Waterworld
February 1, 2026:
In the podcast The Blue Machine Jonathan Bate interviewed Helen Czerski regarding her authored book published under the same name. Within the episode, we are engaged with a range of narratives and realities that relate to how nature has been affected by the infringement of human culture, how our water’s engine capabilities fluctuate, and how indigenous cultural belief in nature being an extension of oneself. All of these points cumulatively reflect a thematic nature of the integral connection between all living and organic forms. The recounting of the evolution of whale ears, and the biological convenience of ear wax formations takes on another purpose entirely. As their sonic perspective of the world shifted with the shifting in the mechanics of war, and their biology reflects this stress. Czerski asserts that commonly people will hear this and similar tales of threat or harm towards our oceans, but feel incapable of direction or action. This innate response towards the articulation of a threat and the educational steps one can take to understanding the simple mechanics of an organic and natural engine.
Waves have been a recordable phenomenon for millennia, and yet the common practice to understand the patterns of its swells did not begin until WWII. When viewing the supplemental material, the Netflix episode of Explained utilizes the interview documentary format to go into depth the relationship between a globalist culture and the transnational relationship with water that occurs when natural resources are not valued at the rate they should be. The Netflix episode highlights the unnatural instinct to profit on a man-made problem of scarcity, a countercultural phenomenon and response to this is reflecting on the indigenous relationship with water as a source of life. Pacific Islander and American Pacific Northwestern tribal cultures heavily center around water legends and the extension of the canoe, kayak, or other water vessel, as an extension of themselves, and are not prone to the same fearful instinct of the ebbs and flows of the ocean’s swells.
Betsy Otto, a water analyst interviewed by the directors of Explained elucidates to the audience the economical value of water incorrectly reflects the finite nature of the resource. Inconsistent policies globally do nothing to curb the piping of water to dry and arid regions, stop companies from buying out limited surface water, repair the practice of inefficient irrigation, and invest in the technology and construction to prevent leakage of runoff drinking water into the environment. Often such being wrought with pollutants or over salinated water. Many of these problems have a root in the American-driven globalist culture that seeks to colonize with consumption. With the reputation and historical record of being founded on racism and genocide, it is less hopeful that the American empire is going to lead the world into a consumer utopia. It is up to the return of indigenous and immigrant traditions to prevail and influence the structure of our systems in order to truly see any sort of change in the states.
References:
Bate, J., & Czerski, H. (2024, April 11). The Blue Machine. Blue Humanities. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nGrcjgYrmu1KrzKJybPxe
Posner, J. (2018, September 12). World’s Water Crisis. Explained. Episode 19 , Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C65iqOSCZOY&t=97s