Time traveler
Octavia Butler's prophetic words echo this Earth Day
The United States celebrated its first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. In 2025, a day dedicated to preserving and appreciating our planet’s biodiversity and bounty takes on a different meaning. This year, we celebrate Earth Day in the midst of an environmental massacre – Trump’s administration has made it nauseatingly clear that the planet exists only to serve consumerism and host the vacation homes of the filthy rich.
The work this country has put into protecting natural spaces is imperiled by Trump’s recent executive orders, with implications detrimental to our existence.
In early January, I devoured a novel called “Parable of the Sower,” written in 1993 by the late award-winning author Octavia E. Butler. Paired with Trump’s nearing inauguration, the timing of my finishing this book felt like fate, almost as if the spirit of Butler dropped the book into my hands herself.
Set between the years of 2024-27, “Parable of the Sower” tells the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth plagued with fascism, environmental decay and chronic ignorance. Told through the diary entries of a young woman, readers are thrust into a slow descent into anarchy. One can’t help but draw parallels between Butler’s dystopian tale and our nation’s current state. But the book goes a step further, warning us of what could come.
The backdrop of this novel is an ever-worsening climate crisis combined with overpopulation and class warfare. The 1% stay protected while targeting regions and groups that are densely populated, under-resourced and widely marginalized.
The book’s protagonist, Lauren, is separated from her home and experiences rampant death in her community. She is forced to navigate a war-torn, disease and drug-ridden, actively decaying society by herself. Slowly, she learns to trust people around her. At the same time, Lauren juggles a rare condition that burdens her with experiencing the same sensations as those she sees experiencing physical pain.
Lauren’s father was a preacher in their community, but a complicated relationship pushes Lauren to reject traditional teachings on religion and God. She slowly formulates Earthseed, a way to think about God as constant change, not a person/spiritual figure. God is change, she preaches: “All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.”
Using Lauren’s lens to decipher Trump’s plans of destruction, I feel hyper aware of the greed and selfishness that clouds rational, science-based thinking. We can no longer count on our rivers or forests to be constant. Nor our mountain ranges, national parks and open spaces that are meant to be safe from the material world. But Butler’s concept of change – loss of earthen treasures and mass movements of ignorance and denial – is what defines our reality and must coax us to advocate for knowledge and growth.
For a book written more than 30 years ago, Butler’s prophetic insight into our modern political climate should heed more than just caution.
Her impact has extended far beyond her death in 2006, at just 58. She is the winner of multiple literary awards, including the Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards, and her literature has continued to fuel social advocacy. Many of her works, including “Parable of the Sower,” have landed on banned book lists.
Butler’s literature bleeds with thematic injustice toward African Americans, climate crises, politics and institutional disparity – all truths that shape the unpredictability of America in 2025.
Since finishing this book, I’ve found myself thinking of Lauren’s “God is Change” mantra while trying to digest devastating changes made by our own 1%. In a way, Lauren makes me want to be an agent of change, to push for what’s right, even when things are dire.
For the sake of Earth’s beings – you, me, the frogs, deer, beetles and everything in between – the time for change is here and now. We must act to stop this cycle of fear and loss before there’s nothing left. If we want to survive, we have to rely on each other. No higher power is coming to save us, and we are more powerful when we work together.
From beyond the grave, this must be what Butler wants to tell us. She seems to have transcended time to shed light on the potential of karmic retribution. As we enter a time that will test our loyalty and strength, let us internalize her wisdom. This Earth Day, let us show love for our world and each other, lest we, too, become the characters within Butler’s pages.
Maddy recently returned from amazing travels in Central America. She loves the spring flowers and is always searching for new books.