Widely considered one of the best science fiction novels of all time, “Dune” continues to influence the way writers, artists and inventors imagine the future.
Of course, there are Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning films, “Dune: Part One” (2021) and “Dune: Part Two” (2024).
But Frank Herbert’s masterpiece also helped Afrofuturist novelist Octavia Butler imagine a future of conflict amid environmental disaster; it inspired Elon Musk to build SpaceX and Tesla and push humanity towards the stars and a greener future; and it’s hard not to see parallels in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” franchise, especially their fascination with desert planets and giant worms.
And yet, when Herbert sat down to write “Dune” in 1963, he didn’t think about how he could leave Earth behind. He thought about how he could save it.
Herbert wanted to tell a story about the environmental crisis on our own planet, a world that has been pushed to the brink of ecological catastrophe. Technologies that were unthinkable fifty years ago had brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and the environment to the brink of destruction; huge industries sucked wealth from the ground and spewed toxic fumes into the air.
When the book was published, these themes were also front and center for readers. After all, they were living in the aftermath of both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the publication of “Silent Spring,” conservationist Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking study of pollution and its threat to the environment and human health.
‘Dune’ quickly became a beacon for the young environmental movement and a battle flag for the new science of ecology.
Indigenous wisdom
Although the term “ecology” had been coined almost a century earlier, the first textbook on ecology was not written until 1953, and the field was rarely mentioned in newspapers or magazines at the time. Few readers had heard of the emerging science, and even fewer knew what it suggested about the future of our planet.
While studying “Dune” for a book I am writing on the history of ecology, I was surprised to learn that Herbert learned nothing about ecology as a student or as a journalist.
Instead, he was inspired to explore ecology by the conservation practices of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest. He mainly got to know them from two friends.
The first was Wilbur Ternyik, a descendant of Chief Coboway, the Clatsop leader who welcomed explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark when their expedition reached the west coast in 1805. The second, Howard Hansen, was an art teacher and oral historian of the Quileute tribe. .
Ternyik, who was also an expert field ecologist, took Herbert on a tour of the dunes of Oregon in 1958. There he explained his work: building huge sand dunes using beach grasses and other deep-rooted plants to keep the sand from blowing away. to the nearby city of Florence – a terraforming technology detailed in ‘Dune’.
As Ternyik explains in a manual he wrote for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his work in Oregon was part of an effort to restore landscapes scarred by European colonization, especially the large river jetties built by early settlers.
These structures disrupted coastal currents and created vast expanses of sand, turning parts of the Pacific Northwest’s lush landscape into desert. This scenario is repeated in ‘Dune’, where the novel’s setting, the planet Arrakis, was similarly destroyed by the first colonists.
Hansen, who became godfather to Herbert’s son, had closely studied the equally drastic impact of logging on the homelands of the Quileute people on the Washington coast. He encouraged Herbert to carefully investigate ecology and gave him a copy of Paul B. Sears’ “Where There is Life,” from which Herbert collected one of his favorite quotes: “The highest function of science is to advance our understanding give in to the consequences. ”
The Fremen of ‘Dune’, who live in the deserts of Arrakis and carefully manage the ecosystem and nature, embody these teachings. In the fight to save their world, they expertly combine ecological science with indigenous practices.
Treasures hidden in the sand
But the work that had the greatest impact on “Dune” was Leslie Reid’s 1962 ecological study, “The Sociology of Nature.”
In this groundbreaking work, Reid explained ecology and ecosystem science to a popular audience, illustrating the complex interdependence of all creatures in the environment.
“The more deeply ecology is studied,” writes Reid, “the clearer it becomes that interdependence is a guiding principle, that animals are linked by unbreakable bonds of dependence.”
In the pages of Reid’s book, Herbert found a model for the Arrakis ecosystem in a surprising place: the guano islands of Peru. As Reid explains, the collected bird droppings found on these islands made an ideal fertilizer. The guano islands are home to mountains of dung described as a new ‘white gold’ and one of the most valuable substances on earth. In the late 19th century, they became ground zero in a series of resource wars between Spain and some of its former colonies, including Peru. , Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.
At the heart of the plot of “Dune” is a struggle for control of the “herb,” an invaluable resource. Harvested from the sands of the desert planet, it is both a luxury food flavoring and a hallucinogenic drug that allows some people to bend space, making interstellar travel possible.
There is some irony in the fact that Herbert came up with the idea of condiments from bird droppings. But he was fascinated by Reid’s careful account of the unique and efficient ecosystem that produced a valuable – if harmful – asset.
As the ecologist explains, cold currents in the Pacific Ocean push nutrients to the surface of nearby waters, allowing photosynthetic plankton to thrive. These support an amazing fish population that feeds hordes of birds, along with whales.
In early drafts of “Dune,” Herbert combined all these stages in the life cycle of the giant sandworms, football-field-sized monsters that prowl the desert sands and devour everything in their path.
Herbert imagines that each of these terrifying creatures starts out as small, photosynthetic plants that grow into larger “sand trout.” Eventually they become enormous sandworms that churn up the desert sand and spit herbs onto the surface.
In both the book and ‘Dune: Part One’, soldier Gurney Halleck recites a cryptic verse that comments on this reversal of marine life and the arid extraction regimes: ‘For they will suck from the bounty of the seas and from the treasures that are hidden are in the sand.”
‘Dune’ revolutions
After “Dune” was published in 1965, the environmental movement eagerly embraced it.
Herbert spoke at Philadelphia’s first Earth Day in 1970, and in the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog – a famous do-it-yourself manual and bulletin for environmentalists – “Dune” was advertised with the tagline: “The metaphor is ecology. The theme revolution.”
In the opening of Denis Villeneuve’s first adaptation, “Dune,” Chani, a native Fremen played by Zendaya, asks a question that anticipates the second film’s violent conclusion: “Who will be our next oppressors?”
The direct nod to a sleeping Paul Atreides, the white protagonist played by Timothée Chalamet, drives the sharp anti-colonial message home like a knife. In fact, both of Villeneuve’s films skillfully expand on the anti-colonial themes of Herbert’s novels.
Unfortunately, the sharpness of their environmental criticism has dulled. But Villeneuve has suggested he could also adapt ‘Dune Messiah’ for his next film in the series – a novel in which the ecological damage to Arrakis is starkly clear.
I hope that Herbert’s prescient ecological warning, which resonated so powerfully with readers in the 1960s, will be exposed in “Dune 3.”
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and analysis to help you understand our complex world.
It was written by: Devin Griffiths, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
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Devin Griffiths does not work for, consult with, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.