Thanks again, everyone.
I do like that it's the American remaining silent at the meeting of an organisation that has achieved a global presence via enviromentalism. Loved that.
It's funny that, despite all the differences, TTL also has a 2C goal on climate change, arbitrary as that is in OTL...
Yeah, the 2C goal is arbitrary. On the other hand, climate change got started earlier ITTL and progressed farther before we got the technology to deal with it. Lower 21st-century populations and a greater coordinated effort have mitigated that somewhat, but not entirely, and there's also the expected resistance from oil and gas interests. So I figure that the world in 2015 would be in roughly the same position in terms of climate as OTL, meaning that an organization trying to set a realistic target goal would probably still come up with something in the 2C range. There are plenty of people arguing for 1.5 or 1.75, but that hasn't yet become policy.
And yes, the United States is among the parties more skeptical of what the Consistory Environmental Section is doing. Officially, the section has no governing function, and it can't force anyone to do anything unless permitted by treaty, but when an organization has 1 percent of world GDP to throw around and is coordinating the joint efforts of many governments, it can't help acquiring influence. There are those who are afraid the Environmental Section is the seed of a world government and those who hope it is; neither is true, but those at the skeptical end of the spectrum know that temporary measures have a way of becoming permanent.
What Malê Rising does which is novel is massively expand the scope of cultures and locations that are given a generous and interesting treatment. Putting Africa centrestage, with places like South America and the Pacific also enjoying a great deal of good press, and combining it with excellent writing and a compelling narrative, has put an enormous crack in what I'd call the AH-glass ceiling.
I wasn't the first to do that - Kiat's
Songhai timeline (the actual timeline begins at post 93) dates from 2010, and of course Jared's
Lands of Red and Gold, while not African, was a rich and detailed timeline that put non-European cultures at center stage. There were plenty of Asian timelines predating Malê Rising as well.
I hope, though, that I
helped to crack the glass ceiling. When I first signed up here, I did notice that Africa was seldom mentioned and hardly ever treated in any depth, and the Malêverse was in part an effort to remedy that. There's quite a bit more African content now, and if I helped to open the door, I'll consider that an achievement.
They say it's easier to show things getting worse than getting better: so you really lived up to the challenge with this TL, Johnathan. Great job.
I'll admit that one of the inspirations for this story - there were many - was a rebellion against the idea that dystopian worlds are somehow more honest and interesting than worlds in which people have learned, at least some of the time, to listen to their better nature. There's a
Le Guin quote that comes to mind.
Does anyone have a favorite Malêverse moment? Mine is still
this one, although there are some close contenders.
