Game of Thrones Spoiler: Westeros is actually pianeta Terra
Climate change is coming!
If you haven’t noticed this parallel already, I’m sorry to break it to you, but the tale of Game of Thrones is our world in 2019. And Climate Change is White Walker — the only enemy that matters (CC-WW coincidence much?). Funnily enough, both have been dismissed by people who think they’ve been made up to scare children.
Climate change and the White Walkers are freakishly similar. Both alter the world as the ‘living’ know it. Both bring with them mass destruction of history, culture, flora and fauna. Both can potentially wipe out the entire living population. And finally, both are fast approaching.
As Jamie Lannister puts it, “…there won’t be a kingdom to rule if the north falls.” While economic growth, business and governance are important in today’s capitalistic world, we forget that a failure to urgently address climate change could destroy all of them. If growth today comes at the cost of tomorrow, one must reevaluate the relentless pursuit of growth itself.
Civil societies around the world are lost in their power play and continue to be ignorant, just like the Great Houses. Donald Trump - our very own Cersei Lannister - refuses to believe in these ‘made up’ tales. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump’s ‘wall’ can only stop sapiens from south of the great American border, but not our enemy from the tropospheric north. Pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord was a major blow, as it invalidated the urgency of preventing global warming.
There’re also other major greenhouse gas emitters like China, India, Russia, Germany, Japan, Indonesia and Brazil — similar to the other great houses, namely the Starks, Baratheons, Tyrells, Martells, Arryns, Tullys, Greyjoys. China, like the Starks, looks to be doing more than its counterparts to cut its emissions, having invested heavily in renewables and electric vehicle adoption. India could do better in cutting its heavy dependence on coal and fossil fuels, but has managed to get leeway as a result of low per capita emissions (lots peoples, lots emissions, amirite?).
Then there are the Free Folk — beyond the wall, closest to the White Walkers — vulnerable and powerless. We can already witness the ill effects of climate change in many vulnerable third world countries, that will be the worst-hit. 6 of these 20 most vulnerable countries are in Africa. Mozambique, a small country in Southern Africa faced Southern Hemisphere’s worst-ever weather disaster in March 2019, killing over 1,000 and leaving over 500,000 homeless.
“Globally, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year. It is estimated that the direct damage costs to health will be US$ 2–4 billion a year by 2030.” — Reykjavik, WHO Report 2018
Author George R R Martin made this parallel in 2016, stating:
“The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world.
And there is a great parallel there to, I think, what I see this planet doing here, where we’re fighting our own battles. We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice. All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world.
And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean.
So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those. We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not N.F.L. players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world.”
While we’re preparing to binge on the final season of Game of Thrones this month, let’s not forget that the real game is being played in the world outside!
Ps. Pianetta Terra is ‘Planet Earth’ in Italian
