The Capitalocene, Climate Change and its Effects in the Drowned World

Eco criticism analyses the link between humans and the natural world in literature. It deals with
ecological and traditional issues related to environmental changes. James Graham Ballard is
known for his fiction of environmentally ransacked landscapes caused by technological excess
and nonecological attitudes of humankind. Ballard wrote in a period before global warming
happened and had been identified by scientists, and his fiction is both psychological and
ontological since it is concerned with biological factors of the environment. The ‘end of the
world’ is a scenario that allows every novelist the chance to create an extraordinary opening
scene: this is Ballard’s. Here, his protagonist is, to borrow the chapter’s title, ‘On the Beach at
the Ritz’, watching the apocalypse from a lavishly furnished suite.

Eco-critical perceptions and social-ecological viewpoints have been applied to expose the
Ecological crisis. The Drowned World is set in tropical London during the year 2145. The novel
portrays a post-apocalyptic world that represents the effects of extreme environmental changes.
Besides, exposing natural calamity, the novel highlights how disaster destroys the socio-cultural
systems that help mankind to sustain his struggle within the hostile universe.

The Drowned World is set in tropical London during the year 2145. Kerans lives in the Ritz
Hotel and is an isolated protagonist. The protagonist of the novel, Dr Robert Kerans, is a 40-
year-old biologist at a testing station who works to examine the changes in his flooded region
and remap the submerged landscape regularly. In the submerged area, Colonel Riggs helps
Kerans at the biological testing station and wanders on his patrol boat to pick up the people who
still strive to survive in those swamps and tropical jungles. Dr Alan Bodkin, an assistant, helps
Kerans in the testing station. Bodkin expresses the new psychological settings that overwhelm
Kerans and other characters in the novel. Beatrice Dahl is Kerans’ neighbour, chose to stay in
London and he never wanted to go to Camp Byrd which is in Northern Greenland to save his
life.

Commentary about the novel:

Ballard’s The Drowned World reveals the connection between ecological balance and humans’
physical, psychological and emotional unrest by examining what Kerans experiences during the
global flood disaster. The novel under the eco-critical study shows how climate change starts a
transformation in the biophysical environment and thus influences humans’ mental health and
well-being. It can be evident as seen through the characters from the novel, through Kerans and
other survivors. People in the novel are influenced and affected by the environment around them.
Hence it is clear that the surrounding environment if gets changed then its ecosystem will be
affected and there are countless possibilities for the life supports to be changed.

Throughout the story, these scientists and inhabitants of the city have experienced extreme heat,
encountered mutated animals, witnessed diseases such as skin cancer, tried to survive among the
giant creatures and have frightening dreams which consist of archaic memories.

Changes in the environment cause biological and psychological changes in both individuals and
their surroundings. The novel explores the impact of global warming on the earth, taking it back
to the Mesozoic age. The novel may also be described by its anthropological period because it
depicts the dawn of human civilization. The story suggests that without ecological knowledge,
the elements that support human well-being, such as the sky, land, water, plants, and animals,
may turn against us.

In The Drowned World, it is found that there are humans like Kerans and Bodkin who embrace
nature and there are humans like Riggs and Strangman, who fight against nature, trying to
control the natural environment. This is depicted in the novel, when Strangman evacuate the
lagoon, and Kerans, drains the lagoon to be unnatural and decides to blow up the dam and use
obstruct efforts to retrieve the city from the waters. The climatic changes in the novel lead the
way to the succession of gigantic geophysical upheavals that transformed the Earth’s climate.

As Kerans watches from the catamaran, dozens of iguanas gaze at him, perched on the windows of the office
blocks and department stores. As the boat drifts through the centre of the city, Kerans realizes that even though
he finds the drowned cities they have visited magical, he has never bothered to identify any of the cities he is
stationed in. Biologist Alan Bodkin, on the other hand, is 25 years older than Kerans and has lived in several
cities, so he spends his time searching out former places from his memories.

The "geophysical upheavals" that transformed Earth's climate began 60 or 70 years earlier when a series of
solar storms depleted the planet's barrier against solar radiation. Temperatures began to climb by a few degrees
each year. The tropical parts of Earth became uninhabitable, and populations began to migrate north or south.
Life gradually adjusted to meet the altered climate, and new botanical forms emerged. At the same time, the
polar ice caps began to dissolve into the sea. Mammalian fertility declined while the amphibian and reptile
populations grew and adapted to aquatic life.

