AND EARTH: Identifying the Environmental Issues that Influenced the Dune Book and 2021 Film Adaptation, as a lens to Explore the Anthropogenic Effects of Climate Change.
Julian Djopo 201257781
University of Liverpool, School of Architecture
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Architecture
8th January 2024
Dune is a science-fiction book written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965, following successions of smaller serialisations in the science-fiction magazine Analog, before being put forward to be published as a complete book. Set 10,000 years after the fall of artificial intelligence, Dune is written within a complex system of interconnected characters and greedy intergalactic politics and delves into the intricate ecologies surrounding the resource-rich desert planet called Arrakis. Arrakis is the only source of the spice melange in the universe. A by-product secreted from the gigantic sandworms that swim beneath the ocean-like sand dunes. In this context the protagonist, Paul Atreides, is presented with a myriad of challenges, responsibilities and what is referred to as ‘messianic convulsions’ of power centred around the valuable resource (Huddleston 2023, 13). Spice, or melange, is essential for guiding space travel, expanding consciousness and extending life, but with physically altering properties. Several articles and academic papers have recently brought to light the ecological concerns that Dune brings about, with the human impact to the environment and climate in relation to the future condition of our planet.
I will look at the rise of counterculture and environmentalism from the 1960s-1970s through Andrew Kirk’s literature, Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism (G. Kirk 2007), as well as key papers on the state of environmental concerns at the time. Chris Pak’s Terraforming (Chris Pak 2016) will be understood as a dissection of Frank Herbert’s political, ecological and environmental themes that make up the world of Dune The relationships between humanity and nature to Dune’s influence are identified by looking at how Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson 2020), played a huge role in the rise and awareness of Environmentalism in the 1960s This study seeks to engage further with the vision portrayed from the 2021 Dune film adaptation using specific scenes as a visual lens to examine the science and fiction discourse surrounding the ecological themes, and climate issues from the Dune books. Furthermore, this study aims to communicate the apparent disconnect between the book’s ecological influences from the 1960s to 1970s, and how these themes were translated into the 2021 film adaption. Do these themes resonate with humanity’s current relationship with the environment? Will these eco-political themes in the Dune 2021 adaptation give centre-stage to existing environmental issues from anthropogenic activities?
I would like to give thanks to my supervisor, Richard Koeck in supporting my ideas and providing guidance.
A big thank you to my mum, and family who have been supportive throughout my architectural journey
In 2021, the contemporary adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune was released, directed by Denis Villeneuve, with cinematographer Greig Fraser and production designer Patrice Vermette. This film reinitiated the science discourse surrounding environmental and ecological awareness that Herbert’s Dune brought forward since its early conception and publication in August 1965. The film was set to be a faithful retelling of Herbert’s vision surrounding geo-political, interplanetary conflicts, the psychedelic, religious themes and environmental exploitation. This would be all set on a harsh desert planet called Arrakis. Villeneuve and his team translated the vision from Herbert’s novel, picking up clues for the planet, its climate, technology, architecture and fashion. Clues about the weather and climate on Arrakis, such as the 750 km per hour winds (Wallace 2021), and hot daytime temperatures, were key to the exploration of underground war bunkers and Brazilian brutalist architecture for the concepts (Smith 2021). These grand structures used in the film represent the political ruling powers and the response to the extreme climate on Arrakis. Herbert’s Dune foresees some of the existing environmental issues and climate discussions today. More recently, the effects of extraction and exploitation of fossil fuels have been linked to increasing global warming because of increasing air pollution, global temperatures and water scarcity.
Arrakis is the planet where most of the story of Dune takes place, with other planets each with their own feudal house in power. Due to being the only planet rich in the resource, spice, it is the key location for interplanetary conflict between the great feudal houses, as well as the socio-economic exploitation of the native inhabitants, the Fremen. The Fremen live in unity with the arid desert landscape and are in tension with the houses that implement authority on the planet. They engage in frequent attacks and battles with the despised house Harkonnen, who exploit the planet’s valued resource. Aside from the political conflicts between the ruling houses and native Fremen, this paper aims to explore further and address the environmental and climate issues that developed during the 1960s and 1970s, leading to the influence in the writing of Dune. When looking at the influences, it spans a broad range of genres as Herbert wanted to bring his passions together; his knowledge from reading over two hundred works of fiction, semantic theory, religious theology, psychology and ecology (Huddleston 2023, 7). Therefore, this vast world-building with ecological influences will be further explored in the subsequent chapters, with the aim to contextualise the Dune book with its science-fiction and environmental background, which formed some inspirations toward the making of the 2021 film adaptation.
Dune is not a future with an emphasis on advanced technologies, but the themes are ancient in tone and with thousands of years of planetary ruling families. The emphasis is pushed towards the underlying ecological issues that the main planet faces. The spice, or melange, produced by the gigantic sandworms is extensively extracted so that it can be used to power safe interstellar travel, guided grotesque spacing guild
navigators. The narcotic-like substance is also described to expand consciousness and provide life-extending benefits to the user (Huddleston 2023, 76) Arrakis is also home to a vast network of wildlife ecologies that have also adapted to the harshness of the desert, for example, the famous desert mouse called Muad’Dib. In the book, the protagonist, Paul adopts this name, to express his young and small nature, and foretells his resilience to adapt in this new desert landscape.
This study will explore the influences for the 2021 film adaptation of Dune, looking at the creative inspiration and clues that helped to develop the film’s visual concepts, the cinematography and set designs, as well as the architectural precedents that inspired the buildings. By using the film as a lens, key scenes will be examined and analysed through themes surrounding environmental issues. Through the literature review, the dissertation will begin by contextualising the Dune book and its place within the science-fiction (sf) context of novels with similar ecological approaches and their varying narratives. The dissertation will then continue to explore the environmental context that the book would have been exposed to. I will be looking at the sciencefiction history and psychedelic influences for the and examine the literature of key scholars such as Chris Pak, Tom Huddleston, Peter Alma and Rachel Carson, to identify real-world studies that relate to environmental awareness during the 1960s and 1970s. This study will enable me to form links between environmental and climate issues, Herbert’s ecological influences and how this resonates through Villeneuve’s adaptation. The background of the 2021 Dune film will be set out through the production journey, cinematography, fashion, architectural inspirations and filming locations. This exploration will shape our understanding of the overall approach to the filmmaking, and the way nature influenced the filming, editing and storytelling decisions through the clues of the Dune book.
The main sections in this paper are split into three environmental themes which have been represented, and intrinsic to their narratives as forms of climate fictions with an overarching message; human activity to the environment will inadvertently lead the demise of humanity. These themes will be represented in present day environmental and ecological issues. Theme 1, ‘Global Warming’, looks at the effects of increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as the impacts to human health, increased diseases such as malaria and unfavourable farming conditions due to fragile climates (Muhammad et al. 2021, 14) Theme 2, ‘Water Abundance and Scarcity’ will explore water pollution and waste, and how this has affected connected ecologies, such as humans, microorganisms and wildlife. Theme 3, ‘Air Pollution’, will look at the current issues with environmental air pollution, and on a global scale, how the use of fossil fuels has led to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, influencing global warming (Muhammad et al. 2021). These themes are intrinsically connected, because of the impacts human activities are having on the environment and influencing climate change. Humanity has generated many harmful substances that are released into the earth’s ecosystem. The direct effects of the harmful chemicals, such as sulphur dioxide from fossil fuel burning, is shown to be part of acid rain formation, which has extensive
impacts to marine and human health (Alma 2013, 10). As examples of environmental harm generating further concern, these themes will allow me to form a consensus surrounding the environmental issues caused by past and recent human activities.
The main objective of this paper is to identify the environmental and ecological concerns that the 2021 film adaption presents through Frank Herbert’s vision. By applying the original novel of Dune to contextualise its influences, my objectives lie in extrapolating and analysing three environmental thematic issues: Global Warming, Water Scarcity and Air Pollution. These themes will be explored with quotes directly from the Dune, to correlate to the state of the environmental issues Secondly, my objective is to identify the visual expression of the issues from the film scenes and how they relate to present day context of anthropogenic influences to climate change
This dissertation will look at two key research questions:
1) What were the environmental concerns that influenced the writing of the book Dune?
2) What visual evidence about environmental and climate concerns is presented in the 2021 film adaptation of Dune?
Each key theme will be explored in a section that delves deeper into the development of these concerns, complemented by an analysis of the cinematography decisions, concept artworks and architectural inspirations that make up the contemporary adaptation of the first book. Through my findings and analysis, this paper can provide a new perspective on the book’s ecological and political foundations, and how the themes resonate with humanity’s existing relationship with the environment
As of 2023, the UK Environment Agency released a report highlighting the state of the environment and the health of people, emphasising the studies made that determined the increased effects of climate change and pollution (UK Government 2023) Air pollution has been studied to affect human health conditions and early development. Air pollution through fossil fuel burning has also been linked to the acidification of rain, causing soil leaching, fish deaths in lakes and possible respiratory illnesses in humans that drink increased aluminium ion water (Alma 2013, 14–16). This paper presents relevant research that identifies not only the past environmental issues that are still present today, but also looks at how the science-fiction discourse pioneered the relevance of thinking towards our climate’s future. Considering the 2021 film adaptation of Dune, the vision of a climate at risk is prominent through the vision of director, Denis Villeneuve. Although this new adaptation of Dune sparked new debates
in the science and science-fiction discourse about the ecological prescience of Dune and its role as a climate fiction pioneer (Romeo 2021), this paper seeks to delve deeper into the understanding of these climate and environmental influences, establishing key film scenes as a lens to explore existing concerns.
