The Anthropocene in Frank Herbert’s Dune Series

Tara B Smith

Frank Herbert’s Dune trilogy is, on the surface, a political space opera. A Mars-like

planet sets the scene for a tale focused on the intrigue and drama of a powerful ruling

family, the Atreides. However, this superficial plot thinly masks deeper ecological

truths, which warn the reader of their anthropocentric perspectives. Herbert used his

novels as vehicles to promote environmental conservation. This paper is an exploration

into the didactic lessons and more subtle ways Herbert constructs his fictional planet,

Arrakis, and the role of humanity’s interaction with the planet and its ecosystems.

Herbert’s work is reflective of the current geological age of the Earth: the

Anthropocene and the environmental criticism that echoes within it. This paper will

consider Dune as an Anthropocene landscape terraformed by its inhabitants, and the

contrasting environmental messages between the three novels (Dune, Children of

Dune and Dune Messiah).

KEY WORDS – Herbert, Dune, Ecology, Anthropocene, Environment, Ecocriticism

Introduction

Frank Herbert’s Dune series is a didactic narrative which promotes ecological conservation.

The novels tell the story of a planet which is destroyed by its inhabitants who fail to see the

intricate ecosystems and integrated patterns the planet sustains. By doing this, Herbert

mirrors our own planet and warns humanity to be wary of changing the climate to suit our

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own needs. Herbert’s Dune novels have been very popular amongst science fiction lovers for

their political intrigue, flawed characters, and fast action content. Less explored and

commented upon are the philosophical and ecological currents in Herbert’s work, as well as

his authorial dialogue with the reader. The Dune franchise at present consists of six novels in

the main corpus by Herbert, and thirteen additional novels co-written by Herbert, his son

Brian Herbert, and Kevin Anderson, that enrich the universe of the original six novels. This

paper is limited to the first three novels in Herbert’s original series; Dune (1965), Dune

Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). This paper will first provide a plot summary of

the novels before situating this work within the greater context of studies on the

environmental themes in the Dune. Thirdly, this paper will explore the relevant

environmental theories and influences of Herbert’s works. In the series, Herbert explores two

competing perspectives; the viewpoint and the needs of the planet and the needs of the

people. In Dune, the environment is manipulated by the Fremen who increase the moisture of

the desert dry planet in order to terraform the planet into one which produces and retains

water. This project within the novels is heralded as a community-based enriching activity

through the narrative voices of his characters. However, in Dune Messiah and Children of

Dune the repercussions of the environmental changes have a negative effect not only on the

natural environment but the characters themselves. This paper will examine three examples

within the novels to demonstrate Herbert’s environmental message of preservation and

conservation. Firstly, the poetic death and epithet of the planetologist Liet-Kynes at the end

of Dune represents a pivotal moment in the psychological perspective in the novel, as he is

killed by the desert he was trying to tame, a new ecological movement is created. In the

second example, Herbert reflects this changing attitude by juxtaposing two key characters

(Paul and his son, Leto) and their attitude on the environment. Thirdly, the changing views

towards the environment are echoed in the character Stilgar who advocates for the

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terraforming project in the first book but begins to have doubts in the second and third as he

sees his culture begin to soften and change. Prior to examining these areas individually, a

brief plot summary is provided.

Plot Summary
The first novel of Herbert’s trilogy, Dune, begins in the year 10,191, approximately 8,200

years into the future at the time of writing (Herbert, 1979). The galaxy is a multi-planet

system which is under feudal monarchic rule, in which major Houses jostle for primacy. The

current Emperor, Shaddam Corrino IV, sits atop of the political hierarchy. 1 The novel focuses

on characters from House Atreides; Duke Leto, Lady Jessica, their son Paul and daughter

Alia. The planet at the heart of the series is Arrakis, or Dune, a harsh desert planet hostile to

most living organisms and home to a native population called the Fremen, who have adapted

to the unique ecosystem of the planet. The Fremen use sandworms, deadly giant creatures,

both to travel and to harvest spice, a valuable resource prized by the whole galaxy. To make

the planet more habitable the Fremen begin to collect moisture from the air through

catchments and plant durable scrubs to slowly increase the moisture in the air with the goal of

creating a natural water cycle on the arid planet. The project of terraforming Dune is initially

undertaken by two Planetologists, Pardot and his son, Liet-Kynes, who set in motion a slow,

grassroots, community-led project to make the planet more habitable. Their project is fast-

tracked with the introduction of the protagonist of the trilogy, Paul Atreides, who utilises the

Fremen and his control over them as a religious leader, to hasten the terraforming project.

Paul’s fast-tracking of the project shifts the environmental perspective to the second strand in

the novel, in which the terraforming project has dire consequences to the balanced ecosystem

1
Author’s Note: For any Dune specific terms or characters see Glossary, 116-126.

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on Dune. In Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, the impact of this process on changing the

planet – of terraforming – is demonstrated by the softening of Fremen customs and

characters. It is this shift through the novels that is at the heart of this paper, as it reflects

contradictory perceptions of humanity’s relationship with, and responsibility to, the

environment.

