EVERYTHING COMES FROM MOTHER EARTH (Guest Post by Susan B. Wile)

I have always loved animals and I am awed by the natural world and the extraordinary diversity of animals and plants with whom we share our planet. Evolution and extinction hold great interest for me too, and I am fascinated by indigenous people who honor, respect, and live in harmony with nature and have a deep knowing that everything comes from Mother Earth. Technology intrigues me as well and the many promises it holds for the future.

After more than ten years writing a story that combines these passions and interests, I published my first novel last fall. EXTINCTION WARRIOR is a middle grade/YA environmental science fantasy set in 2155 about a young, clairvoyant animal communicator who grows up on the Bering Strait in a tiny indigenous community, the westernmost place on the North American mainland - Wales, Alaska. It’s a real place and the chokepoint for the annual marine migration. When her parents disappear pursuing a notorious animal trafficker, my fearful protagonist and an android go on a quest to find them. They collect endangered animals as bait and masquerade as traffickers to lure the leader of the trafficking gang. The story features Arctic culture, diverse environments and world geography, climate change, endangered animals, the sixth extinction and A.I.

As a writer, I’m a “pantser.” I didn’t outline EXTINCTION WARRIOR and as I wrote and researched steadily over the years, I thought I was letting the story take me where it wanted to go. But my passion to weave a tale about protecting Mother Earth pushed the story in a direction that didn’t work. Fortunately, the developmental editor I hired helped me see where the story wanted and needed to go and following a major revision, I took the steps to self-publish.

These are pivotal times. Having degraded and polluted Mother Earth while rapaciously exploiting Her resources, we face the profound consequences of our species’ impact on the planet and must act.

The current extinction rate is 10,000 times higher than the natural, historical rate. More than one in four species faces extinction. Unless urgent action is taken, the rate is predicted to rise to 50% by 2100. Will we be able to stop or even reverse it?

With our energy consumption and overcrowding Stephen Hawking theorized that humans would turn the earth into a giant ball of fire, which will make earth uninhabitable and that we would face extinction or need to colonize another planet. Could humanity embrace zero population growth?

Last year the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for the entire year. Each of us can help reverse climate change by eating less meat, to use it as a condiment instead of a main protein. Will we wake up to the power we wield at the end of our forks? Can we make the cultural shift and embrace crickets as an environmentally friendly protein? My protagonist does. Can we finally wean ourselves off big oil? Might scientists unlock fusion technology in time to mitigate global warming?

We are living during an unofficial epoch known as the Anthropocene. It is the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. What markers will delineate this era?  Does it begin with the geochemical traces of nuclear bomb tests, specifically plutonium cored from the bed of a lake in Ontario, Canada? Does it end with every square inch of earth, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans containing particles of plastic?

At the heart of being human is our ability to communicate and cooperate, but the cement that binds cooperation and kindness is empathy. Nevertheless, our lizard brain continues to have the upper hand. We are territorial and competitive in the extreme - hunger, thirst, and sex are our drivers.

For years I have joked that I want aliens to come down and bitch-slap humanity into higher consciousness, but I’m not joking anymore. I would love that to happen! POOF. Our awareness expands into a state of permanent nonduality. No more lizard brain. War and competition for resources instantly vanish and we know we are one, just as John Lennon wrote in The Walrus, “I am he, as you are he, as you are me and we are all together.”  

EXTINCTION WARRIOR is a hopeful story with a happy ending. Facing challenges and setbacks, my protagonist overcomes her fears and anxieties. By taking action, she and the android succeed in their search, bring the trafficker to justice, save the last pangolins on earth, and with the help of her pet arctic fox, my heroine rescues her parents too.  I am hopeful for our planet because Mother Earth is amazingly resilient. Like my protagonist we must overcome our fears and anxieties and act. We can begin simply by choosing what we put on our forks.

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Order a copy of Extinction Warrior and keep up with Susan B. Wile at her author site.