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lanchester writes about the two great dystopian novels in English\u2014<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1984<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brave New World\u2014<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and shows how despite being written some 70 years ago both tell us much about today. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0George Orwell and Aldous Huxley wrote their novels in the hope of stopping their dystopias becoming true. They failed. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMy main ambition, my main hope for the book,\u201d says Lanchester, \u201cis that I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em style=\"font-size: 1rem\"><strong>Richard Smith<\/strong>\u00a0was the editor of <\/em>The BMJ<em style=\"font-size: 1rem\"> until 2004.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After reading John Lanchester\u2019s chilling dystopian novel The Wall about how the world will be after climate catastrophe I had the unsettling sense for several days that the world he [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[955],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-richard-smith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After reading John Lanchester\u2019s chilling dystopian novel The Wall about how the world will be after climate catastrophe I had the unsettling sense for several days that the world he [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1089,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/the_wall.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Richard Smith\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/\",\"name\":\"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/the_wall.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/the_wall.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/the_wall.jpg\",\"width\":540,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/29\\\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"description\":\"Helping doctors make better decisions.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"width\":852,\"height\":568,\"caption\":\"The BMJ\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/bmjdotcom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/bmj_latest\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ","og_description":"After reading John Lanchester\u2019s chilling dystopian novel The Wall about how the world will be after climate catastrophe I had the unsettling sense for several days that the world he [...]More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/","og_site_name":"The BMJ","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","article_published_time":"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":540,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bmj_latest","twitter_site":"@bmj_latest","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe?","datePublished":"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/"},"wordCount":1089,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg","articleSection":["Richard Smith"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/","name":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe? - The BMJ","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-29T15:51:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-30T22:32:58+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/01\/the_wall.jpg","width":540,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/29\/richard-smith-can-fiction-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Richard Smith: Can fiction save us from climate catastrophe?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","name":"The BMJ","description":"Helping doctors make better decisions.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization","name":"The BMJ","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","width":852,"height":568,"caption":"The BMJ"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","https:\/\/x.com\/bmj_latest"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}