Blending science fiction to science fact

I’m a dedicated science fiction nut. I love reading stories and watching movies of anything sci-fi.

The other night I was watching a classic from 1973, “Soylent Green.” It was based on a 1956 novel by Harry Harrison, “Make Room! Make Room!.”

Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson (this was Robinson’s last movie before his death a few months after it was wrapped) were the stars of the movie adapted to the screen. It is one of my favorites, and it always makes me think.

It takes place in New York City in the year 2022 A.D. The Earth’s human population has grown way out of control. Global warming has turned most of the planet into dry deserts. The oceans are dying. Farms are fortresses, protected from the masses from all harm. Waste disposal includes disposing of the dead; funerals are a faded sad dream. Some people live in crowded apartment buildings. The rich live in gated, guarded luxury high-rises, some with live-in women called “furniture” (they come with the lease).

Fuel is for the rich. Most cars have been converted into shanties by the poor — that is, if they are lucky. Otherwise, they end up sleeping on stairs, on the street or crowded into old buildings, and overflowing masses end up in places like a church. Two apples, a piece of lettuce and rarest of rare — a piece of beef steak — will cost you more than $220. The purchase is made from behind iron grates at a well-guarded store.

The masses are fed Soylent Yellow, Soylent Blue and Soylent Green in the form of square crackers and bread loaves. Tuesday is Soylent Green day. Soylent Yellow and Soylent Blue are made from plankton and soy beans and processed for human consumption. Water is strictly rationed. Oh, I almost forgot, strawberries go for more than $150 dollars a jar.

Pretty bleak isn’t it? A murder mystery set in what is now the near future with a pretty evil twist to the whole story. It is the world setting that has made me think that maybe we are heading down a similar path. There are aspects to this “fantasy” that are frankly chilling. Some are creeping from fiction into real life.

Overpopulation is one. National Geographic Magazine published a series of articles in the January 2011 issue. According to the articles, we will have reached the 7 billion mark of humans on this earth during that year. By 2045, it is projected — barring war and disease — it will crack the 9 billion mark. That is a whole lot people, more than I care to imagine.

Can our world sustain so many mouths to feed and house? In the movie, just barely. The earth’s resources were on verge of collapse or well beyond that point. In real life, we are getting close in some areas. The warning signs are out there for all to see if one is willing to look. Of all the issues raised by the story, the issue of human overpopulation is one that really sticks out. I believe this one alone deserves great thought in real life.

The Soylent Corp. that runs the show in the flick has reached a tragic and desperate solution to the problem, as Heston’s character, a police detective for the NYPD, is doomed to find out in his investigation in the murder of one of the board members of this sinister company.

We are stripping this world of many of its resources at an alarming rate. The industrialized nations rake the earth for raw materials like copper, oil, iron ore and other minerals to sustain our modern life. Even food harvesting like from fishing comes into play in staggering quantities. Electricity powers everything from factories to your TV. This nation alone is one of the biggest consumers of everything on the planet. We are not alone, but we seem to have the biggest hunger for it all.

Then there’s pollution. America has made great strides in preventing pollution and cleaning it up since 1973 when the movie was made. Other nations have followed suit as well. But some haven’t got it yet. Take China, for instance. It’s burning coal with little care for what is being belched out, creating smog so thick you could cut it with a pickaxe. LA’s smog problem in comparison is just a minor burp.

Our need for fossil fuels is another. Like most earthen-based raw materials, this is finite. There will be an end to the supply. We are making some progress to wean ourselves from the addiction with new technology to power our transportation and in so doing stretch out our supplies. We still need oil to produce plastics and lubricants. We can take it even further by perfecting and using sources such as wind, tidal, solar and geothermal power generation. Many are being implemented here in Alaska.

Could something like a world depicted in the movie happen? Yes, some aspects of the movie could happen, if we let it. But we are leaning new ways and seeking even to space to feed the ever growing need to keep our industrialized society going.

The emergence of the ecology movement had just begun a few years before the movie’s release. The terms “conservation,” “environment” and “ecology” were becoming blended into what we now know as “environmentalism,” a term that has been getting some foolishly bad press in recent years. We are learning, slowly in some cases, that one should not soil one’s nest. In this case, the Earth itself.

“Soylent Green” may be an old movie, but it is still very relevant today.

Even though this was a movie made nearly 40 years ago. It does get one to think, and that was the whole point. Before anyone pooh-poohs it as nonsense, science fiction has played a major part in our history. H.G. Wells predicted tanks and gas warfare decades before World Wars I and II. Jules Verne took us under the sea in a huge submarine called the Nautilus nearly a century before the first nuclear sub bearing the same name left dock. Arthur C. Clarke envisioned the first telecommunications satellites well before the making of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a movie based on one of his books. The landings on the moon were subjects of many science stories that became a reality in 1969 by Apollo 11.

Now we are venturing out beyond the moon, even seriously talking about putting colonies there and on Mars. Mining the moon, asteroids and other planets is going to become a reality in the years to come. There is a rich source of raw materials to feed our needs for centuries. From water to ores, it is all out there in nearly unlimited quantities.

Your cellphone and iPads? Thank the Star Trek franchise for these. These stories, films and TV shows do have an impact on us all — some negative, some positive. Some are just plain fun to read or watch. A lot get us to think beyond our little worlds and troubles. So you see, science fiction can become fact.

Now as to what Soylent Green is made of? Well, I can’t spoil it for you now can I? Watch it and find out for yourself. All I can say about that is I hope that portion of the movie stays in the realm of fiction, for if we ever do go down that route, may God have mercy on the entire human race.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.