To break down the environmental and ecological themes that connect the 2021 film and Dune books, there are three main chapters in the dissertation which explore three key environmental issues, 1) Global Warming, 2) Water Abundance and Scarcity, and 3) Air Pollution. These themes are generated from the wider study of environmental issues that the world is facing, looking at reports made both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The Environment Agency released a research and analysis report titled, State of the Environment: Health, People and the Environment (UK Government 2023), which will be studied to present present-day environmental issues related to the themes. I will also be using some data recorded from Gallup to highlight the trends in environmental concern in United States, and although it is driven by political figures. Tother with these two resources, I will also study books by Chris Pak and Andrew Kirk, who discuss and explore climate and ecology within the sciencefiction narrative, and how Dune approaches this ecological awareness. These resources are secondary sources of information that will be enable me to contextualise the science and fiction bases of my study
Papers, books and reports about global warming and the effects of climate change will form a key element of my analysis toward understanding environmental concerns on a wider global scale. Gaia in Turmoil by Eileen Crist and H. Bruce Rinker will explore the chemical interactions and atmospheric imbalances that have led to global warming and adverse health effects, as well as Peter Alma’s studies on ‘biogeochemical cycles’ (Alma 2013). These studies will allow me to reveal the extensive effects of fossil fuel burning with devastating consequences, for each of the identified themes Specifically chosen scenes from the Dune film will allow me to convey the visual imagery that correspond to the environmental issues identified within each of the explored themes. The analysis of the film will be with secondary sources such as Filmmakers Archive and filmed documentaries, to understand the design decisions towards the filmmaking process. This study continues with a discussion and conclusion of the scene analysis, and how this may engage future literature with discussions about the importance of film iconography that engages in concern for the environment.
The following section looks at literature that contextualises Dune in this paper, looking at four sections that cover, (1) Dune Origins and Context, (2) The Science Fiction Context and (3) The Dune 2021 Film and finally (4) Ecological Context of Dune. Due to the ecological and environmental relevance from Herbert’s Dune novels to existing current issues, the eruption of literature in both science and fiction discourse highlights the relationship humanity has with the environment. Many recent articles and papers have presented this idea of environmental destruction, colonialism and ecological climates between earth and the planet Arrakis in Dune. Jess Romeo writes about The Ecological Prescience of Dune (Romeo 2021). Tara Yarlagadda explores some science behind the Dune novel to examine the ‘environmental parallels to planet Earth’ (Yarlagadda 2021) and Chiabella James addresses the ‘violent extraction of resources’ (James 2021) in Africa as an allegory for the story in Dune, as well as the aristocratic and military similarities to current global powers
This section will identify the context of Dune in the sf context and draw together the similarities between Dune books and the present-day earth, and how this translates visually to Villeneuve’s adaptation in 2021. The context of environmentalism through understanding texts from Andrew Kirk’s Whole Earth Catalog and Chris Pak’s Terraforming will be looked at in the ‘Environmental Issues in Dune Film’ chapter, in parallel to quotes from the Dune book. Reviewing the sf context for Dune in the 1960s to 1970s means identifying and understanding key literature that surrounds the ecological themes which Dune was an influence of, as well as an inspiration future novels and films. This literature review seeks to explore and understand the environmental literature that relate to Dune, it’s history and development, and the process for the context of the film adaptation
By visiting the Oregon city, Florence, in 1957, Herbert planned to write about the battle between humans and nature, as the sand Dunes continued blowing across the landscape, swallowing up homes, roads and railway tracks (Notarianni 2021) According to John Notarianni’s article, Herbert finished but never published his article on the moving sands in Oregon. Apart from ecological and environmental influences, Herbert drew influences from a vast breadth of genres and books he had read over his lifetime, to shape the complex universe of Dune (Notarianni 2021) He wanted to write about a religious leader who potentially succumbs to the ‘messianic convulsions which periodically inflict themselves on human societies.’ (Huddleston 2023, 13). Meg Spencer, District Director of the Siuslaw Public Library in Oregon, explains that the Frank Herbert archive contains a collection of original books and sources Herbert collected to the landscape for Dune (Notarianni 2021). Herbert wanted to merge religion and psychology, (Notarianni 2021) against the backdrop of the growing hippie and environmentalist culture of the 1960s.
Herbert’s main key influences for Dune were from science and the environment. Herbert continued his research on these ‘Dunes of Oregon’ to understand deserts, sand dunes and dryland ecologies. With his science-fiction appetite and exposure to narratives of galactic empires, he merged science with his imagination stimulated by magic mushrooms and fascination of expansive collective consciousness to develop the universe of Dune in 1965 (Huddleston 2023, 82). Frank Herbert imagined scaling up the process of stabilising the sand Dunes in Oregon to the size of a planet, which became the planet Arrakis. He constructed a character of planetologist, Liet Kynes, devised a long-term plan to use irrigation, water collection and sand stabilisation (Kratz 2023), to make Arrakis green and fertile for future humanity In telling of a hero story, Herbert’s mindset from the earlier drafts would have portrayed the ecologist as the hero and not the decided protagonist, Paul Atreides (Duffy 2015). This was Herbert’s way to reanimate, through literature, the vast ecological and geopolitical knowledge he acquired during his lifetime.
Evidence of conflict and political struggle between the royal houses of the Dune universe and the native inhabitants of Arrakis, the Fremen, is shown through protagonist Paul Atreides experiences. He transitions from an earth-like planet of stable climate and deep-blue seas to the harsh desert planet and forced to deal with interplanetary political conflict Chris Pak describes this political conflict stating that, Dune ‘…depicts a politico-economic struggle over control of the planet, fought between interplanetary Empire…’ (Chris Pak 2016, 118). It is shown that Frank Herbert’s deep research was in the archives of the San Francisco Examiner, a newspaper company where he worked as a night-time picture editor (Huddleston 2023, 14) Herbert was described to enquire for any literature on ‘dry climate ecology’ which was evidence for the worldbuilding influences that Dune would be set in (Huddleston 2023, 14)
Dune is an overarching ‘tailor-made’ theme for the 1960s…’ (Huddleston 2023, 17) Hippies of the 1960s would begin to take to the increasingly popular campus staple of Dune, alongside Lord of the Rings, where the expansion of consciousness and similar themes would be favourable concepts. Along with advice from Analog’s editor and author John W. Campbell, Herbert was able to publish the single-volume version of Dune in 1965, through auto-repair manuals publisher Chilton Books (see Figure 1). After a weak release but an initial cli-fi fanbase, Dune eventually won a Nebula Award in 1966, and shared the Hugo Award with Roger Zelazny’s The Immortal for Best Novel (Huddleston 2023, 17) Tensions would arise between sf writers and fans twelve years after the publishing of Dune, due to the screening of Star Wars, written by George Lucas. Many fans and climate-fiction (cli-fi) writers critiqued the visual core elements from Dune’s narrative. Moreover, similarities or inspirations for Star Wars were found also with other science-fiction author’s works, like Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr series where the lightsaber concept is said to be from (Mumford 2015), and Jean-Claude Mézières’s Valerian and Laureline, a ‘planet-hopping, time-travelling comic’ from the 1960s (Mumford 2015) Therefore, the intertangling and influential nature between science-fiction novels to emerging films seemed unavoidable for science-fiction audiences.
Although there are visual and text clues to the similarities in Star Wars, most are theories generated by the fans (Mumford 2015). In a Medium magazine article, an interview with George Lucas in the 1970s recounts similarities, but Lucas denies Dune is a direct inspiration (Poletti 2020) Dune eventually did land a big-screen adaptation directed by David Lynch in 1984, which Herbert said to be pleased with (Huddleston 2023, 258) Dune would then go on to have its own weakly-faithful TV miniseries in 2000, and a Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune film that aimed to reach the mass audiences (Huddleston 2023, 264). This shows that although Dune was not able to land its own direct film adaptation in the 1970s, it did inspire the visualisation and themes of popular sf film franchises. The complexity of Dune’s narrative meant that it would hold a position to influence sf narratives, for new stories and films, which would end up utilising the concepts such as psychedelic consciousnesses and intergalactic religious orders (Huddleston 2023, 250)
Dune sets up the reader for an interplanetary journey through a universe of galactic emperors, natives in harmony with the landscape and greedy feudalistic houses that are dependent on the precious resource of spice melange. Since the publishing of the Dune books, discourse has widely discussed the ideas of environment and humans being in harmony. Past depictions of interstellar planets which were set with the motif of terraforming and ideas of ‘planetary adaptation’ (Chris Pak 2016, 98), were shifting towards a more ecological mysticism, from traditional science-fiction narratives at the time (Chris Pak 2016, 98). This shift along with other sf writers of the 1960s followed the popularisation of Stuart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, which encompassed experimentation in sustainability, ecological design, and radicalism of the 1960s counterculture that sought to transform the environment: a growth in awareness of the environment (Chris Pak 2016, 98).