Academic Studies of Dune

Surprisingly, very little academic research has chosen to explore Frank Herbert’s Dune series,

with only a few scholars engaging with certain themes. Journal publications on the politics

and religious climates in the novels are more present, there still seems in general a real lack

of academic enquiry into Herbert and his works of fiction in the themes of its environmental

message. This is particularly unusual, as the very dedication of Dune is to the dry-land

ecologists (Herbert 1979). As the novels have at their very core a real promotion of

ecological conservation, it seems unusual that more has not been written on the topic. A

scholar which does engage with Herbert in an environmental context is Chris Pak. In his

chapter, “Ecology and Environmental Awareness in 1960s-1970s Terraforming Stories”,

explores the works contribution to climate change fiction (Pak, 2016). In his chapter, Pak

explores authors like Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, William S. Burroughs who all shared ideas

with scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in particular as well as their theories on

Gaia and cybernetics (Pak 2016, 99). For Pak, Herbert’s focus on planetary system ecology

anticipated Lovelock’s Gaia theory and Pak offers through a set of examples how Herbert’s

work combines politics, society, religion and ecology into a narrative about conservation (Pak

2016, 99). Pak’s chapter offers a very important introduction into the importance of Herbert

in contributing both to the terraforming motif within science fiction but also the ecological

messages within the text. In contrast, this chapter will extend past the terraforming motif to

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explore the wider environmental messages in the novel, with an emphasis on the

Anthropocene and humankinds negative impact on nature.

Another academic study of these themes is Jathan Day’s Masters’ thesis, “Water as Power in

Frank Herbert’s Dune” (Day, 2014). This work focuses on one of the true resources in the

novels (water), using it as a vector to explore the political landscapes (Day, 2014). However,

I would argue that while water is incredibly important, a systems-based approach which

attempts to engage with all features of the planet, would give a more in depth understanding

of the ecological perspectives in the novels. In Leonard Scigaj’s 1983 journal in

Extrapolation he explores ecology alongside technology and the Presbyterian focus of the

series is explored (Scigaj, 1983). In this article, it is Herbert’s critique of one-track solutions

to complex problems, messianic “heroes” and the solution found in the zen like balance. It is

this focus, rather than a purely ecological tract that is at the heart of Scigaj’s analysis.

In the very same science fiction journal but 20 years further into the future, Susan Stratton

compared the environmental action in Dune with the science fiction Kim Stanley Robinson’s

Pacific Edge (Robinson, 1990). In this article, Stratton points out that a survey of three

popular science fiction journals (Foundation, Extrapolation and Science Fiction Studies) in

the late 90s barely contain any in depth study of ecological themes in science fiction works

(Stratton 2001, 303). In this paper, Stratton labels Herbert’s Dune as a killer or a death story,

a concept drawn from Ursula Le Guin’s “Carrier-Bag Theory” and Joseph Meeker’s “The

Comic Mode” (Stratton 2001). Stratton critiques Herbert, stating he explores the ecological

consequences without offering any real solution, emphasizing the role of Paul in leading the

narrative development (Stratton 2001, 308). However, while Stratton offers an interesting

5
point, she fails to see Herbert’s solution to environmental degradation. Herbert does focus on

the characterisation and flaws of Paul, indeed he uses the revitalisation and conquest of his

son, Leto, to reveal his solution for the environment.

In Dune, it is Leto’s connection with the natural world and the sand worms which emphasises

the premise that we can no longer be consumed by our selfish and anthropocentric ways. His

message is that true relief from environmental cataclysm can only happen if we take a

systemic approach. It is this message of interdependence/interconnectedness at the heart of

the novels that Stratton has undervalued in her analysis. Stratton at one-point states that

Herbert uses the religious jihad as the only way to make environmental change, not including

in her analysis the subsequent volumes which demonstrate a much more diverse reaction to

environmentalism. In Dune, it is this the zealous terraforming project which is critiqued, as

seen through the eyes of Leto and his revolution at the end of Children of Dune. It is the

subsequent death of the sandworms consequently which reveals that human intervention in

changing the climate has far reaching consequences and that the environmental landscape of

Dune was special, supporting diverse ecosystems right under the surface which ultimately

should never have been altered (with the introduction of water).

Environmental Theoretical Context

At the heart of the series is Herbert’s own fascination with and reverence for the

environment. The inspiration for the novels came to Herbert in 1953 in the shape of an

unpublished article he wrote about a terraforming project in Florence, Oregon. The project,

organised by United States Department of Agriculture, was centred on the rejuvenation of the

sand dunes by planting poverty grass (Pak 2016, 118). The article “They Stopped the Moving

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Sands” sparked in Herbert a deep fascination with humanity’s role in, and duty of care to, the

environment. For Herbert, sand dunes are almost like a body of water and through

understanding the fluid nature of them, people have learned to control them (Herbert 1987,

102). As his research for the article extended beyond Oregon, he began weaving this body of

work into a novel, Dune (1965).

Herbert’s environmental ethos arose from a rich well of thinkers and philosophers from his

cultural and social context. The environmental issues explored in the Dune series reflect the

environmental movements of the late twentieth century, where the relationship between

humanity and the environment came to the forefront of public discussion (Taylor 2004, 991).

It is in this period of American history, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement

and Feminist movement that the idea of human consumption as being at odds with the health

of the planet fully developing. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), published only a few

years before Dune, can be seen as a harbinger of the themes and preoccupations of the

modern environmental movement that unfolded during the 1960s and 1970s (Carson 2002

[1962]). Carson questioned the use of damaging pesticides and chemicals in American

agriculture, and for many this sparked the public outcries that led to a broader environmental

activist movement (Woodhouse 2008, 59). The book was influential, and the US Department

of Agriculture was lobbied to stop using DDT in their pest management, as it was negatively

affecting the environment, for example poisoning raptors and animals developing a resistance

to pesticides. The publication of Silent Spring was a watershed moment for the environmental

movement; a heightened concern for the natural world coupled with the perception of

humankind as having a specific role to play as both custodians and defenders of the

environment emerged into popular western consciousness. However, it should be noted that

for certain cultures and people that had always been the case.

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Herbert wrote his Dune series against this backdrop of an evolving western environmental

movement and at a time when the relationship between religion and the natural world was

also being re-articulated. This discussion is centred on the 1960s, when western religion

intersected with an developing sense of a natural world that itself had sentience and rights.

