Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia Butler

Published by Four Walls Eight Windows (1993).

  • Parable of the Sower is a speculative fiction book written by Octavia Butler and published in 1993. The book follows the journey of Lauren Olamina, a girl who is able to feel the pain of others, as she comes of age in a world ravaged by climate change and structural inequality. In the story, Lauren begins to discover and develop a new religion, Earthseed, that she believes will help prepare the human race to change the world they live in and to populate other planets as well.
  • Parable’s themes of adaptation and building community in the face of environmental and structural degradation, as well as the philosophy of Earthseed (which declares that “God is change”), are resonant with current responses to the climate crisis.

How is this related to climate?

  • Throughout the book, Lauren and her community have to find ways to live on the meager resources available to them in Southern California. Water is scarce and must be rationed off, and most of the food Lauren and her family eat they grew themselves. Lauren also learns how to forage and grow crops that are native to the region and require less water. In reality, California has experienced several droughts and crop failures as a result of climate change.
    • According to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s Palmer Drought Severity Index, California experienced its most extreme drought in at least a hundred years in 2021 (graph below).

California’s Palmer Drought Severity Index measures the dryness of a region based on temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture data, classifying months as “wet” (the blue bars on top) or “dry” (the red bars on the bottom). Dry values below -3 indicate severe droughts, and values below -6 indicate very extreme droughts. 2021 was California’s driest month in over 100 years, with a value of -7.05 (from California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, 2023).

  • The two major factors that disrupt the water cycle and contribute to droughts – warming temperatures and lack of precipitation – are impacted greatly by climate change. Higher surface temperatures increase evaporation rates, which causes the ground to dry more quickly and reduces soil moisture. Increasing irregularity of wind and ocean currents is making rainfalls in the U.S. west more infrequent, but often heavier, with longer stretches of droughts in between.
    • Since 2021, California has experienced heavy rainfall and floods as a result of atmospheric rivers: bands of moisture in the atmosphere carrying water and small particles for thousands of miles. About half of California’s annual precipitation comes from a few intense atmospheric rivers that come in the fall and winter months. Atmospheric rivers are known as “drought busters” because of the temporary relief they provide from ongoing drought conditions. One of these intense atmospheric rivers, the Pineapple Express (pictured below), moved through California in February 2024 and brought heavy rainfall that filled many water reservoirs to above their average levels.

A simulation of an atmospheric river from Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean bringing moisture up to California on the USA western coast created by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Global Forecast System. This particular atmospheric river from February 2024 is known as the “Pineapple Express” (from The Washington Post, 2024).

  • The drought conditions also make it difficult for agriculture in the region, which is especially dire considering that California is the USA’s most productive state agriculturally. As a result of irregular weather patterns created by climate change, crops receive little rain when they need it the most in the summer months. In response, some farmers have tried to grow crops that are more drought-resistant, like agave and mangoes (image below), or to develop crops genetically resistant to irregular weather, like walnuts.

Gary Gragg, a mango farmer in Sacramento Valley, examines the buds of one of his mango trees. Gragg has anticipated growing and selling mangoes in California’s warmer future ever since as a child he first heard about global warming (from Cal Matters, 2023).

  • A key plot point in the Parable of the Sower book is mass migration from California to the Pacific Northwest: when Lauren’s community is destroyed, she decides the only way to survive is to move up north where the soil is still fertile and water is less scarce. Similarly, many people facing the worst effects of climate change have been forced to migrate to places with less extreme climate.
    • The 6th report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in 2023, predicts that globally 143 million people will be displaced by rising sea levels, droughts, and warmer temperatures in the next 30 years. 
    • Climate migration is already happening in many places of the world. Some farmers from Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, for example, are migrating northward because the droughts and erratic weather patterns have made it near-impossible for them to make a living off of growing crops. Additionally, the increased difficulty of growing crops contributes to rising food prices, which raise the cost of living as well. 

References and additional resources