In 2021 Denis Villeneuve brought Herbert’s vast world to the big screen, which excited many environmental and climate media to rediscover meanings in relation to the realworld issues humans currently face. Hari Kunzru of The Guardian writes, ‘Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world’ (Kunzru 2015), where the geopolitical oil crisis that occurred on earth are identified with the narrative in Dune As Dune reflects the world during the 1960s, it has been interpreted differently each time during a global crisis. Kunzru expresses this through other sf novels reflecting the place and time in which they were produced, stating, ‘…The Lord of the Rings is about the rise of fascism and the trauma of the second world war, and Game of Thrones, [with] its cynical realpolitik and cast of entrepreneurial characters is a fairytale of neoliberalism…’ (Kunzru 2015). Therefore, Dune is an amalgamation of the environmental concerns, human potential, altered states of consciousness through narcotic substances, and revolution against imperialism (Kunzru 2015)
Recent science-fiction magazines such as Inverse, also published articles around the time of the announcement and release of Villeneuve’s Dune film in 2021, highlighting the growth of concerns for the environment and resource exploitation that humans currently face. Tara Yarlagadda from Inverse magazine explores how earth’s drylands compare with those on Arrakis in Dune, and its connections to global warming (Yarlagadda 2021). Scientist and president of the Science Fiction Research Association, Gerry Canavan, expresses to Yarlagadda that “Dune is both one of the earliest and still one of the best allegorizations of energy imperialism and oil capitalism to ever appear in science fiction…” (Yarlagadda 2021). The theme of oil extraction is repeated paralleled to Dune and the effect of this exploitation has to the environment is emphasised. This highlights how the release of Dune 2021 has initiated awareness of existing human activities that continue to devastate the planet and the population (Yarlagadda 2021) There continues to be debate surrounding the decisions world leaders must collaborate and take, to curb the global 1.5oC temperature tipping point
Figure 1 Front Cover of Analog December 1965 Edition, Luminist Archives (Analog 1960 - 1980). http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AN.htm (accessed: 14 October 2023).
3.3.1
The original book provided a cinematic challenge for the director Villeneuve and cinematographer Greg Fraser. Frank Herbert would communicate the mental state of Paul Atreides through extensive monologues. Therefore, without a voice-over in the film adaptation, Villeneuve and Fraser wanted to create an intimate connection between characters and audience, using key closeup shots throughout their journey into the new world (Canfield 2021). The inspiration for the 2021 film adaptation was not limited to Herbert’s book, but also multiple architectural precedents. These precedents presented ideologies of utopian megastructures, filming locations, climatespecific garments that looked real and were functional on set These visual cues and diligence enabled Villeneuve and his team of designers to ground Dune to the reality of earth, whilst capturing the off-world aesthetic, mysticism and interstellar grandeur that Herbert conveyed in writing. This section will review some of the methods and decisions for the filming and creation of Dune 2021, to understand and form a context of the film, which will be later analysed as a lens for the environmental issues and concerns
3.3.2
To create the distinct architectural identity of the different planets in the Dune film, the production designer Patrice Vermette describes how architectural designs are influenced by a response the climate. Vermette explains to Wix Studio that, by understanding the hot and dry climate described in Herbert’s book, “…Arrakis is extremely hot, so […] you’d probably make the walls extremely thick, because you would want to keep the cool inside, just like in old caves…” (Smith 2021). The architecture is also inspired by ziggurat structures, underground war bunkers, and Brazilian brutalist architecture (Bennett 2021). This meant the architecture would represent an idea of colonialism and monumental power of the ruling feudal house on the planet Arrakis (see Figure 2). Inspired by the works of the radical avant-garde group Superstudio, the monumentalism and scale of architectural ideas from Superstudio in the 1960s seemed highly relevant to the mood board for Dune 2021 (Bennett 2021) This Italian design collective Superstudio formed from 1966, where they imagined utopian futures that focused on the issues of urban expansion and anthropogenic effects towards the landscape A photocollage from their series, Continuous Monument (see Figure 5), presented a reflective monolithic form that cut through the landscape and into the water body (Imam 2021). This was seen as antiarchitecture that portrayed their fear of monumental structures that dissected the landscape, and a future of consumer culture and where design would be the enemy in the planning of towns and cities (Wainwright 2021)
Figure 2 Warner Bros Pictures, Production design from "Dune" of the city of Arrakeen (Los Angeles Times, 2021). https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-01-11/dune-design-is-a-vision-come-true-even-if-a-desolate-one (accessed: 28 May 2023).
Figure 3.Chiabella James. Here, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) practices fighting in a room that features Frank Lloyd Wright–esque cut-out blocks. (Architectural Digest, 2021). https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/in-dune-the-architecture-of-the-future-is-allabout-harmony-with-the-landscape/ (accessed: 18 April 2023).
With a directive to challenge the conventional academia of architecture, Superstudio ‘blamed [architecture] for having aggravated the world’s social and environmental problems’ (Wainwright 2021). Not only did Superstudio’s works influence the mood boards for Dune film’s early concepts, but their directive also highlighted the increasing concerns towards humanity’s future and relationship with the environment, especially through radical architectural constructions. An existing example of this utopian direction is the ongoing construction of The Line project (see Figure 6) in the northwestern desert of Saudi Arabia. The linear megacity would be car-less and is hoped to house approximately nine million inhabitants by 2030 (Ravenscroft 2023). Although it is claimed to be powered by one hundred percent renewable sources and potentially preserve the desert ecologies, The Line megaproject has received heavy criticism for its enormous and expected embodied carbon emissions, as well of the social impact of mass displacement of the indigenous inhabitants, the Al-Huwaiti (Ravenscroft 2023). This monumental project has been predicted to “…overwhelm any environmental benefits” that was marketed (Ravenscroft 2023). The project triggered human rights violations and spotlighted all architects who are involved in the contentious and globally controversial megaproject.
Figure 4 Nidhi, Upadhyaya, Superstudio’s iconic grid collage via Metalocus. (Architizer). https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/superstudio-gridded-architecture/ (accessed: 28 April 2023).
Figure 5 CIVA Brussels, Continuous Monument Collage, Superstudio, 1966. (CIVA Expo Superstudio Migrazioni, 2021). https://civa.brussels/en/exhibitions-events/expo-superstudio-migrazioni (accessed: 15th May 2023).
Figure 6 Katherine McLauglin With a small footprint, The Line promises to preserve 95% of the surrounding land. (Architectural Digest, 2022). Photo from NEOM. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/saudi-arabia-unveils-the-worldsmost-futuristic-city-plan (accessed: 16th December 2023).
3.3.3
In response to the climate on Arrakis, the clothing that Herbert described in the book had to be faithful and needed to really work in hot desert conditions, such as creating a cooling effect for the actors during filming in location. Stillsuits are the highly specialised clothes that the native Fremen of Arrakis wear, enabling them to survive when traversing the brutal desert. Costume designers Robert Morgan and Jacqueline West described that the suits were made from ‘five to six layers of we called a “micro sandwich” of fabric’ (Warner Bros. Pictures 2023). This included a mesh system that consisted of layers starting with a Japanese fabric that would wick water from the body and cool it down through a mesh system of cotton, nylon and acrylic, which the actors claimed to work (Warner Bros. Pictures 2023)
The costume design reflected a future that Villeneuve wanted to portray, but a future that also felt grounded to history. The design team wanted to avoid the already used and known sf tropes in Hollywood, like shiny technologies and humanoid alien races (Filmmakers Academy 2021). Bob Morgan, together with West referenced real-world medieval and Greek courts, to portray intricate differences between the feudal houses of each planet (Giroux 2020) In an interview with Slash Film magazine, Morgan expressed the importance of understanding both the functional and geographical demands. Morgan states, ‘My take on design is to always think about the function of the costume. Not only where it is geographically, but what are the demands geographically and the demands aesthetically?’ (Giroux 2020).
In Dune, Herbert describes the first still-suit experience of Paul Atreides, ‘He found his stillsuit’s watertube in its clip at his neck, drew a warm swallow into his mouth, and he thought that here he truly began an Arrakeen existence living on reclaimed moisture from his own breath and body. It was flat and tasteless water…’ (Herbert 1965). This clue expresses the requirement for the still-suit to be functional for the film choreography, which in turn articulates the creativity to meet the aesthetic qualities for the narrative and tone. Although we do not see this scene exactly re-enacted in the film, we get to see the Paul’s first interaction with the suit, as Liet Kynes questions how he knew to fit the boots as a Fremen would (see Figure 7). This builds on the ideas that Paul dreams of the Fremen and of the planet, knowing what to do to survive out in Arrakis' desert plains.
Figure 8 Chiabella James, Rebecca Ferguson, as Lady Jessica, Zendaya as Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “Dune,” (We Present, 2021). https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/dune-behind-the-scenes-of-the-film (accessed: 16th May 2023).