During this era a rise in scholarship about the relationship between humanity and nature was

seen. Ethnographers like Roy Rappaport and Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff specifically focused

how religious groups played a primary role in environmental protection (Taylor 2004, 991).

Other scholars, such as Lynn White Jr, blamed religions, especially Christian groups, for their

anthropocentric worldview and their perceived role in promoting destructive attitudes

towards the environment (White 1967). White’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological

Crisis” appeared in the prestigious journal Science (1967) at the end of the 60s (Taylor et al.

2016, 1001). This paper’s enduring relevance is demonstrated by it being cited over 4,000

times (White 1967, 1205). White argued that western Christian traditions have fostered an

anthropocentric relationship between humanity and nature (White 1967, 1205). For evidence,

White cited ‘Genesis’, which gives Adam and Eve dominance over all living things, and

posits that human are the pinnacle of his creation (White 1967, 1205). Further,

disenchantment with nature, for White, stemmed from Christianity’s crusade against pagan

religions in the ancient world (White 1967, 1206). Religions that from White’s perspective,

understood the natural world to be sacred (White 1967, 1206). For White these two issues,

the destruction of pagan religions and human primacy in the Bible, have filtered through to a

secular modern disregard for the natural world. White implores his readers to take inspiration

from Buddhism or Animism, or even the medieval Catholic Francis of Assisi, whose love for

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living creatures make him an obvious patron saint for the ecological movement (Taylor et al

2016, 1001).

White has been criticised for oversimplifying a complicated issue, as blaming all

environmental degradation on one religious group perhaps misses other influences that have

contributed to the Western disenchantment and disregard with nature. The Industrial

Revolution, the Western reliance on technology, and overpopulation, for example, have all

had an impact. His solution too places all faith for humanity’s green revolution in the ‘Exotic

East’ is as well entirely problematic and reflects a cultural trend in America during this time

(Said 1978, 34). However, in general it is White’s critique of the anthropocentric attitude that

is reflected in Herbert’s novels. Herbert’s own exploration into Zen practices and his

solutions found in a balance and inter-connectedness which is evident in the novels perhaps

connects his ideas even further to White. Herbert tracks shifting attitudes of characters in the

novels regarding the natural world and keeps pivoting the central question: what is

humankind’s duty of care and responsibility to the environment? To fully explicate this

question, a deeper analysis of the history of the ecological movement and key thinkers need

to be explored.

Aldo Leopold and A Sand County Almanac

Herbert presents a Gaia-like planet in the Dune series that seems well ahead of its time. In the

novels, it is the importance of Dune as a planet being seen as containing a complicated and

interconnected ecosystem which is promoted. This concept is reflected heavily in the much

earlier environmental work of Aldo Leopold. Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac: And

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Sketches Here and There whilst being published in 1949 became a bestseller in the

environmental awakening of the 1970s (Duffy 1991, 6-8.). Leopold’s work suggests that the

idea of humanity’s interdependence with the natural world was part of the 1960s zeitgeist.

Leopold was an American conservationist who developed a holistic approach to

environmental protection, which focused on an inclusive and expanded understanding of our

wider community and is considered the father of ecological theory (Zhang and Wang 2017,

927). J. Baird Callicott, the environmental philosophist, argues that Leopold’s book A Sand

County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There (1949) was a “book of scripture for a new

religion of natural history”, due to its influence on the environmental movement and

Leopold’s reflections on his own spiritual experiences with the natural environment (Callicott

2005, 1167). In the Almanac, Leopold combines poetry, journal-style writing, and his day-to-

day musings on nature to create a quasi-spiritual text that inspired later environment-based

religions. “Thinking Like a Mountain” from the Almanac outlines his idea of Trophic

Cascade, an aspect of ecology that highlighted the necessity of predators within food chains

in keeping the equilibrium of their environments (Leopold 1987, 129-132).

Leopold had an almost spiritual revelation of shared kinship with the animal kingdom. In

1909 at twenty-two, he moved from his home in Iowa to work for a US State Forest Service

in the Apache National Forest in Arizona (Leopold 1987, 129-132). When exploring the

mountains, Leopold reflects on a moment in which he and his friends shot a pack of wolves

(Leopold 1987, 129-132). The alpha female was fatally injured, and Leopold describes

staring into her dying eyes and seeing in them something “known only to her and to the

mountain” (Leopold 1987, 129-132).

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This moment invokes for Leopold a revelation to the far-reaching consequences of destroying

an apex predator in a complex and integrated ecosystem. It was not till years later, in which

entire mountainsides and counties were stripped bare of all foliage from deer, that Leopold

truly witnessed the devastation of an unchecked prey animal. He follows this allegorical story

with a comment on the human species’ propensity for comfort and long life, warning that too

much safety in some ways can be a bad thing. Leopold thought that the wilderness contains

an element of salvation, and believed this was the lesson that the wolf was trying to

communicate to him (Leopold 1987, 129-132). His theory of the “Community Concept” can

easily be identified in later versions of ecological thought, including James Lovelock’s Gaia

theory of the 1970s. The core of Leopold’s work is that the individual is part of a community

that contains “interdependent parts” with which humans have an ethical responsibility to co-

operate (Leopold 1987, 204). This ethic should be enlarged to include, “soils, waters, plants,

and animals, or collectively: the land” (Leopold 1987, 204). The land ethic sees humans not

at the apex of the community, but simply as a citizen of it. It is this idea that can be viewed as

being explored in Herbert’s novels, where the balance between humankind and the

environment is constantly being challenged.

Lovelock’s Gaia Theory

The community concept explored by Leopold can also be found in Gaia theory, a ecological

concept established by scientist James Lovelock and biologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s.

