Dune and the reality : ecology

As I said in a previous article, ecology is one of the main aspects of Dune because it was a major interest in Frank Herbert's mind. The planet Arrakis is a big desert and water has to be spared : that's what threatens Earth, in Herbert's mind. So he depicts a world where water is a wealth more valuable than gold. The Fremen, the inhabitants of the desert, wear stillsuits that protect them from losing water. But all of the Arrakis inhabitants are water-obsessed. Their houses are protected against lost of water, and water waste is the best sign of wealth. In a previous post, I already noted that people of Arrakis haven't any word for "rain", "sea" or "ocean". When someone from the outer world speaks of drowning, he has to explain what it means, and an Arrakis inhabitant exclaims "What an interesting death!"

 

These elements are used to show us what it is to really need water. On one hand, it shows us that we want to avoid global warming and climate change, because it can lead to a hard life, where water is rare and precious. On the other hand, it shows us that little things are valuable, and that we lack judgment in our everyday lives, when we live to always have more and more. Or to explain it in another way, that what we want to have is not as important as what we risk losing trying to pursue it.