Real world locations were filmed at for both Arrakis and Caladan, allowing for minimal computer-generated images (CGI), so that more efforts went into the building of realistic looking sets (Bennett 2021). The Wadi Rum desert in Jordan and Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates were the real-world locations to film the rocky-desert landscape of Arrakis (see Figure 10). Filming on site also informed the costume design team by using samples of sand to determine the dark-rust and pale-grey palette for the still-suits and capes (Warner Bros. Pictures 2023). Caladan was filmed in areas with large bodies of water and lush green growth, with the atmosphere likened to that of autumnal and misty Canada (Hart 2022). Stadlandet in eastern Norway was the chosen location, forming a realistic background that would be blended with CGI visuals and built sets at the Origo Film studios (see Figure 11) in Budapest (IMDb, n.d.).
Both Caladan and Arrakis' climate are intricate to their architectural design, where the production designer Vermette responded to the heritage and history of the Atreides family. Inspired by mediaeval castles, ancient Japanese and Aztec designs (Filmmakers Academy 2021), the interior spaces shot for Caladan portray a very wealthy and rich history, emphasising the contrast to the desert planet Arrakis. On Arrakis the brutalist architecture concept reflects the rocky desert landscape in which the main city of Arrakeen is set (see Figure 9). But its history is built on the exploitation of the resource, spice, requiring past ruling houses to establish their colonial power by building “the biggest structure ever […] and it’s also an imperial presence” (Brzeski 2021), states Vermette in the Hollywood Reporter. Together with visual effects and the use of set-built elements, like the wrapping of fabric on wood and steel frames (Filmmakers Academy 2021), Arrakis and Caladan are produced to feel as real and natural as possible in the film.
Figure 10 Chiabella James, Filming Timothée Chalamet in the desert with director and filming team. (Filmmakers Academy, 2021). https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/the-look-of-dune/ (accessed: 15th May 2023).
Figure 11 Chiabella James, Lady Jessica (played by Rebecca Ferguson) outside of the library at the Atreides residence on their home planet of Caladan at Origo Studios. (Architectural Digest, 2021). https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/in-dune-thearchitecture-of-the-future-is-all-about-harmony-with-the-landscape/ (accessed: 18 April 2023).
The story is set around the protagonist Paul Atreides which Villeneuve wanted audiences to closely follow. This means there is a high use of close-up shots of Paul during his interactions, visions and memory sequences. We get a close-up of Paul scene sequence of the ornithopter flight to the spice harvester in the desert (see Figure 12). By showing Paul to be looking out to the spice harvester and landscape but through the windows of the ornithopter, the audience can closely follow the experience of the protagonist through new landscapes from his home planet of Caladan Rather than repeating the lengthy monologues from the original book to peer inside characters’ minds, their emotions and micro-interactions were captured to enable the audience to feel more connected throughout the narrative (Brzeski 2021) The use of close-up shots is not only limited to the protagonist but also on other characters throughout the film, highlighting further Villeneuve’s approach in building an emotional connection with the characters. As Villeneuve adds, “…the book is more intellectual, and film is more emotional – but that is cinema.” (Brzeski 2021), Villeneuve explained that the inner monologues of characters would be better portrayed through visual storytelling
Editor Joe Walker approached the sequences with a rhythmic style to determine a steady pace throughout the film, whilst achieving a sense of acceleration (Brzeski 2021). Walker talks about how the flow of the story was key to building a subconscious relationship with the characters in the Hollywood Reporter, and where the pace increases as you enter the action sequences with those characters (Brzeski 2021) Walker’s classical music background enabled him to edit the film like a musical composition as well as utilising sensory images that do not require face shots in every scene (Giroux 2021) Intricate details in the storytelling are described by Walker stating, “You can just see the hand on the back of the neck and you get the context that it’s a woman who’s abandoning her life on planet in the face of peril…” (Giroux 2021). In contrast, the psychedelic sequences of dreams and visions were approached with much faster cuts, together with a slow-moving camera, as a way for Walker to suggest what the character was thinking and seeing The unique component of filming the dreams was surprisingly the specific processing chip used in the camera, which responded to the sunlight by creating eyelash-like sun rays, just like having a dream in the daylight (Hullfish 2021). The use of split-second second shots were experimented on scenes that captured the power of the Voice, words of command mastered by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, to manipulate a person’s actions (Hullfish 2021)
Figure 12 David Canfield, Paul looking out to the spice-field desert on Arrakis. (Vanity Fair, 2021). https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/awards-insider-dune-cinematography-shot-list (accessed: 28th September 2023).
In an intense scene where Paul first meets the Reverend Mother of the Sisterhood (see page 26), Walker describes the editing decision to emphasise the power of the Voice (see Figure 16). As the Reverend Mother uses the voice, Walker describes that, “…within 24th of a second, he’s kneeling at her feet where she wants him.” (Giroux 2021). Together with sound editing of an initial base thump sound, witchy voices are layered to invoke an ancestral power, so that the audience can hear the summoning of Bene Gesserit ancestry (Hullfish 2021). The editing of the Voice sequences and memories make up a new experience of in cinema, whilst capturing the spirit that Frank Herbert sought to express within his universe (Warner Bros. Pictures 2023) Cinematographer Fraser, and director Villeneuve, wanted to prioritise authenticity in the cinematography, using more ‘natural light over manufactured light…[and] built sets on location over VFX mirages’ (Canfield 2021). Most of the scenes were also shot on location, enabling the VFX team to work with ‘sand-screen’ rather than green-screen (Filmmakers Academy 2021) which closely matched the environment and reflected light naturally on all surfaces (see Figure 14) Through the extensive and close-tofaithful storytelling production of Dune, Villeneuve created a contemporary adaptation that feels recent and ancient, unified into a passionate cinematic epic. It was shot in a way so that the audience can be like “…a fly on the wall that is about to witness something terrible happening.” – Villeneuve (Canfield 2021).
https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/the-look-of-dune/
Figure 15. Warner Bros Pictures. Dual-monitor layout for Joe’s edit of Dune’s Gom Jabbar scene (Frame.io Insider, 2021). https://blog.frame.io/2021/10/27/art-of-the-cut-dune-joe-walker/ (accessed: 16 May 2023).
Within the context of the Dune book from the 1960s, key shifts in environmental concerns and awareness have played a role in influencing Herbert, leading up to the writing of the entire Dune saga. The perception of environmental concerns from the ecological science-fiction literature published at the time, together with the rise of counterculture and environmentalism in the 1960s, meant that Dune would eventually become a focus point for resource and environmental debates. These debates would seem to parallel the earth today and the exploited fossil fuel extraction practices, that questions relationship between humans and the landscape as one ecology (Kratz 2023, 10) This meant that Dune would now be part of a new wave of the climatefiction (cli-fi) literature which ventures into narratives of extreme or altered planet climates (Duffy 2015). Chris Pak describes two cli-fi novels that broached the ideas of environmentalism during the 1960s and 1970s. The first includes Richard McKenna’s Night of Hoggy Darn (1964), which began to explore the themes of interconnectedness between humanity and the living world. The character of an ecologist of the planet is also implemented, with their principal role to document the ‘interactions between life on the planet New Cornwall.’ (Chris Pak 2016, 103) Secondly, Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974) highlights the political landscape as a contrast to Herbert’s masculine politics in Dune, using themes of decentralised communities and low-tech infrastructure to tell a story involving terraformed planets and moon systems within a complex network of pastoral and anarchist themes (Chris Pak 2016, 128–29) However, with Le Guin’s interests in ecology, feminism and colonialism, the underlying pastoral utopianism of the story in The Dispossessed explores the identity of community groups.
In Le Guin’s narrative the community of the planet Anarres, decide to opt for an autonomous self-sustaining community, and are driven by the ‘distrust of large, bureaucratic governments, where decision making devolves to an imperial centre.’ (Chris Pak 2016, 130). These themes recall the settings of feudal conflicts in Herbert’s Dune but also address the geopolitical interactions across different utopian worlds. Pak states that, ‘Herbert, Heinlein and Le Guin mobilise ecological principles in ways that connect scientific ideas to society, establishing an ecopolitical context that later terraforming stories would develop and dovetail with popularisations of Gaia [earth]’ (Chris Pak 2016, 117). Pak critiques these three pieces of literature in relation to the terraforming context and how they formed the inspiration for future utopian cli-fi novels, but also his book also provides a model to understanding the possible futures of the terraforming natures humanity could take.