The first mention of Gaia theory appears in two scientific journals, Lovelock’s “Gaia as seen

through the atmosphere” (Lovelock, 1972) and an article co-authored by Lovelock and

Margulis titled, “Atmospheric Homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the Gaia hypothesis”

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(Lovelock and Margulis, 1974). Lovelock’s Gaia theory combines concepts of natural

science, ecology, biodiversity, geology and climatology to develop a model of the earth and

its inhabitants as existing in a symbiotic relationship in which the participating flora, fauna

and climate are impacting and influencing each other. The idea of ecosystems with feedback

mechanisms and symbiotic relationships between animal species was not new in the 1970s.

However, the difference is of Lovelock and Margulis’ work, was in the describing of Earth as

an active participant of that ecosystem, affecting and being affected by natural systems and

beings.

Gaia is not an invented term but is borrowed from the Greek Goddess, ‘Earth’. Lovelock, like

Lynn White Jr, is known for his criticism of the anthropocentric influence of the major

religions, preferring a Gaian religion of nature (Viviers 2016, 3). The blending of mysticism

and science within the genre of science fiction was inspired largely by Lovelock’s hypothesis

(Pak 2016, 99). Viewing the planet like a large, integrated organism is not unlike Herbert’s

treatment of the planet of Arrakis, a complex desert environment that is a member of an

ecosystem in its own right.

The Gaia hypothesis, along with Carson’s Silent Spring and similar nature-based works,

brought about a shift in cultural concerns towards the environment in western society.

Though this might seem like an obvious direction due to the influence of many diverse

cultures, far older which has and still have a long and strong connection to the land. For the

west in the 1960s, the environmental movement came with a smorgasbord of other issues of

social justice, political freedom, a sexual revolution and women’s rights reflecting a large

shift from an industrial capitalist society to one in which the concerns exceeded the

individual. It is in this cultural milieu that Herbert wrote Dune, which is itself rich with a

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group of people (the Fremen) enslaved and trying to get their freedom, where women are

some of the most powerful characters savvy and most importantly, where the planet is not

just a location of the story but an active, living agent that is impacted and impacts upon the

wider ecosystem. This discussion has focused on environmental concerns central to the

sociocultural context in which Dune was created. The next section turns to consider more

recent theory, also relevant to the novels ecological agenda.

The Anthropocene

In the last decade, scientists have attempted to redefine our geological era to account for

humankind’s influence on the earth. The Anthropocene is a term used to describe humanity’s

current geological epoch with an emphasis on human’s agency in altering the earth’s systems

and ecologies in way that it is no longer able to control them independently (Crutzen and

Stoermer 2000, 17). The term was first described by geologists Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F.

Stoermer in an issue of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme newsletter in 2000

(Crutzen and Stoermer 2000). For Crutzen and Stoermer the Holocene was no longer an

adequate description of humanity’s influence on the earth, as the influence on the earth’s

systems were no longer within its regulation (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000, 17). Dating the

commencement of the period is contested within the scientific community, with Crutzen and

Stoermer making the beginning of the Anthropocene in the latter part of the 18 th century due

to the growth of greenhouse gases (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000, 17). Other scientists propose

the beginning at the invention of the steam engine or the Cold War nuclear tests (Steffen et al

2007, 614). It is argued that with the rise of global warming and global change the earth is

now less biologically diverse, with less forests and hotter temperatures, causing humans to

rethink their relationship with the natural world (Steffen et al 2007, 614). These dates

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position the Anthropocene from the 18th century, it is important to acknowledge that

humanity have affected their climate thousands of years prior to the industrial era (Ruddiman

2013, 46). The effects of human intervention can be seen in the depletion of our natural

waterways, the pollution in most major cities, the acidity rise in lakes and the island of

rubbish which continues to grow in the North Pacific Ocean (Ruddiman 2013, 46).

Many scholars disagree with this new human-orientated epoch, for it places humankind at the

centre of the story rather than waiting to see what the rest of the geological age will bring (a

lot can change in 2 million years).2 It is important to remember that humans have only been

on earth for less than 1% of the time since life emerged. As physicist Guido Visconti reminds

us, generally geological epochs are only dated when they have passed and that we presume

too much to believe this epoch is centred around us (Visconti 2014, 382). In another

criticism, Visconti worries that by acknowledging humanity’s role in changing the climate it

may “naturalize the murder of the planet” (Visconti 2014, 382). The Anthropocene can be

seen either as a dire warning or as a conquest, evidence of humankind’s triumph over all

things wild. Or perhaps even an excuse to continue our unsustainable extraction of natural

resources, an acceptance and apathy as perhaps it is too late. Despite these caveats, the term

Anthropocene can be a useful term for exploring ecological themes and theories in fiction as

it asks us to re-evaluate humans in the natural world, a topic that is at the heart of Dune.

Indeed, the concept of the Anthropocene whilst a relatively modern term has occupied the

minds of many fictional writers concerned with the depletion of the natural world and the

anthropocentric, post-capitalist reality within it. Although pre-dating Frank Herbert, Herbert

2
The previous geological epoch the Pleistocene lasted approximately 2.6 million years.

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engages with these themes and develops his idea in a cultural context worried about the state

of the environment and its destruction. Herbert through the world of Dune heavily critiques

the idea of terraforming. Dune is not just an entertaining inter-planetary romp but a serious

warning to its audience to stop interfering with the environment, to leave it in its wild and

original state. Just as the characters in Dune, who are blissfully unaware, we as readers do not

yet fully know the consequences of our own environmental manipulation. To explore these

concepts further, the perspectives of key characters will be analysed to ascertain Herbert’s

ecological argument within his work.

