We all started as stardust. Our beginnings were mystical and full of hope. Now, what happens as we approach doom?

I wanted to explore environmental devastation. Week after week, this remained to be our top issue—certain that Climate Change would be the doom of us all. I’m not much of a scientist, but even I cannot ignore the facts: we need to take care of our planet. But taking care of the planet also means that we need to take care of the people in it. Social inequality has continued to plague our society, and has become impossible to ignore with discussions on the wealth gap and race relations. The two issues are inextricably linked: the level vulnerability and exposure to the devastating effects of Climate Change are correlated to one’s socioeconomic status. As things get worse, inequality gaps will continue to grow on both a domestic and international level. We’re all at sea facing the same storm, but we’re in different boats. (That being said, I also snuck in some nuclear and cyber doom references because I couldn’t resist.)

I knew that the solution, the little bit of hope the class had was in societal transformation. So I knew I wanted to aim my project in ways we could potentially inspire change.

So what connects us all? Art is universal, everyone consumes it at one point or another in their lives. And now with technology, it is so easily spread. If there could be some sort of art movement, then it would capture everyone’s attention through the different mediums.

For my final project, I have decided to write some original works: a poem and a song. I’m not saying it’s any good, nor do I believe my work alone will inspire a social movement—but I wanted to demonstrate that maybe it could express these existential threats in more personal and emotional ways that facts cannot.

Inspiration

I drew my inspiration from the course materials and a playlist I have curated for this course: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VqgKRl9hu1Jj1JvGls6iY?si=4edaedf4d28a48cf

The track list has 12 songs (to match the hours in a clock) and the images I had in my mind is as follows:

1. Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears For Fears
   • Desire of different nations, corporations, people, etc. to be the most powerful. This determination is quite dangerous, leading to questionable actions and threats to humanity. Even at the top, nothing lasts forever.
2. This Is America – Childish Gambino
   • The music video is an excellent commentary on American society, especially on the oppression of Black Americans, demonstrating the deep inequality.
3. The Adults Are Talking – The Strokes
   • Adults can be childish sometimes. Yet often they silence the voices of children. But when it comes to existential threats: they’ll argue about it, but it is up to the youth to solve. This leads to a never-ending cycle, continuing to place more pressure on new generations to tackle impending doom.
4. Money Trees – Kendrick Lamar
   • Again, this addresses the wealth gap in America, and the great inequality that results from it, telling stories about what people have to do to survive.
5. epiphany – Taylor Swift
   • According to genius the song “describes someone hoping to find peace in their dreams despite living in a world of chaos and violence.” I imagine this song in a context of (god forbid) another World War, which I imagine will result from strains of inequality.
6. Radioactive – Imagine Dragons
   • Threats of nuclear war mean that we have to be ready to take on the end of the world. Will it be a revolution to stop humans from destroying each other? Or will this be the call to persist in a post-apocalyptic society?
7. I Know The End – Phoebe Bridgers
   • Really emphasizes the frustration I imagine a lot of us are feeling about this seemingly inescapable doom that approaches. The screams at the end take the cake.
8. It’s Been a Long, Long Time – Harry James
   • I love the idea of this happy reunion song juxtaposed with the desolate wasteland a climate disaster-ridden apocalypse might bring.
9. Viva La Vida – Coldplay
   • The perfect song for a fall from grace after ruling the world. Existential doom does not discriminate.
10. Ribs – Lorde
    • The world of childhood innocence has been left behind.
11. Theme From New York, New York – Frank Sinatra
    • Imagine this echoing through the empty metropolitan streets of an apocalyptic New York.
12. Apocalypse Dreams – Tame Impala
    • The future is scary…but have hope.

As for my original works: the poem follows someone walking through a post-apocalyptic, climate disaster-ridden New York. I wrote this with the memory of the city during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The song follows my experience with the course: what I’ve learned and the general anxieties that linger in my thoughts about the course material of existential threats. I will follow a genius style in sharing and analyzing my creations, featuring lines sharing my thought process.

This project was helpful for me to process everything.It gave me some solace, and I hope it helps you too. Although the material is kind of depressing, I tried to express some hope for the future. At the very least, the thought of the doom of humanity has proven to be a helpful creative outlet (as we can also see from our last class). But the thing I want people to remember, aside from the depressing reality, is that it is up to us to do better. I want people to lie on the floor, crying to the music or poetry or whatever else, and then get up, hold on to the little hope, and fight for our future.

Thank you for a wonderful quarter and I hope you enjoy the project!