Dune is catalogued in the Whole Earth Catalog (1968) under the heading ‘access to tools’ in articles and reviews, along with other writers’ books. These reviews and collections were written on the recurring themes of interconnected ecologies within the narrative of ‘the communes of the 1960s-70s counterculture and the utopian and dystopian communities’ (Chris Pak 2016, 99). These sf narratives released over this period, explored the themes of ecology as an interconnectedness between all the living things and the environment. The novels tend to present an ecologist character who seeks to bring the existing climate back to a flourishing green ecosystem, and a future where the inhabitants and organisms would be dealing with ‘everything alive, and the way it all works in the climate and geography’ (Chris Pak 2016, 102–3) The introduction of the Dune novels explores ecology in multiple contexts across vast millennial timelines, where the interaction between the organisms and their environment takes place within a complex social, geopolitical and economic narrative (Parkerson 2010, 404) This example of geopolitical and individualistic convulsions to retain a political power is highlighted by Ronny Parkerson, where he states that ‘Another major theme of the novel is that of power, and the nature of the superhero or leader who emerges to discover that he must wage war to gain and maintain that power.’ (Parkerson 2010, 405). This theme of the power struggle has been debated and critiqued in literature where Dune’s ecopolitical landscape shaped its development throughout the trilogies
Before Herbert, Paul Bigelow Sears was the first among the thinkers to put humanity within the environment with his book Deserts on the March in 1935, looking at how the actions of the whole would affect the world and the rebound of those effects onto humanity (Huddleston 2023, 37) Sears’ book aimed to provide ‘ecological’ solutions to the American population who were going through the hardships of moving sands that caused a desertification during the great depression over the 1930s (Huddleston 2023, 37). Sears was able to emphasise the direct impacts that the landscape ecology was having on the everyday American life, and even brought forward some suggestions for future generations (Huddleston 2023, 37) The effect of this interlinked system also influenced Dune, where everything that occurs from the beginning ripples throughout the rest of the Dune books (Huddleston 2023, 40) Veronika Kratz argues that without the continued management and funding of permanent agriculture, such as trees to properly stop the ‘moving sands’, Herbert’s unpublished report would have been titled “They Stopped the Moving Sands”. This report would have expressed the ecological scientists’ optimism in the 1960s during the depression (Kratz 2023, 644) Furthermore, as deserts are usually seen as widely empty and open spaces, they innately should be ‘fixed’ with improvements through agricultural terraforming (Kratz 2023, 646). This argument supported further with scholar, John Beck, that the assumed emptiness of the landscape is always seen a source of value seen by humans (Kratz 2023, 646). This is the underlying concept for the geopolitics in Dune, over Arrakis’ spice resource and native inhabitants fight for ‘generations-long’ hope to re-irrigate and green the entire planet (Kratz 2023, 640)
This shows the importance of Dune as a reminder of humanity’s activities to the environment because all actions that affect the environment are interconnected and ripple through to future ecological issues that would inadvertently affect humanity. One episodic scene from the Dune book strongly relates to Herberts influence of environmental concerns from the 1960s, where the planetologist character LietKynes’, lays dying in the desert after a Sardaukar ambush. Liet-Kynes inner voices reveal the effects of the harsh desert with the phrase, ‘The sun is overhead. You have no still-suit and you’re hot; the sun is burning the moisture out of your body.’ (Huddleston 2023, 273), which potentially foreshadows future events in the book as well as the harsh climate of planet that needs fixing Ecology as the overarching theme, which has internal monologues used by the characters in Dune, reveals the importance of Herbert’s effort to communicate the interrelations between organisms in the environment. Marine biologist and conservationist, Rachel Carson, emphasised the adverse impacts human activity is having on both the environment and public health. In her book Silent Spring, Carson revealed the dangerous effects of DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), a widely used pesticide in agriculture between the 1930s to 1970s.
Carson discovered that DDT caused a rise in cancers and increased death to bird and marine wildlife, such as robins, eagles, crabs and fishes (Carson 2020, 183). Studies also found that all wildlife and humans that were connected to the sprayed lakes and marshes potentially, had trace concentrations of DDT in their tissues (Carson 2020, 183) Scientists recorded through analyses of bird species, ‘…high concentrations of DDT in the testes and ovaries of breeding birds…’ (Carson 2020, 164) The theme of death to wildlife by chemical insecticides, fungicide, dieldrin, aldrin and heptachlor, started to be noticed from around 1956 in the UK and other parts of the world (Carson 2020, 184). On the other hand, Veronica Kratz’s scholarly paper, Frank Herbert’s Ecology, Oregon’s Dunes…, introduces the idea that Herbert’s Dune books are not only influenced by the ecological science and environmentalism of the mid-1960s, but are tied to the ‘needs of agricultural production.’ (Kratz 2023, 637) Kratz states that Herbert’s sf novels are a relevant connection to the environmental crises since the 1930s Dust Bowl in America, but also how Dune is tended to be read a solution to ecological issues because of Rachel Carsons Silent Spring influences. Kratz treats Herbert’s ecological ideas as a ‘problem-solving space for his ideas.’ (Kratz 2023, 638). The novel could be an artificial model of combined research to understand the real world. These situations show that human decisions to eradicate harmful insects in the environment have set up our demise for many generations down the line. These spread out an ‘ever-widening wave of death’ (Carson 2020, 190), that perpetuates through entire food chains across different countries.
As Carson approached the ecological damages of human tampering to the environment in plain-terms, Herbert approaches the effects of ecological tampering in a fictional scale of an entire planet. Carsons book influenced the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and a worldwide ban on DDT (Huddleston
2023, 41) Termed Apocalyptic Ecology, Herbert’s vision through Dune expresses ecological change at a planetary scale, altered by human intervention which led to an uninhabitable landscape (Huddleston 2023, 41). Tom Huddleston expresses why Dune was accepted by the environmental movement, ‘for its vision of an entire planetary community working towards a single environmental goal, […] assuming a central role in every human life […] it could offer a way out of the environmental disaster in which humanity finds itself’ (Huddleston 2023, 42). Furthermore, this example of humanity’s potential unity through the hope of an individual presents a potential avenue for humanity to divert the looming ecological disaster (Huddleston 2023, 42) The allegorical ideas communicated from Herbert's original story have resonated with literature surrounding environmental issues, resource extraction and ecological security concerns of our planet. This has continued to spur debate about the rapidly changing climate because of anthropogenic activity such as fossil fuel burning and water pollution The next section explores the environmental and ecological contexts to understand the key ecological issues that formed the narrative influences for Dune, as well as identifying recent scientific studies of current environment problems
“You cannot go on for ever stealing what you need without regard to those who come after […] We have the record in front of us and our course is obvious.” (Herbert 1965, 262).
Figure 21. Diggers and dump trucks on a mining site. (New York Southeast Asia Network,
https://nysean.org/blog/2023/5/1/talking-indonesia-undermining-resistance (accessed: 01 January 2024).
Biogeochemical cycles are the flow processes of energy and GHGs such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, methane and water vapour, through the earth’s atmosphere (Alma 2013, 1) In Peter Alma’s paper, Environmental Concerns , he explains how the behaviour of chemical compounds measured in terms of their influences from all living organisms to the earth processes (Alma 2013, 2). Donald Aitken in his chapter Gaia in Turmoil: Global Warming, Rapid Climate Change…, mentions a major geological event that impacted the earth’s biosphere, ‘The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines […] injected between 15 and 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide gas into the air.’ (Aitken 2010, 126) However, the earth’s biogeochemical processes worked to balanced out by the excess release of these volcanic gases On the other hand, human activities from the dawn of the industrial period have exceed the earth’s systems and have led to ‘increasing destabilizations of the planet’s energy, temperature, and climate systems.’ (Aitken 2010, 126). The 2021 Dune adaptation brought forward visual motifs and imagery about the current state of our environment through this scene of the spice harvester (Figure 20). As the giant metal machine relentlessly spews out the silicon sand crystals, drained of the spice. It calls back to humans extracting the limited fossil fuels and in return releasing harmful GHGs (see Figure 21). The quote from Herbert’s book stresses the effects of resource extraction as an activity that will certainly affect “those that will come after” (Herbert 1965, 262). This refers to the fact that by taking finite resources from the planet, humans automatically do not regard the effects towards the environment, future generation and the current population
For every one metric ton of carbon per person on earth, 3.5 billion metric tons of new carbon is being pumped into the earth’s atmosphere each year (Aitken 2010, 127) This has resulted in an overall accumulation of thirty-nine percent over the past 150 years in a study by the IPCC in 2007 (Aitken 2010, 128). The continued use of fossil fuels and constant release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere continues to have devastating consequences on the planet and human health. The net growth of energy in the earth’s atmosphere has also been recorded over the past 150 years since the rise of industrialisation, warming the earth’s atmosphere and contributing global warming. The greenhouse effect is caused by the trapping of the sun’s heat in the earth’s atmosphere by water vapour and carbon dioxide, which is radiated back to the earth and leads to warming of the earth’s surface (Alma 2013, 18). This greenhouse effect is important in maintaining the earth’s temperature to sustain life (Kanwar and Singh 2022). However, global warming has become a greater concern due the disruption of the balance in the constant concentrations of GHGs due to increased anthropogenic activities (Alma 2013, 18) According to the Environmental Agency in the UK, the changing climate has been recorded by the MET Office with more evidence that heatwaves have increased in frequency over the last 150 years (UK Government 2023).