Liet Kynes Death

distinct shift in the environmental ethos of the novel as it highlights humanity’s inability to

truly tame the natural world. Herbert describes the death of the character by including a

poetic epithet. The epithet reinforces the poignancy and irony of the ecologists’ death. In the

novels Kynes is an ecologist who begins the project to bring water to Dune. After aiding

Jessica and Paul to escape from the Harkonnens, Kynes is exiled into the desert where he

dies. The epigraph, instead of being the general extracts from the Royal chronicler Princess

Irulan, is instead a poem titled “the Old Man’s Hymn” from the Qizara Tafwid, an old

Arrakeen religion. The poem is as follows;

“I drove my feet through a desert

Whose mirage fluttered like a host.

Voracious for glory, greedy for danger,

I roamed the horizons of al-Kulab,

Watching time level mountains

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 In its search and its hunger for me.

And I saw the sparrows swiftly approach,

Bolder than the onrushing wolf.

They spread in the tree of my youth.

I heard the flock in my branches

And was caught on their beaks and claws!”

– from Arrakis Awakening by the Princess Irulan (Herbert 1978, 228)

The poem poetically begins the chapter from which the planetologist, who with the help of

his father, began the slow terraforming project on Arrakis. The poem is a free verse from a

first-person narrator, assumedly the old man, who is reflecting on the folly of his youth. In

the beginning, the man was young and full of greed. He roamed the desert, trying to escape

time and death. But in the end, time catches up to him and the consequences of his action

flocked to his branches, catching him up in their beaks and claws. The sparrows in the poem

are metaphors both for the passing of time but also his past mistakes, taking position in his

branches. Overall, the poem represents the inability for the old man to fully escape the deeds

of his past. This poem, placed intentionally before Kynes’ death is aimed at critiquing the

stubbornness and gall of the character Kynes. He who through terraforming begins to do

irreversible damage to the ecosystem of the planet. Kynes is just like the old man in the

poem, who is ensnared by the beaks and claws of birds; representing his “greedy” appetites of

his youth (Herbert 1978, 228).

In the following scene, Kynes unravels as he slowly dies in the desert he was so adamant to

control. He repeats to himself “I am Liet-Kynes…I am His Imperial Majesty’s

Planetologist…I am steward of this land” (Herbert 1978, 229). His identity begins to unravel

16
and his once determined and confident beliefs begin to give him doubts. As he falls and feels

the sand under his hands, he thinks “I am steward of this sand” (Herbert 1978, 229). He

repeats this phrase to reassure himself of his past actions whilst realising that in the end it was

useless to try and tame something as wild as the desert. Both the man in the poem and Kynes

lose a part of themselves, lost to death, time and memories of a previous folly, no longer sure

of their identity. Herbert’s narrative technique of employing epigraphs throughout the novel

do more than just develop his rich and detailed fictional universe. They are used to add

another layer of meaning to the event proceeding, sometimes they only make sense after the

chapter has been read or even interrupting the key messages within that section. In this

instance, the death of Liet Kynes by the very planet he was tasked to study is an ironic twist

which reaffirms Herbert’s didactic lesson of environmental conservation. For Herbert, Kynes

represents the folly of humankind who try to conquer and change the natural world for his or

her own gain. By trying to conquer the environment, Kynes began to lose touch with himself

and, in the end, is essentially consumed by the desert, a symbol of the enduring triumph of

the planet over the whims of the few.

Paul as the Western Man

The dire consequences of the ecological changes portrayed in Dune are fully realised in Dune

Messiah and Children of Dune. In the two later volumes, the narrative demonstrates that the

planet and the Fremen are intrinsically linked. The more Dune is altered, the more the

Fremen lose touch with their strength and solidarity as a people. Paul often wonders about the

17
consequences of the ecological changes he wrought in Dune Messiah. In one such moment he

reflects on the Water Sellers, vendors who use to sell water before water became more readily

available. When Paul takes away their livelihood, the Water Sellers hate him for destroying

the remnants of the past, as did many Fremen (Herbert 1978, 429).

Like many colonised cultures, the emergence of new technologies by colonisers and

conquerors results in the loss of traditional practices, livelihoods and culture. Paul notices

that the more landscape he changes, the more the Fremen’s vigour decreases. Demonstrating

a level of prescience, Paul wonders to himself if he is being “presumptuous” in thinking he

could make plants grow where and how he wanted them too (Herbert 1978, 429). These

ponderings do two things, firstly, it indicates Paul is a representation of the “Western Man”

that Herbert criticizes. In an interview with McNelly in the 1960s he states that western man

is someone who “is a destructive force, a divisive force” who will change the environment

and take from it what they want for their own gain, oblivious to the larger consequences

(McNelly 1969). Secondly, it acts as a warning about what is to come and the dire

consequences for the planet of Dune and the Fremen, which are explored more fully in

Children of Dune. For Paul and the inhabitants of Arrakis the planet of Dune, just like planet

Earth/Gaia in Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis, is a prescient being in its own right. Is it sentient

and Paul often reflects that, “it was alive” and has a “pulse as dynamic as that of any human”

(Herbert 1978, 445). Dune is a perceptive participant to the terraforming, resisting and

fighting the process (Herbert 1978, 445). Throughout Herbert’s series the planet of Dune is

given a level of autonomy, it becomes a self-regulating and living entity which needs to be

preserved and protected. These ideas expressed in Gaia Theory reiterate Herbert’s overall

promotion of ecologies and environments as an embodiment of a whole, systematic and

sentient world.

18
Throughout the first two novels the character of Paul acts with a stereotypical western

mentality. He takes what was once a slow, gradual terraforming project that was outlined by

Kynes and Pardot, and fast tracks it to suit his needs. Paul wishes for Arrakis to reflect his

original, green and blue planet of Caladan. In one such moment within the novel, Paul pauses

to admire his handiwork. He sees palms to his right and pipes carrying water through the

dunes and it reminds him of his water-rich birth world, Caladan (Herbert 1978, 546). The

language he uses to describe the water is “treasure”, which starkly contrasts his phrases for

the desert as “ugly”, “barren”, and “monstrous” (Herbert 1978, 549). He imagines something

that is “a place of sand slides and the drowned darkness of dust pools, blowdevils unreeling

tiny dunes across the rocks, their narrow bellies full of ochre crystals” (Herbert 1978, 549).