Poem

My original poem,  “A Peek at the Future,” is linked here: a. peek at the future

• A Few Important Lines to Highlight:
  • wanders through the barren streets
    a ghost of the civilization that has passed
    • Here, I illustrate a scenario in which the world, feeling the pressures from the adverse effects of Climate Change, has undergone another war, leading to the collapse of civilization. This is demonstrated in the reading, a New Yorker article by Elizabeth Kolbert, “Three scenarios for the future of climate change.”
      • “At the very least, climate change ‘will endanger the stability of the international political order and the global trading networks upon which American prosperity rests,’ Michael Klare, an expert on resource competition and a professor at Hampshire College, has written. ‘As conditions deteriorate, the United States could face an even more perilous outcome: conflict among the great powers themselves.'”
  • the skyscrapers stand exactly as I left them
    the rivers still run slightly brown (undoubtedly radioactive)
    • Reflecting an industrialized world, perhaps offering a lower-quality of life, especially for the poor. In the Dipesh Chakrabarty reading, “Planetary Crises and the Difficulty of Being Modern, he says
      • “there still remains the problem of the rapid development of megacities, a world that Mike Davis appropriately christened a ‘planet of slums.'”
  • this can’t be
    this cannot be home
    because home danced freely with life
    sang unabashedly from the rooftops
    felt safe
    was safe
    • This plays into the denial that the global public seems to have about Climate Change. Some don’t even recognize it as a threat or as reality! But for those that do, there is still some pause about how doomed we are. In a Rolling Stone article for our readings, Bill McKibben says,
      • “Since I wrote one of the first books for a general audience about global warming way back in 1989, and since I’ve spent the intervening decades working ineffectively to slow that warming, I can say with some confidence that we’re losing the fight, badly and quickly – losing it because, most of all, we remain in denial about the peril that human civilization is in.”
  • What happens when
    I no longer wish to pay?
    • Ending on a sense of desire for action, sick of being just a passive member of society in the face of existential threats.  Inspired from Snowpiercer movie, a social commentary on social inequality as a result of Climate Change. What I believe the movie suggests is how can we be responsible when approaching the future? Responsible to ourselves, to our communities, and others? We need to be careful when making these decisions about advancing society and tackling doom–the future of humanity rests on it. Who do we want to be? We need to act with that in mind–it is our only way out.

Song

And now, my original song is titled “The Doomsday Clock.” Link to song performance here: https://youtu.be/q-M89naxBxU [Song starts at 1:24]

LYRICS 

times are changing

clock ticks towards doom

we’ve got to heed the warning

we’re hearing now on Zoom

 

whispers by the experts

stories from the news

we’ve got all these questions

sharing all our views

 

cities left in ruins

fires in the trees

you’d think this a movie

but its reality

 

eyes on the young inheriting all this shit

it’s your job to fix it

how long can we pass the torch

before we get burned

the clock’s still ticking

 

seconds to midnight

alarm’s deafening sound

a plea to all to listen

this is our fight now

 

the future’s forecast

shows the same storm

but some face it better

with money as a guard

 

cyber falls to chaos

nuclear like that *snap*

truths we can’t forget

until the threat’s past

 

eyes on the young inheriting all this shit

it’s your job to fix it

how long can we pass the torch

before we get burned

the clock’s still ticking

 

the end’s nearly here we said 200 years

but who really knows?

we can’t pass the torch

I hope we’ve learned

no longer doomed stardust

 

• A Few Important Lines to Highlight:
  • we’ve got to heed the warning
    we’re hearing now on Zoom
    • A nice little reference to all of the lectures and speakers we’ve had on doom on Zoom 🙂
  • cities left in ruins
    fires in the trees
    you’d think this a movie
    but its reality
    • Dispelling doubts about Climate Change disaster. You could point today to the Australian or Californian wildfires, devastating communities. Or you could also go back to the 2012 Rolling Stone article for our readings, Bill McKibben says,
      • “If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven’t convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States.”
  • eyes on the young inheriting all this shit
    it’s your job to fix it
    • Echoing the sentiments of nearly all of the readings/speakers, placing responsibility on future generations to clean up the mess.
  • how long can we pass the torch
    before we get burned
    the clock’s still ticking
    • Emphasizing that we’re playing with fire here by delaying any strong actions towards minimizing the effects of Climate Change. The reading from Hannes Bergthaller, “Thoughts on Asia and the Anthropocene” demonstrates how this stalling can lead to greater adverse effects. This happened so long ago–what’s to say what will happen now, with things being much worse than before?
      • “As China’s climate entered a period of cooling in the late 18th century, harvests began to drop to a point where the imperial system of granaries became unable to prevent wide-spread famine and subsequent disease.”
  • the future’s forecast
    shows the same storm
    but some face it better
    with money as a guard
    • Here, I am thinking about the environmental colonialism subject as brought up by Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain, in their piece, “Global Warming in an Unequal World: a case of environmental colonialism.”
      • “The entire debate on the prospects of impending doom is in many ways an excellent opportunity for the world to truly realise the concept of one world. A world which is interdependent and which cannot withstand the current levels of consumption and exploitation, especially the levels now prevalent in the West.”
      • “The entire episode also emphasises the fact that Third World nations must undertake their own research in this crucial area. They cannot depend on Western institutions to present a true picture of the global situation and safeguard their interests.”
    • Countries/people all have their own interests and abilities/access to resources based on their wealth. We have to recognize that if we are going to tackle existential threats because our budget of what we can afford is not the same as Honduras’, for example.

I could keep going, but that interferes with the spirit of art. I’ll leave it up to the audience to come up with their own interpretations surrounding my reckoning with doom and a plea for change. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope this might inspire you to explore art as a means for societal transformation (and also, a bonus: as a de-stresser).