The effects of global warming to human health and the environment have been emphasised by multiple environmental health bodies, scientists, climate researchers and newspaper organizations. Jonathan Watts on The Guardian stresses that 53% of the world’s carbon emissions is from the combination of all industries that extract materials from the ground (Watts 2019). In UK, the health concerns relate to increased spread of diseases due to projected higher temperatures, such as mosquito-borne diseases from increases areas of stagnant water if introduced (UK Government 2023) The effects of vegetation and crop growth are also described because of the changes in moisture flows in the atmosphere (Alma 2013, 22) This presents high predictions of fewer rainfalls in the summer by 2030 and prolonged winters in the south-east of the UK, with increased droughts pushing agriculture practices further north (Alma 2013, 22).
In Asian and African regions, global warming was found to increase the recurrence of heatwaves which affected farming practices and lead to famine (Muhammad et al. 2021, 15) Moreover, the Dune film presented visual cues of present-day activities and the relationship of humans and the environment, introducing a new perspective to the way human activity to the environment is perceived. Therefore, as nation-wide attempts are being made to curve the prolonged effects of global warming, without effective global implementations to totally cutout carbon emissions, scientific projections of demise appear to foretell the inevitable, where “the record is in front of us and our course [being] obvious.” (Herbert 1965, 262). Humanity’s course into devastating and irreversible impacts lies ahead if extreme measures are not taken by international powers to curb global warming. The next section of this study will explore the effect of global warming on ‘Water Abundance and Scarcity’ , understanding the first connected environmental issue in this paper linked to global warming and climate change.
“…on a planet where water was the most precious juice of life. Water being wasted so conspicuously that it shocked her to inner stillness.” (Herbert 1965, 72).
Through the complex atmospheric and metabolic processes over millions of years, the earth has been able to retain water which contributed to an ideal temperature and gaseous atmosphere to sustain life (Harding and Margulis 2010, 41) Scientists suggested that liquid water would have left the earth’s surface a long time ago without the regulation of global temperatures by microorganisms, biological and non-biological chemical processes that retained water in the earth’s biosphere (Harding and Margulis 2010, 52). This finding emphasises the connection organisms have with the and the earth and its processes. Without early eukaryotic microorganisms, the earth would have continued to increase in methane, carbon dioxide and water vapour gases from erupting volcanoes, heating up the earth into a planetary course much like Venus (Harding and Margulis 2010)
Caladan, the fictional planet in Dune takes a similar climate from earth, being a waterbodied, lush green landscape and where the ancient architecture is built into the mountain terrain (see Figure 24) Figure 22 shows the protagonist’s hand interacting with the water on his home planet before departing to the contrasting waterless and dry desert planet Arrakis. This scene lasts approximately seven seconds, potentially representing act of leaving the water behind and the connection of the character to water This also forms an emotional connection between the audience and scene because of humanity’s innate connection to water for survival and life. As climate change continues to influence the greenhouse effect and increase global warming past the temperature of 1.1oC (Dawson and Newcastle University 2022), reports suggest detrimental impacts including water scarcity, flooding and droughts (see Figure 25), with greater impact across Asian and African regions with socio-economic vulnerabilities (IPCC et al. 2019, chap. 4.2.5). The Sixth IPCC Assessment Report on Water reports the severe changes to the hydrological cycle and global cryosphere such as the melting and shrinking of seasonally frozen mountain and melting of glacial regions (IPCC et al. 2019, chap. 4.2) The IPCC has expressed a high confidence that the severe ecological impacts are caused by the human activity, with the sequential increase of GHG concentrations and alteration of the water cycle (IPCC et al. 2019, chap. 4.2).
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EaVZo4
Figure 25 Caretta, M.A., A. Mukherji et.al. Current global drought risk and its components. From 2022: Water, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (IPCC, 2022). https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/figures/chapter-4/figure-4-009 (accessed: 03 January 2024).
In relation to the quote from the Dune book, the water on earth seems to be ‘wasted’ through the exacerbation of resources which continue to promote the imbalances of GHG emissions, consequently damaging earth’s ecosystem Currently struck with heavy droughts, East Africa is an example where ‘16.2 million people lack sufficient access to water…’ (Dawson and Newcastle University 2022), and four billion people globally face water scarcity per month each year due to increased hydrological effects (IPCC et al. 2019, chap. 4.6.1). In Figure 23, this scene from the Dune film shows water being poured on the desert palms in the Arrakeen palace, and the audience discovers that the palms in fact not indigenous and water is being spoiled on them for an “old dream” (Villeneuve, Spaihts, and Roth 2021) The importance of water is expressed in the close-up shot and how the native inhabitants would still hold on to hope of the future greening of the planet, even if it means losing some of the precious fluid of survival. Hari Kunzru underlines the harshness of Arrakis stating that, ‘The climate on Dune is frighteningly hostile. Water is so scarce that whenever its inhabitants go outside, they must wear stillsuits, [ ] capture body moisture and recycle it for drinking.’ (Kunzru 2015) As planet earth continues to progress toward an irreversible point through the devastating effects global warming, the continued impact to the water cycle and freshwater availability may potentially force humanity to turn towards extreme dystopian measures that Herbert imagines in Dune.
“How strange that so few ever looked up from the spice long enough to wonder at the near-ideal nitrogen-oxygen-CO2 balance being maintained here in the absence of large areas of plant cover…” (Herbert 1965, 261).
Air pollution is the ‘single greatest environmental threat to health in the UK’, and it has been stated to have short-term and immediate health effects to humans, such as with breathing and coughing (UK Government 2023). The Environment Agency has reported findings linked to air pollution, where inhalation of polluted air can cause heart disease, dementia and some cancers (UK Government 2023) Estimations show that air pollution is killing five million people worldwide annually, and ‘ambient air pollution is the leading environmental health risk factor for illness and death…’ (Gregory 2022)
The release of nitrogen oxides from the combustion of engines pollutes the atmosphere and through a series of atmospheric reactions with atmospheric ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which contributes not only to health of humans but is also involved in reactions that reduce ozone levels in the stratosphere (Alma 2013, 10)
The pollution of the atmosphere also leads to the formation of acid rain, caused by NO2 and primarily Sulphur dioxide (SO2), which reacts with water molecules and other atmospheric chemicals to increase the pH level of atmospheric precipitation (Alma 2013, 11). The lower pH levels of rain can cause leaching in soils and prevent plants to properly absorb essential minerals like calcium, because of soluble of aluminium ions (Alma 2013, 14). Studies of southern Norway in 1983 also found that lakes with total surface area of 13,000 km3 had no fish, and data showed reduced brown trout populations in more Scandinavian lakes since the 1940s (Alma 2013, 14–15) The impacts of air pollution show that relations to health costs are predicted by the Environmental Agency to hit £22.6 billion annually in UK (UK Government 2023), emphasising the urgency to eradicate the continued atmospheric pollution from fossil fuel use.
The importance of addressing air pollution during the 1970s, with the emergence of NEPA in the United States, was portrayed through the creation of the Clean Air Act to set new standards for airborne emissions The Clean Air Act was also called for factories to utilise new technologies to remove dangerous pollutants from smokestack emissions before entering the atmosphere (G. Kirk 2007, 93). The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) signed by President Nixon in 1969, would be the most significant legislation that was made to deal with much broader environmental problems, with NEPA eventually creating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 (G. Kirk 2007, 93) The EPA was the biggest and most powerful bodies for the regulation for the environment in the 1970s, setting environmental regulations from the 1970s (G. Kirk 2007, 94).
More recently the EPA provides resources for the public to help reduce health effects from air pollution. Some interventions include checking air quality index forecasts in your area and making lifestyle changes But this guidance is mainly targeted to people with existing heart conditions, in countries with readily accessible healthcare facilities. Public Health England addresses the extensive effects of air pollution on the population across different demographics and propose a ‘call to action’ to reduce air pollution for public health (see Figure 27). In the graph, NO2 emissions are strongly related to increased cases of asthma, with up to 1,140,018 new cases projected up to 2035 (Public Health England 2018). As well as demographic and health inequalities between individuals of the population, studies show that air pollution poses a detrimental effect to humanity Therefore, not only individual day-to-day incentives and guidance will completely cut out fossil fuel emissions, but also the complete replacement of fossil fuels to cut out emission of particulate matter and excess GHGs.
Figure 27. Public Health England. Graph from Public Health England showing health conditions linked with NO2. (UK Government, 2023). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution#howair-pollution-harms-health (accessed: 02 January 2024).
The existence of ‘healthy heart’ resources to educate individuals about the effects of air pollution suggests that the widespread effects of past and present air pollution has already, and continues to, take a toll on the human population. The efforts introduced during the 1970s rise in environmentalism to reduce air pollution, do not seem to have prevented the current issues humans face today. The continued exploitation of fossil fuels that lead to the release an assortment of GHGs and volatile organic compounds express the potential obliviousness by governmental bodies to the continued health effects to public health. Just like in Dune, the extraction and exploitation of a limited finite resource from the planet presents socio-political issues that inadvertently negatively affects the local or native population. This scene from Dune (2021) film is a visual representation and reminder of how extreme measures must be taken to protect ourselves from the environment. The Here Paul wears the mask of the stillsuit that shields that face from wiping dust particles in the air and desert elements. Resonating with the quote from the Dune book about the ideal atmosphere on the planet Arrakis, humans are reflected to neglect the ideal atmosphere that has formed over thousands of years because of the complex ecological processes.
