John Darnton, best-selling novelist and a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, blends his two genres in a new book, Burning Sky. It’s climate fiction rooted firmly in nonfiction—a story involving three generations of one family confronting the terrifying challenge of global warming. It’s an all-too-possible scenario in the not-too-distant future: Scientists undertake a scheme to tame the power of the sun.
Early in his Burning Sky research, Darnton, who has worked for the New York Times for over 40 years as a reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent, came across “Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth,” a 2015 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. “A very easy title to understand,” he recalls. He learned that solving the climate crisis by geoengineering was possible but not without downsides, like the potential to harm or destroy the ozone layer. “We would all burn up,” he says.
Interest piqued, Darnton explores the imagined physical and psychological impacts of being cut off from the sky in his novel. “Can you imagine no brilliant sunshine, not being able to see stars or the moon, and what it would do if you had this ceiling over you at all times? It’s not pleasant,” he says.
Ultimately, Darnton isn’t convinced reflecting sunlight will solve the climate crisis. Still, he hopes Burning Sky, which is dedicated to his children and grandchildren, serves as a hopeful warning to readers. “If we just become cynical pessimists, we will become impassive. Remain as you are—angry—but don’t give up.”
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Why did you choose to write climate fiction?
After five other novels, I chose to deal with the climate because I believe that global warming is, simply put, the most important issue around. The threat is existential: our continued life on this planet. The seed of the idea for my novel—that a geoengineered shield could have massive unintended consequences—was actually planted years ago, during a conversation. Over Thanksgiving turkey, I asked my nephew, a physicist, whether he was worried about the future. No, he replied, We’ll be able to deal with it. How? I asked. He explained the concept of solar radiation modification by seeding the stratosphere with particles of sulfur to reflect back portions of sunlight. Is there any downside? I asked. Well, he replied, we won’t be able to see the sun.
The prospect of living on earth without the possibility of viewing the sun, moon, or stars, the idea of being cut off from the cosmos, losing the awe and terror that comes with experiencing our tiny place in the universe, was troubling, to say the least. So I dug into the research and came up with a story that imagines what could happen when a “Cocoon” is deployed as a last-ditch attempt to stave off catastrophe. It takes place over the next 70 years, centering on a single family at the heart of the matter, and involves children turning against their parents. Happily, it doesn’t end badly.
Who are your favorite climate writers?
Of course, the king Kim Stanley Robinson and his The Ministry for the Future. The book begins with a horrendous description of a massive heat wave in India leading to the deaths of millions, but it then takes an optimistic path as humans come together to solve the problem. I found the various solutions intriguing and imaginative. On another level, I applaud nonfiction writers, journalists like David Wallace-Wells of the New York Times and Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker, who keep us well informed about problems and progress in the field.
Do you call yourself an environmentalist?
I think of myself more as a journalist and a novelist.
What do you still indulge in—your greatest extravagance—despite the climate crisis?
I love to travel, a hangover from my days as a foreign correspondent, so my greatest indulgence is using a car and taking airplanes. My car is a 2010 hybrid, but it doesn’t do enough, so my next will be electric. For planes, I’m looking for advances in less-polluting aviation fuel to come along.
Which climate activist do you most admire?
James Hansen, formerly of NASA, for raising the alarm about global warming in the 1980s.
What are your greatest climate fears for the future?
My greatest fear is that the situation will get worse if nations continue not to live up to their decarbonization pledges. In that case, we may be tempted to deploy a radical form of geoengineering that could have unforeseen consequences. Instead, we should rely on ever-increasingly drastic methods to cut back on fossil fuel emissions and scientific solutions to reduce the amount of CO2 and other toxins already in the atmosphere.
When it comes to climate, what’s your idea of perfect happiness? A favorite natural/outdoors spot?
My perfect pastime is a walk through the woods, complete with meadows, strong trees, and a canopy of green.
What’s your current state of mind when it comes to the climate crisis?
I try to keep my pessimism under control by searching out signs of progress. Public enlightenment is the number one hope.
Which is harder: writing a book or fighting for clean air and a better climate?
Definitely harder to find a good way to advocate for clean air. It’s difficult to find an activity that brings visible results. We must all just keep pushing ahead in every conceivable way, confident that over the long run our efforts, combined with ever more visible climate-caused natural disasters, will turn the tide.
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