A metaphor for our modern times?

A deepening climate crisis

As a biologist who loves The Rime, the message of wilful biodiversity destruction, living with and suffering its consequences, dawning realisation and the finding of (if not always the search for) redemption is all in the Rime. It’s where, I suggest, we are now. I was in the audience at a research seminar when Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester, announced that human impacts on our planet were so great, so extensive and so rapid, that an epoch-scale boundary had been crossed – and crossed sometime in the last two centuries.

I was perched on the edge of my seat when Jan suggested that a new geological epoch was needed, the Anthropocene. An epoch delineated by our actions. I squirmed into my seat as it dawned on me – the Rubicon had been passed, the albatross had been shot, and my world was now physically different. Life really was under threat. I was… we were… living a new geological epoch. Was there any ‘going back’?

In The Rime, killing the albatross sets in motion a series of events that changed the Mariner’s world. Through our mining activities we have moved more sediment than all the world’s rivers. Through burning fossil fuels we have raised the temperature of the planet and begun to acidify our ocean. Through producing plastics and nuclear explosions we have laid down physical markers marking our presence.

Are we suffering from Climate Grief?

It is also not beyond the realms of possibility to argue that the grief which inhabits much of The Rime parallels what has been termed Ecological or Climate Grief. This is a psychological response to biodiversity destruction and the negative effects of global climate change and the response may be common among, but not restricted to, scientists.

In his perceptive and hard-hitting book A World of Wounds, the renowned ecologist Paul Ehrlich pointed out as early as 1997 that many ecologists were drawn to the subject because being children of this ‘world of wounds’, they wanted to be part of the healing. However, many found themselves discouraged or even depressed in their work so Ehrlich’s suggestion was “let’s cooperate more, change some of our priorities, and have fun while we’re trying to save the world”.

Can The Rime be a source for good?

While such an ability has heuristic interest to the biologist we need more hopeful and effective ways of losing the dead albatross from around our neck. Perhaps we can look to The Rime for inspiration in that regard as the poem does end with some degree of redemption. It is a redemption strange and awe-filled, unlooked for and arguably unexpected.

Fuelled by a change of heart and inspired by renewed contact with the sea creatures he once showed disdain for, the Mariner displays a fusion of science, art and spirituality, impossible to dissect. If we are to save our planet, save ourselves, a similar change of heart will be needed as we find ways to reconnect with a world which – for generations – we have plundered and, without question, shown complete disdain for. Poets and artists have always believed their work can speak across the centuries. If that is true, it may well be that The Rime is the tale of the Anthropocene.