Saving the Titanics is the final story of the anthology. It deals with eco-anxiety and also summarizes many of the solutions dealt with in earlier stories.
Navigation
Read the first page from the story below:
John scanned the circle of chairs. All occupied bar two. The ten people in the room were getting restless. He checked the clock, hoping that they hadn’t got lost. The session been moved at the last minute into one of the smaller rooms in the Community Centre to make way for a Zumba class. Finally, two girls stumbled in and sat down, eyes averted.
He stood up and smiled round the group.
‘Welcome, everybody. I’m John, I’ll be leading you all through the Climate Anxiety Alleviation Program. Over the next six weeks, we’ll explore our thoughts and feelings about the climate. Can we have any volunteers to introduce themselves?’
Twelve pairs of eyes studiously avoided his gaze. Eventually, one lad, about twenty raised his hand.
‘I’m Ethan, I don’t have climate anxiety, I just came along to support my girlfriend.’ He squeezed the hand of the girl next to him.
John looked at her, hoping she’d speak, but she dropped her eyes and looked away.
Steve Willis, Martin Hastie and D.A. Baden ‘Saving the Titanics’.
Meet the authors: Steve Willis, Martin Hastie and D.A. Baden
Steve Willis is an engineer and innovator who has worked for years on large scale industrial and environmental projects. During the covid lock downs in Malaysia he began writing short, climate fiction stories which explored potential positive outcomes to the climate crisis, stories where the climate crisis was actually fixed. Steve has an unusually broad, heavy industrial background, combined with sharp observation, a vivid imagination, relentless persistence and a talent for lucid dreaming. He is using these unusual skills to continuously seek massive scale climate solutions, to identify climate start-up opportunities and to write stories which capture some of the essence of working on the climate crisis challenge.
Martin Hastie is a freelance writer and editor. Over the last ten years he has written for TV, radio, stage and online. Working in television production, he helped to produce content for shows in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. He has also taught creative writing and is an award-winning stand-up comedian.
D.A. Baden is Professor of Sustainability at the University of Southampton and has published numerous book chapters and articles in the academic realm, and a eco-themed rom-com Habitat Man. She wrote the script for a musical, performed in Southampton and London in 2016, and has written three other screenplays. Denise set up the series of free Green Stories writing competitions in 2018 to inspire writers to integrate green solutions into their writing (www.greenstories.org.uk). Denise has written three stories for this anthology, and co-written two others. The Pitch is adapted from her novel Habitat Man. Follow on https://www.dabaden.com/ and @DABadenauthor
Actions for the Public
Social media campaigns & lobbying of governments.
Find your government representative or Member of Parliament and email them, whether you are in Australia; Canada; UK; USA or elsewhere.
Vote for ‘The Party of the Future’.
