Forecasts of the End

December 2017 Issue

Weather reports, those daily attempts to predict the future, may sometimes appear to be more a form of divination or mythology than an exact science. Climatological data, on the other hand, is all too clear: the rise in average temperatures in parallel with atmospheric carbon, increasingly unstable weather conditions across the globe, melting ice caps, rising sea levels. For our December issue, the end of a tumultuous 2017, we will consider ordinary, exotic, and extreme weather forms (fog, drought, wind, flooding, falling ash, madness, balloons), and the climatological end of the world. Forecasts, here, take many forms, from data gathered over many years on an isolated glacier and detailed surveys of the present earth to speculative dystopias where humanity must contend with climate-induced surplus, hide indoors from killing conditions, or dream of the hospitable Earth as we have it now. Other films suggest that climate shifts and societal collapse may be just part of the anthropological cycle. So enjoy all of this while it lasts: 2018 may be the year to adapt or fade into the geological record for future generations of intelligent sea creatures to interpret when they inherit the Earth from us.