aftermath
our mission
Source: Albert Lynch 1851-1912
There cannot be any reasonable doubt that the environment is, far and away, the most important element of our existence. Our lives depend on it, for food, for water, for the air that we breathe. Without it, nothing else matters, because without it we cannot exist. This makes it childishly obvious that it should be protected at all costs.
The need for positive action was never more urgent
And yet, we are doing nothing of the kind. We are actively and knowingly destroying the environment on a massive scale. We are polluting air, water and soil so badly that the dire consequences of this folly are appearing everywhere. Air pollution alone is killing millions of people a year; its damage to the environment is immeasurable. The symptoms of climate change are also unmistakable: more extreme weather, more floods and landslides, more heat waves, droughts and wildfires, and it's only the beginning. This is deadly serious, a clear and present threat to our existence and yet it receives but a fraction of the attention it deserves. The media will cover terrorist attacks for days, even if it concerns just a few people, but ignore the environment, which concerns us all, giving it the smallest possible coverage, and only when scientists utter grave warnings or governments get together to make vague little plans about doing something in the future.
The reason for this neglect of our environment is simple: ignorance, deep and wide, among our most influential people. Businessmen, politicians, lawyers and journalists are all very poorly educated in environmental matters. Most of them have only studied economics, law, social sciences and other disciplines completely detached from the natural world, the real world. This is bad, very bad, given the devastating impact we are having on that world. People in the arts are not much better: few authors, filmmakers or musicians have anything relevant to offer on the subject.
We at aftermath want to change this, raise the awareness of the dangers we are facing, dangers so novel and huge that most people seem unable to grasp them. We believe that good, imaginative writing can help, by bringing to life what may seem unimaginable, making it visible, tangible, plausible. So, we are looking for the best and the brightest among contemporary writers, capable of creating short stories to illuminate these issues, present and future: all the madness, the folly, the suicidal rush for always more while we have already taken far too much, and the likely outcome of it all.
"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."
Ansel Adams.
" Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day."
Anton Chekhov.