His remedy for this desert is water, more water and love (Herbert 1978, 549). Paul’s initial

terraforming project initially seems like a noble attempt to fast forward the plan of

Planetologists of the past, it is soon revealed to be a project designed to create wealth and

profit for the Atreides. When it stops involving the Fremen, and becomes a government job, it

speeds up and cannot be stopped or undone, for thousands of years. As the central character

of the novels, the reader follows Paul as the reluctant God-hero as he confronts not just the

ugly nature of being a dictator and manipulating the galaxy but also his attempts to transform

a planet which once had its own unique features, strengths and systems.

Leto’s Transformation

If Paul is the stereotypical western individual, Leto his son is his antithesis, an

environmentalist and protector who spends much of the novel undoing what his father has

achieved. When conversing with his twin sister, Ghanima, he muses that the, “Human

interplay with that environment had never been more apparent to them. They felt themselves

19
as integral parts of a dynamic system held in delicately balanced order” (Herbert 1978, 595).

This sentiment reinforces their objection to the environmental changes. It is Leto who notes

the importance of the sandtrout to the sandworms. He remembers the words of his

grandfather, Liet-Kynes, that “the universe was a place of constant conversation between

animal populations” (Herbert, 1978 595). The haploid sandtrout, the sort of larval stage of the

sandtrout, are resistant to water. Leto begins to realise that the water increasing means fewer

sandtrout, which in turn would mean fewer sandworms, which would result in no spice – the

key resource of the planet. Leto is critical of the changes Paul has wrought on the desert

planet, and in a conversation with his grandmother, Jessica, remarks how “water traps us”

(Herbert 1978, 669). Leto believes that the Fremen would be better off living like the dust

because it at least could carry them to the highest cliffs (Herbert 1978, 669). Instead, they are

like water, which only makes “everything fall back to the ground from which it came”

(Herbert 1978, 669). In the previous example, Paul refers only to the desert in the negative

sense whilst water is seen purely as the most valuable assets. For Leto, a mouth-piece and the

very embodiment of the natural world, it is a trap. This, for Leto is a symbol of the de-

evolution he notes in the Fremen, a metaphor for their loss of strength and skills, which they

once utilised for survival.

In order to undo the terraforming that his father started, Leto undergoes a profound

transformation absorbing the bodies of sandtrout to make an impermeable armour. In

Children of Dune he fuses his body with sandtrout, a larval stage of the great sandworms, to

improve his strength and begin to reverse the environmental changes his father has instigated.

In terms of the narrative the armour will give him the power and agility he needs to begin to

destroy the qanats and technology that spreads water and plant life through the planet (See

Glossary). Unlike Paul, who is aloof to the ultimate consequences of the project, Leto

20
becomes a physical part of the system, part animal himself, to slow down the process. Leto

commits guerrilla attacks on the equipment and individuals involved in creating an aquatic

environment on Arrakis. In one month of destruction he puts back the ecological

transformation of a full generation (Herbert 1978, 811). The sandtrout become for Leto a

second skin, like a stillsuit (See Glossary). The trout remain alive and their leather-like skin

gives Leto a protective armor as well as adding a non-human dimension to his being.

The guerilla attacks that Leto commits are not just done by him alone but involve the active

participation of the sandtrout and worms, which assist him in this. Alia, as the ruling regent,

gets reports of this wide scale destruction. The reports of sandtrout shattering qanats, worms

deliberately drowning themselves and even the weather changing with storms appearing more

frequently and of an intense nature (Herbert 1978, 816). In this way, Leto’s changes involve

the natural world that actively rebels against the terraforming it has been to which it has been

subjected. Leto assists the natural environment of Dune to effect change and considers nature

as an equal participant. Leto’s environmental perspective and movement contrasts starkly

with Paul, who changed the environment to suit his own needs. Leto tries to restore the

environment to benefit the entire ecosystem. The repercussion for Leto’s transformation is

that he slowly begins to drift away from something that was “recognizably human” (Herbert

1978, 818). The membrane that now covers Leto is no longer sandtrout, but neither is it fully

human. Instead, he has become something between the two, with cilia now becoming part of

his flesh and “forming a new creature which would seek its own metamorphosis in the eons

ahead” (Herbert 1978, 818).

Herbert purposefully uses the progression of his three books to change the readers

perspective of terraforming to ultimately demonstrate that humanity has a role in preserving

21
and protecting the environment. Herbert in the first and second novels carefully establishes

the benefits of the terraforming of Dune, with only hints about the long-term repercussions.

The original project appears positive, as it involves and seems to benefit the Fremen people.

It has been calculated precisely, and the planetologists’ ambitions seem far from the usual

rape and pillage of the environment from history. In Children of Dune however, the reader is

asked to question this project, and this manifests in Leto’s destruction of the tools that would

have made this possible. As response to the terraforming changes, the impression is that the

natural world of Dune is rebelling against the changes in the environment. The terraforming

project, reversing the natural evolution and equilibrium of the planet, fails to include the

needs of the biosphere and the planet itself.

