Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin has spoken about his endorsement of the popular fan theory that his fantasy series serves as a metaphor for the threat of climate change.
Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels of course serve as the source material for the hugely-popular HBO series, with the loaded phrase “winter is coming” becoming one of the best-known catchphrases from the TV adaptation.
The author has now given his take on one of Game of Thrones‘ more obvious political messages about the surge of global warming, admitting that, “in a broad sense, [there is] a certain parallel there”.
“The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of ‘winter is coming,’ which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world,” he told The New York Times Style Magazine.
“And there is a great parallel there to, I think, what I see this planet doing here, where we’re fighting our own battles. We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice.
“All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9% of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world.”
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“And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs,” he continued. “Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean. So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those.
“We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not NFL players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world,” Martin concluded.
In other Game of Thrones news, Sean Bean has spoken about the possibility that his character Ned Stark might be resurrected in a future prequel series.