In the sick bay, three men are being treated for heat ulcers. Kerans enters a small single ward where he
finds Lieutenant Hardman, the senior helicopter pilot. Hardman has been complaining of insomnia and also
came down with malaria, after which he excused himself from flying duty. In Hardman, Kerans recognizes the
same symptoms of malaise he sees in himself, and so he leaves him alone, asking Bodkin to check on him
periodically. Bodkin has a more serious view of Hardman's illness.

Bodkin agrees but finds it curious that while they've studied so many plants and animals, they've neglected to
examine the effects of these changes on humans. Bodkin also points out that humans seem to carry within
them biological memories of times when giant spiders and reptiles were the planet's dominant life forms, and
thus there is a sense of ancient déjà vu. Bodkin calls this new psychology "Neuronics" and explains he was
running an experiment with Hardman to see if he was correct. Kerans considers this and finds that Neuronics
seems to offer a valid explanation of what is taking place in his mind.

The fact that Kerans also can't decide between leaving and staying shows the futility of his choice, for it seems
as though humans are fighting a losing battle with the environment. J. G. Ballard hints that there is something
about the changing world that is also affecting people's understanding of themselves and others—almost as
though they don't know how to orient themselves in this changing and unrecognizable world.

Kerans and others have begun to realize how the rising temperatures, humidity, and radiation are contributing
to conditions that are causing the world to revert to the Triassic period in history—the time when the first
dinosaurs roamed the earth. Bodkin calls it "the same avalanche backwards into the past," meaning that
organisms are having to adapt not to a new ecosystem, but to an ancient one. Bodkin also points out that even
though scientists have studied the effect on plants and animals, they have neglected to learn about its impact on
human beings.

One day, Lieutenant Hardman disappears. Kerans changes into his drill uniform to prepare for departure,
although he is still considering the possibility that he will stay behind. From the helicopter, Kerans gazes at the
landscape below, full of water snakes, iguanas, and bat colonies. He searches for Hardman, though the chances
of spotting him from the air are small. It's likely that Hardman left the sick bay the night before and may
already be 10 miles away by now. Kerans can only speculate why Hardman might have left.
Hardman's disappearance introduces the question as to why someone might choose to risk their life alone in a
hostile environment rather than band together with a group. As a result of Hardman's disappearance, Kerans
begins to think about the passage of time differently—as "the world of total, Neuronic time." Bodkin's theory
of Neuronic time posits that something about the changing environment is reshaping the human experience of
time, particularly because the climate and environment are reverting to that of a prehistoric era.

The introduction of Strangman brings into focus the fact that few humans seem to inhabit this region of Earth.
The appearance of someone new is startling and suspicious, particularly given that Riggs and his crew have
left because of how inhospitable the area has become. J. G. Ballard highlights how in a new world,
understanding the motives of other humans means they are viewed as either a threat or a potential ally.

Kerans notices an immediate shift in Strangman's personality once the lagoon is drained, "almost as if the
presence of water had anaesthetized him, smothering his true character." The draining of the lagoon seems to
reveal the characters' true psychologies. Strangman's decision to drain the lagoon reintroduces the theme of
humans versus nature in that Strangman is temporarily able to exert power over the environment.

Strangman's decision to drain the lagoon is not to "restore" the city to its former glory but rather to make it
easier to loot. His motives bring up the question of how humans choose to navigate a new world in which
nature is the victor. Humanity doesn't seem keen to replicate the more recent past, but rather to mine it for
whatever can be used in the short-term. Strangman offers Beatrice a necklace, but the gesture seems hollow in
this new world in which jewellery is of little value.

Although it might seem like draining the lagoon would bring back memories of his childhood in London, the
city that remains bears little resemblance to the one he can recall. Bodkin seems so desperate and unhinged by
the feelings the drained lagoon evokes in him that he builds a bomb to flood the lagoon once more. His actions
show his deep belief that humanity is better off embracing the inevitability of nature's victory than trying to
fight and reclaim a past that no longer exists.

The fact that the sun is all Hardman can see through the cancer on his eyes is sadly symbolic—the thing that
drew him south will also hasten his death. Because the sun is all Hardman can see, he will continue to walk
toward it, and it will kill him. Hardman also demonstrates Kerans's future by showing how giving into dreams
leads a person to reject their past. It's not that Hardman doesn't recognize Kerans, it's that he no longer cares
to recall his memories. When Kerans uses up all his medical supplies tending to himself and Hardman,
he portends the inevitable problem all humans will face in this new world. Medical supplies have become a
finite resource, and even Riggs and Strangman will have to face the inevitable end of those resources in their
quest for survival. At the same time, although Kerans appears to be embracing his fate by travelling south, he
cannot guess what the future holds. Therefore, he takes what supplies he can, even though he knows he is
heading toward certain doom.