Stilgar’s Dream in Dune: The Science of Terraforming

In the novels, the character Stilgar’s perspective of the terraforming of Dune changes

throughout the series. Stilgar is a Fremen warrior who in the beginning of Dune befriends

Paul and his mother Jessica. The families join forces to lift the emancipation of the Fremen

from the Harkonnens. In Dune and much of Dune Messiah, Stilgar is one of key advocates

for the terraforming project but in the third novel he begins to doubt his convictions. Herbert

uses Stilgar as a moral voice within the narrative to teach environmental lessons of

conservation and protection. As Stilgar is the Fremen leader of the Sietch Tabr he becomes

one of Paul’s most trusted advisors. When Paul and Jessica join the sietch, he takes them to a

hidden well to show the new members the hard work his tribe have done in collecting water

for the terraforming project. Stilgar explains to Paul and Jessica the exact design for

terraforming Arrakis. This speech highlights two key features of the plot; firstly, the

22
emphasis on scientific discourse in the precise and detailed description of the environmental

project and secondly to remind us how entwined Fremen religion and culture are to the dream

of a transformed Arrakis. Stilgar explains to Paul and Jessica that the project has been

“calculated with precision” with the Fremen knowing the exact amount of water they need

“within a million deciliters” (Herbert 1978, 267). The plan will “change the face of Arrakis”

(Herbert Dune, 268). The following dialogue continues through a call and response style,

gaining in momentum and intensity between Stilgar and his troops. In this fashion, Stilgar

rallies his tribe members and boosts morale for the environmental changes they facilitate. As

Stilgar shouts, the rest of the troop repeat “Bi-lal kaifa” which means “amen”, directly

translated in the language Chakobsa “without qualification” (Herbert 1978, 268). Stilgar

shouts phrases like; “We will trap the dunes beneath grass plantings”, “We will tie the water

into the soil with trees and undergrowth”, and “We will make a homeworld of Arrakis with

melting lenses at the poles, with lakes in the temperate zones, and only the deep desert for the

Maker and his spice” (Herbert 1978, 268). Finally, Stilgar promises that, “no man ever again

shall want for water. It shall be his for dipping from well or pond or lake or canal. It shall run

down through the qanats to feed our plants. It shall be there for any man to take. It shall be

his for holding out his hand” (Herbert 1978, 268). This ritual exchange between Stilgar and

his troops highlights the connection between the terraforming project and the Fremen people.

The project is community led and there is hope for the Fremen, with their politics, religion

and culture all entwined. Through a moisture-rich climate, they see emancipation from their

cruel reality. Herbert uses Stilgar to demonstrate the initial promise of the project and how

important community involvement is in environmental projects.

Stilgar’s Water Sickness in Children of Dune

23
In contrast to this sentiment, and reflecting an even greater narrative shift, in Children of

Dune, the repercussions of the terraforming are more clearly seen. In this novel, Stilgar

begins to question as did Kynes his earliest obsession with the terraforming project. In the

earlier part of the novel, Stilgar surveys the desert of the planet that has been his home. “The

friendly desert, which once had spread from pole to pole, was reduced to half its former size”,

he thinks to himself (Herbert 1978, 573). Stilgar feels dismay at seeing the “mystic paradise

of spreading greenery”; what was once a sign of hope and renewal is now a sign of dread

(Herbert 1978, 573). Just as the desert planet had changed and adapted, so has Stilgar. Once a

simple Fremen chieftain in charge of a sietch, he was now more subtle, aware of statecraft

and many small decisions which had large impacts (Herbert 1978, 573). Stilgar is not the

only Fremen to change; he also notes a change in the water discipline of his peers, with

people in warrens not preserving water like they used to when it was still a vital precaution. 3

Stilgar in this moment asks himself if water preservation as an old tradition is still needed

when water falls from the sky. He thinks to himself that he has heard of Fremen dying in a

flash flood, ironic as the word for “drowned” did not even exist in the language of Dune

before the environmental changes (Herbert 1978, 574). The Fremen speak of being afflicted

with “water sickness”, which ironically does not refer to lack of water, but when a Fremen

dies from being too long away from the desert (Herbert 1978, 660). This phrase is a reminder

of the value of the original desert ecology of Dune; entwined with Fremen customs and

language. The traditions, customs and culture of the Fremen have suffered under the religion

of Muad’Dib.

The stillsuits are a potent symbol of the Fremen culture, as they represent both their original

way of life as well as a key tool for surviving in the moisture poor environment. The finite

3
Water precaution and practices are key components in the water scarce climate of Dune where even a short
stroll in the desert will lead to death.

24
details in the recycling mechanisms within the suit are testament to the acute knowledge and

discipline of the inhabitants of Dune. When Liet-Kynes first meets Paul and Emperor Leto I

he explains how the suits work. The suits are a “high-efficiency filter and heat exchange

system” (Herbert 1978, 97). In the suit there are several layers of tubing and areas of

absorption which initially capture the body’s perspiration and filters it around the body to

cool it (Herbert 1978, 97). The suit allows the Fremen to move throughout the desert without

losing their body’s moisture, and if manufactured and worn correctly, can allow the wearer to

survive for weeks in the desert, meaning they will not lose more than a “thimbleful of

moisture a day” (Herbert 1979, 97). The suits are vital in Dune before the terraforming

projects and are symbolic of the old culture. As the new planet emerges, with water and

vegetation, Stilgar, Paul’s right-hand man, begins to question changes he sees to the old

traditions and customs of his culture. Initially he is at the forefront of the project, storing

water and planting scrubs, however it is later when he begins to see the softening and

redaction of his culture he questions the project. For Stilgar, the culture of water preservation

was a key component to his community and he notices how the project has changed not only

the natural world but has created a movement away from traditional values. In the novels,

Herbert uses Stilgar as a mouthpiece for the slow creep of doubt that enters the narrative of

the benefits of terraforming. The reader, like Stilgar, goes on a journey which ultimately

comes to regret to new planet and mourn for the original desert environment.