The three themes explored in this dissertation are connected to one theme, Global Warming, fuelled by the anthropogenic influences that increase the earth’s temperature. The global air temperature is on track to rise above the 1.5oC critical mark, with other scientists expecting this to increase beyond 2oC and up to 4.5oC (Alma 2013, 19). This increase will exacerbate the already existing environmental problems with water and air pollution because scientists have emphasised that ‘the biophysical limits to adaptation may be reached’ (Dawson and Newcastle University 2022) By exploring the ecological context of Herbert’s Dune and science fiction background, this research provided insight into the 1960s -1970s environmental awareness that emerged through both science-fiction and studies on ecological damage in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
Global warming will continue to impact the earth’s hydrological cycle, changing moisture regimes and impacting crop growth and vegetation (Alma 2013, 22). For people whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on agriculture and farming in rural areas, the severe effects of water loss and rainfall irregularity from climate change will impact crop yields and endanger future global food security (IPCC et al. 2019), especially in countries that are already food insecure and least able to quickly adapt (Kanwar and Singh 2022, 46). In the UK, the Environment Agency provided estimates that rainfall to decrease by 15% in the 2050s and seasonal temperatures increase up to 40oC during summers in south-east areas (Environment Agency and UK Government 2021) The relationship between the three explored themes is under the common factor of global warming, and scientific studies have a strong confidence with projections over the next century of highly irremediable effects to the landscape and humanity.
According to Professor Richard Dawson, one of the 270 scientists to co-author on The Sixth IPCC Assessment Report, the ‘impacts will continue to increase if global warming is not tackled.’ (Dawson and Newcastle University 2022). Dawson stresses that humanity is not adapting fast enough to keep up with the pace of climate change, although efforts are being made, such the flood risk and initiatives to ‘make better use of water resources…’ (Dawson and Newcastle University 2022) Scientific consensus shows that incremental global warming through climate change would lead to some areas of the world becoming drier, and other parts wetter; droughts and flooding respectively (Alma 2013, 20). Due to the high unpredictability of climate change, each miniscule increase of global temperatures with reciprocate even greater global impacts. There is even more concern for future generations if humans do not make fast adaptation measures in redesigning the entire social, economic and technological systems that positively gives back to the earth, to rebalance the hydrological and atmospheric cycles
This dissertation explored the key information that contextualised both the Dune books and the film adaptation Scenes captured from the film were correlated to visual evidence of human activities that prolongs climate change, acting as a reminder of Dune’s narrative as climate fiction. However, this study presents the reality that humanity on course for using the film as a lens to increase awareness of this concern. Scientific studies continue to show humanity’s direction towards uncertain climate catastrophe that will impact the three main drivers for life: air, water and temperature The Dune film presents a contemporary interpretation of Herbert’s imagination that applied these three drivers for life within a geopolitical narrative In the climate of Herbert’s Dune planet, Arrakis, the colossal sandworms are revealed to part of the intricate ecosystem that produce the resource of spice and are an essential organism to the unique nitrogen-oxygen-CO2 balance that allow the planet to be habitable.
Humanity’s historic tampering with the balance of the ecosystem have led to environmental issues that the organisms cannot rebalance fast enough to stabilise global temperatures. Present day environmental and resource issues played a role in visualising the 2021 film adaptation of Dune, showing that Villeneuve’s Dune is another visual reminder that humanity has not reduced its continued impact to the environment since the 1960s. Although fiction, Dune represents an experiment that Herbert envisioned of the valuable recourses of a planet, and how political convulsions of power dictate the outlook of survival. Where the species in control of the finite resource is also blind to the consequences of future demise. This research contributes knowledge that is needed to understand the specific details between present day issues and cinematic adaptations of Dune, which I believe is beneficial to inform the direction our climate seems to be headed. The next step for this research could be to identify technological adaptations that Dune introduces and have been conceptualised in the film adaptation. Perhaps the utopian adaptations in the Dune universe could provide a technological and functional direction to inform real world survival of irreversible climate change.
Aitken, Donald W. 2010. “Global Warming, Rapid Climate Change, and Renewable Energy.” In Gaia in Turmoil: Climate Change, Biodepletion, and Earth Ethics in an Age of Crisis, edited by Eileen Crist and Bruce H. Rinkler, 125–49. London: The MIT Press.
Alma, Peter. 2013. “Environmental Concerns Having Global Impacts.” In Environmental Concerns, 1–23. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/9780511608490.002.
Bennett, Daniel. 2021. “Dune’s Lead Designer on Inspiration behind the Film’s Look and Feel.” BBC Science Focus, November 20, 2021. https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/dune-patrice-vermette/.
Brzeski, Patrick. 2021. “Making of ‘Dune’: Inside Denis Villeneuve’s Epic Sci-Fi Adaptation.” The Hollywood Reporter. November 30, 2021. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/making-of-dunedenis-villenueve-novel-adaptation-1235052084/.
Canfield, David. 2021. “A Deep Dive Into the Visceral Cinematography of ‘Dune.’” Vanity Fair. December 17, 2021. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/awards-insider-dunecinematography-shot-list.
Carson, Rachel. 2020. Silent Spring. Book. UK: Penguin Books.
Chris Pak. 2016. “Ecology and Environmental Awareness in 1960s-1970s Terraforming Stories.” In Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction, edited by David Seed, 98–124. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Dawson, Richard, and Newcastle University. 2022. “The True Cost of WaterWhy Climate Change Action Is so Urgent.” Newcastle University. November 3, 2022. https://from.ncl.ac.uk/water-security-and-why-climate-changeaction-is-so-urgent.
Duffy, Steve. 2015. “‘Dune’ at 50: Why the Groundbreaking Eco-Conscious Novel Is More Relevant Than Ever.” Flavorwire. August 31, 2015. https://www.flavorwire.com/535249/dune-at-50-why-the-groundbreakingeco-conscious-novel-is-more-relevant-than-ever.
Environment Agency, and UK Government. 2021. “Lack of Water Presents ‘Existential’ Threat, Says Environment Agency Chief.” GOV.UK. October
19, 2021. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lack-of-water-presentsexistential-threat-says-environment-agency-chief.
Filmmakers Academy. 2021. “The Look of Dune.” Film Theory, The Look Of. December 8, 2021. https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/the-look-of-dune/.
G. Kirk, Andrew. 2007. Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism. Edited by Karal Ann Marling. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Giroux, Jack. 2020. “Dune Co-Costume Designer Bob Morgan Goes Back In Time For The Future [Interview].” Slash Film. November 3, 2020. https://www.slashfilm.com/652203/dune-co-costume-designer-bob-morgangoes-back-in-time-for-the-future-interview/.
. 2021. “Dune Editor Joe Walker On Finding The Rhythms In Editing, Narrating The Sand Walk Guide.” Slash Film. October 29, 2021. https://www.slashfilm.com/646961/dune-editor-joe-walker-on-finding-therhythms-in-editing-narrating-the-sand-walk-guide-interview/.
Gregory, Andrew. 2022. “Air Pollution from Fossil Fuels ‘Kills 5 Million People a Year.’” The Guardian. November 29, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/29/air-pollution-fromfossil-fuels-kills-5-million-people-a-year.
Harding, Stephan, and Lynn Margulis. 2010. “Water Gaia: 3.5 Thousand Million Years of Wetness on Planet Earth.” In Gaia in Turmoil: Climate Change, Biodepletion, and Earth Ethics in an Age of Crisis, edited by Eileen Crist and Bruce H. Rinkler, 41–57. London: The MIT Press.
Hart, Hugh. 2022. “‘Dune’ Design Is a Vision Come True, Even If a Desolate One.” Los Angeles Times. January 11, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-01-11/dunedesign-is-a-vision-come-true-even-if-a-desolate-one.
Herbert, Frank. 1965. Dune. Book. The Dune Novels. London: Hodder. Huddleston, Tom. 2023. The Worlds of Dune. Book. 1st ed. Minneapolis: Quarto Publishing Group UK.
Hullfish, Steve. 2021. “Art of the Cut: Behind the Scenes of ‘Dune’ with Editor Joe Walker, ACE.” Frame.Io. October 27, 2021. https://blog.frame.io/2021/10/27/art-of-the-cut-dune-joe-walker/.
Imam, James. 2021. “Superstudio: The Architects Who Dreamt of a Future With No Buildings.” The New York Times. February 12, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/arts/design/superstudio-civa.html.
IMDb. n.d. “Dune (2021): Filming & Production.” Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160419/locations/.
IPCC, M.A. Caretta, A. Mukherji, M. Arfanuzzaman, R.A. Betts, A. Gelfan, Y. Hirabayashi, et al. 2019. “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.” Cambridge. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/chapter-4/.
James, Chiabella. 2021. “Dune – a Prophetic Tale about the Environmental Destruction Wrought by the Colonisation of Africa.” The Conversation. October 28, 2021. https://theconversation.com/dune-a-prophetic-tale-aboutthe-environmental-destruction-wrought-by-the-colonisation-of-africa170583.
Kanwar, Priya, and Kanwar P. Singh. 2022. “Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources.” In Water Scarcity, Contamination and Management, 5:45–57. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85378-1.00004-0.
Kratz, Veronika. 2023. “Frank Herbert’s Ecology, Oregon’s Dunes, and the Postwar Science of Desert Reclamation.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 30 (3): 637–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/ISLE/ISAB026.
Kunzru, Hari. 2015. “Dune, 50 Years on: How a Science Fiction Novel Changed the World.” The Guardian, July 3, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/03/dune-50-years-on-sciencefiction-novel-world.
Muhammad, Syed, Ali Shah, Shaheen Akhtar, and Fozia Bibi. 2021. “Global Warming Challenges and Tactical Ramifications: Addressing Ecological Security Concerns.” Margalla Papers, no. 1: 12–22.
Mumford, Tracy. 2015. “The Books That Inspired ‘Star Wars.’” MPR News, 2015. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/12/29/books-star-wars-literaryinfluences.
Notarianni, John. 2021. “How an Oregon Battle between Human and Nature Inspired Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune.’” OPB. October 23, 2021. https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/23/florence-oregon-movies-dune-frankherbert-science-fiction-novels/.
Parkerson, Ronny. 2010. “Semantics, General Semantics, and Ecology in Frank Herbert’s Dune.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 67 (4): 403–11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42579070.
Poletti, Jonathan. 2020. “When Frank Herbert Saw ‘Star Wars.’” Medium, 2020. https://belover.medium.com/when-frank-herbert-saw-star-wars85156b40b243#:~:text=Frank%20Herbert%20organized%20a%20jokey,pai n%2C”%20Brian%20Herbert%20writes.
Public Health England. 2018. “Health Matters: Air Pollution.” GOV.UK. November 14, 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/healthmatters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution#how-air-pollution-harmshealth.
Ravenscroft, Tom. 2023. “Everything You Need to Know about Saudi MegaProject Neom.” Dezeen. February 14, 2023. https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/14/neom-guide-line-saudi-arabia/.
Romeo, Jess. 2021. “The Ecological Prescience of Dune.” JSTOR Daily. November 15, 2021. https://daily.jstor.org/the-ecological-prescience-ofdune/.
Smith, Lilly. 2021. “How Production Designer Patrice Vermette Built the World of ‘Dune.’” Shaping Design. October 21, 2021. https://www.editorx.com/shaping-design/article/dune-production-designerpatrice-vermette.
UK Government. 2023. “State of the Environment: Health, People and the Environment.” GOV.UK. January 26, 2023. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-environment/stateof-the-environment-health-people-and-the-environment#environmentalpollution-and-health.
Villeneuve, Denis, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth. 2021. Dune. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Wainwright, Oliver. 2021. “A Building as Big as the World: The Anarchist Architects Who Foresaw Endless Expansion.” The Guardian: Architecture. January 21, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/21/building-big-asworld-superstudio-anarchist-architects-who-foresaw-rampant-expansionsaudi-arabia-linear-city.
Wallace, Rachel. 2021. “In Dune, the Architecture of the Future Is All about Harmony with the Landscape.” Architectural Digest India. September 28,
2021. https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/in-dune-the-architecture-ofthe-future-is-all-about-harmony-with-the-landscape/.
Warner Bros. Pictures. 2023. Dune ( Denis Villeneuve ) Making of & Behind the Scenes. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHYVipdTE8k.
Watts, Jonathan. 2019. “Resource Extraction Responsible for Half World’s Carbon Emissions.” The Guardian, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/12/resourceextraction-carbon-emissions-biodiversity-loss.
Yarlagadda, Tara. 2021. “Dune: The Best New Sci-Fi Movie on HBO Max Reveals a Real-Life Ecological Crisis.” Inverse. October 22, 2021. https://www.inverse.com/science/dune-environmental-message-science.
Figure 1. Front Cover of Analog December 1965 Edition, Luminist Archives (Analog 1960 - 1980). http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AN.htm (accessed: 14 October 2023)........................................................................................................................14
Figure 2. Warner Bros Pictures, Production design from "Dune" of the city of Arrakeen (Los Angeles Times, 2021). https://www.latimes.com/entertainmentarts/awards/story/2022-01-11/dune-design-is-a-vision-come-true-even-if-a-desolateone (accessed: 28 May 2023).................................................................................16
Figure 3.Chiabella James. Here, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) practices fighting in a room that features Frank Lloyd Wright–esque cut-out blocks. (Architectural Digest, 2021). https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/in-dune-the-architecture-of-the-futureis-all-about-harmony-with-the-landscape/ (accessed: 18 April 2023).......................16
Figure 4. Nidhi, Upadhyaya, Superstudio’s iconic grid collage via Metalocus. (Architizer). https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/superstudio-griddedarchitecture/ (accessed: 28 April 2023)....................................................................17
Figure 5. CIVA Brussels, Continuous Monument Collage, Superstudio, 1966. (CIVA Expo Superstudio Migrazioni, 2021). https://civa.brussels/en/exhibitionsevents/expo-superstudio-migrazioni (accessed: 15th May 2023).............................18
Figure 6. Katherine McLauglin. With a small footprint, The Line promises to preserve 95% of the surrounding land. (Architectural Digest, 2022). Photo from NEOM. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/saudi-arabia-unveils-the-worlds-mostfuturistic-city-plan (accessed: 16th December 2023).................................................18
Figure 7. Scene where Paul first wears the stillsuit for the first time with planetologist Liet-Kynes in the foreground. Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:58:14. ...........20
Figure 8. Chiabella James, Rebecca Ferguson, as Lady Jessica, Zendaya as Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “Dune,” (We Present, 2021). https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/dune-behind-the-scenes-of-the-film (accessed: 16th May 2023)......................................................................................20
Figure 9. Arrival to city of Arrakeen in Ornithopters. Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:39:02........................................................................................................21
Figure 10. Chiabella James, Filming Timothée Chalamet in the desert with director and filming team. (Filmmakers Academy, 2021). https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/the-look-of-dune/ (accessed: 15th May 2023). .................................................................................................................................22
Figure 11. Chiabella James, Lady Jessica (played by Rebecca Ferguson) outside of the library at the Atreides residence on their home planet of Caladan at Origo
Studios. (Architectural Digest, 2021). https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/in-dunethe-architecture-of-the-future-is-all-about-harmony-with-the-landscape/ (accessed: 18 April 2023).
Figure 12. David Canfield, Paul looking out to the spice-field desert on Arrakis (Vanity Fair, 2021). https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/awards-insiderdune-cinematography-shot-list (accessed: 28th September 2023).
22
24
Figure 13. Contact sheet of key shots showing a memory sequence of the main character Paul. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video. Authors Own based on screenshots. 24
Figure 14. DNEG. Before and after of filmed spice harvester scene on location in the Wadi Rum desert. Author’s own based on images from DNEG (Filmmakers Academy, 2021). https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/the-look-of-dune/ (accessed: 15th May 2023).
25
Figure 15. Warner Bros Pictures. Dual-monitor layout for Joe’s edit of Dune’s Gom Jabbar scene. (Frame.io Insider, 2021). https://blog.frame.io/2021/10/27/art-of-thecut-dune-joe-walker/ (accessed: 16 May 2023).
25
Figure 16. Paul being tested with the Gom Jabbar by Reverend Mother of Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:24:57.
26
Figure 17. Close-up of Paul during the Gom Jabbar test of pain. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:27:00. 26
Figure 18. Paul, Jessica and Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in the Gom Jabbar scene. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:28:35.26
Figure 19. Ecological station in underground bunkers on Arrakis. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video. 01:46:33. ...........................................
30
Figure 20. Spice harvester on Arrakis. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021, Amazon Prime Video, 00:59:51..............................................................................................31
Figure 21. Diggers and dump trucks on a mining site. (New York Southeast Asia Network, 2023). https://nysean.org/blog/2023/5/1/talking-indonesia-underminingresistance (accessed: 01 January 2024). 31
Figure 22. Paul interacting with water on Caladan. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:33:24. 34
Figure 23. Palace servant pouring water on palm tree at Arrakeen. Warner Bros Pictures, Dune, 2021. Amazon Prime Video, 00:43:43. 34
Figure 24. Deak Ferrand, Concept art of Caladan terrain. Rodeo FX Art Department (Art Station, 2021). https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EaVZo4 (accessed: 7 January 2024). 35
Figure 25. Caretta, M.A., A. Mukherji et.al. Current global drought risk and its components. From 2022: Water, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. (IPCC, 2022). https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/figures/chapter4/figure-4-009 (accessed: 03 January 2024)...........................................................36
Figure 26. Close-up of Paul with still-suit mask and desert scarf. Dune, 2021, Amazon Prime Video, 02:06:14. 37
Figure 27. Public Health England. Graph from Public Health England showing health conditions linked with NO2. (UK Government, 2023). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/healthmatters-air-pollution#how-air-pollution-harms-health (accessed: 02 January 2024).39