The three previous examples have been detailed to explore the shifting environmental attitude

in the novel. These demonstrate that while Dune read completely alone may seem at first to

welcome environmental change it is simply not the case. By reading the subsequent volumes,

the reader is made aware of the damage that has been done and begin to appreciate the wild

and unpredictable planet that it once was. Through this change in perception, voiced through

25
the central characters in the novel, Herbert’s own promotion of a wild and preserved

environment is reflected. In Herbert’s utopic world, the planet of Dune gets to remain

waterless and arid, with sandworms roaming free and the Fremen being the strong culture he

intended them to be.

CONCLUSION

Herbert in Dune uses his series to promote his environmental perspective and through the

voices of his characters promotes ecological protection and preservation. The fictional world

of Dune undergoes its own Anthropocene state, in which the characters terraform the planet

to benefit themselves. Just like in our own modern reality, characters in the novel fall prey to

a false sense of humankind’s ownership and agency within the complex, integrated global

ecosystem. The death of Liet-Kynes towards the end of Dune represent the shift in the

attitude towards environmental conversation and the reader is guided to acknowledge the

strength and wildness of the desert. Throughout the series, Paul is an articulation of modern

Western man, one who will change the planet to suit selfish needs. Herbert purposefully

weaves a tale of the benefits of ecological change; water will fall from the sky! But the long-

term consequences of this intervention in the natural world are only fully realised in the third

novel. In contrast to Paul, Leto’s transformation into the sandtrout/human hybrid attempts to

return the planet to its original state. In this way, the Dune series looks at both aspects of the

terraforming movement, showing both the benefits and repercussions of changing the

environment, and presents us with an idealistic sense of being organically part of nature as

Leto ultimately becomes. Leto becomes a human-hybrid, a creature fused with sandtrout and

having a new, animalistic state. Stilgar like the reader changes his perspective towards the

26
end of the series, realising too late the damage he has helped create and the negative effect it

has had on his religion and culture. In Herbert’s interview with McNelly, he reveals that he

“hopped on this ecology thing” and states that we should “turn it all into wilderness (McNelly

1969). I don’t mean that, but there are ways of living with our planet and not against it and

this is the attitude that we have to develop, and it is an attitude…” (McNelly 1969). In this

sense, Herbert was directly promoting a state of wilderness and freedom for nature to exist as

it wishes, not to be changed according to the whim of humans.

The Language of Dune

Arrakis: Arrakis or Dune is a valuable desert planet within the Known Universe. The planet

contains the only source of melange. The native population are the Fremen, hardened

men and women who have adapted to the hostile environment. The planet is home to

dangerous storms and giant sandworms. Terraforming processes have commenced on

Arrakis in Dune, transforming the planet to one which has its own water cycle, and in

Dune Messiah is fast-tracked.

Atreides: The House Atreides is a major house within the Imperium apparently descended

from King Agamemnon of Greece, on Earth. The fief is on Caladan and the family

relevant to these books are the Duke Leto I, Lady Jessica, Paul and Alia. The symbol of

the house is a red hawk and the colour of the flag green, black and red.

Bene Gesserit: The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood is an old religious order consisting of highly

trained and skilled women who manipulate blood lines and politics for their own gains.

They have the ability to control every nerve and muscle in their bodies due to rigorous

training.

Bi-La Kaifa: The phrase Bi-lal kaifa is Chakobsa (an old language used by the Fremen),

meaning “without qualification” and is used in a similar fashion to the Christian “Amen”.

27
Caladan: Caladan is the home of House Atreides and is a lush, water rich planet.

Dune (the Planet): (See Arrakis)

Fremen: The Fremen were a group of humans, native to the planet Arrakis and descended

from Zensunni Wanderers. They were hardy people surviving in the arid environment of

Dune and had adapted accordingly.

The Known Universe: This term refers to the area within the universe which has been

documented and explored by humans. Most of this space is in the control of the Padishah

Emperors (who referred to themselves as the Emperors of the Known Universe).

Maker: (See Shai-hulud)

Melange: Melange, or “spice”, is a product created by sandworms only on the planet of

Arrakis. It enables the Spacing Guild to fold space and individuals to see into the future.

It is the most important economic product in the Known Universe. The spice is mined on

Arrakis but is dangerous, as sandworms feel the vibrations of the mining machines and

can swallow them whole.

Muad’Dib: Muad'Dib is the name adopted by Paul once he is accepted by the Fremen. After

his religious jihad, the name becomes synonymous with the religion Paul creates to

control the empire.

Muad’Dib (mouse): Muad’Dib is the name of a small desert mouse native to Arrakis and the

Fremen name Paul takes for himself. The desert mouse is respected by the Fremen for its

knowledge of the desert; hiding from the sun, travelling only at night and is often called

the “instructor-of-boys” for its cunning and tenacity.

Planetologist: Planetologist is the term used to denote an ecologist targeted to study the

ecosystem of a planet. Both Pardot Kynes and his son Liet Kynes were planetologists on

Arrakis and established the terraforming project.

Prescience: In Dune, prescience is enhanced through the use of ingesting melange.

28
Sandtrout: Sandtrout are the larval phase of the sandworm. Sandtrout group together to

isolate water to make the general environment more conducive for sandworms, which are

repelled by water.

Sandworm: See Shau’hulud

Shai-hulud: Often used in the phrase “Shai-hulud save us” or other expressions beseeching

God. Shai-hulud refers to the sandworms, especially the “Old man of the desert”.

Sietch: Sietch is a Fremen word for the tribal groups on Arrakis, which generally existed

underground to hide from enemies and the harsh sun. The Sietch Tabr is the sietch Paul,

Jessica, Chani and Stilgar belong to.

Spice: (See Melange)

Stillsuit: A stillsuit is a piece of equipment used by the Fremen to conserve the body’s

moisture. The suit recycles the body’s water and allows Fremen to travel through the

desert and only lose a spoon full of water each day. As the planet begins to produce

water, the suits become less necessary.

29
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