In The Wall, Britain has turned in on itself. A wall has been built around the entire coastline to keep “the others” out and to stop people from leaving. The reader discovers what a possible future life on our island might be like and can reflect on how the seeds of that future are visible in our society today.
The wall is manned day and night; the young are conscripted to spend two years standing guard along the wall. The story is centred on a new recruit posted to a section of the wall known as Ilfracombe 4. Two weeks on and two weeks off with 12-hour shifts spent looking out to sea. It’s cold, boring work with the ever-present risk of a sudden burst of violence and death.
The events that led up to the building of the wall are described as “the change”: a gradual shift of the global climate and population. There wasn’t one major event, humanity just kept doing what it did with too little regard for the environmental impact of human activity. The winters became warmer and wetter, ice caps and glaciers disappeared, and the sea level kept rising and rising. An elite is still in charge, with the privileges and trappings of power. Things once taken for granted, such as air travel, are now reserved for the few. Little is said or widely known about what exists beyond the wall.
Generational guilt
Guilt shapes the relationship between the generations. Parents and grandparents know their children will never be able to enjoy the life that they once knew. The rising sea level meant that much of the coast was lost, and now the young will never know the pleasure of an afternoon on the beach, as any beaches left are beyond the wall.
International trade has collapsed, supermarkets no longer stock fresh fruit or vegetables, whatever the season. Everything that is needed must be grown or produced within the wall.
“It’s guilt: mass guilt, generational guilt. The olds feel they have irretrievably f***ed up the world, then allowed us to be born into it.” (p.55)
At first, people were able to reach our shores and were allowed to stay, creating an underclass of workers for menial tasks, rewarded only with food and accommodation. Later, anyone who managed to enter would be towed back out to sea and left with few provisions to fend for themselves.
The story shows how the racist border violence present today can escalate. Voices today argue that the small boats carrying people across the channel should be turned round at sea, with no regard for their safety. In this fictional world, though, things have escalated to institutional murder as “the others” are killed on sight. Who “the others” are is left to the imagination.
The seeds in our world
It is generally accepted that climate change will make many lands uninhabitable due to heat, floods, storms, and sea rise. Countless millions will be forced to leave their homes to seek a new life. Then, as now, few will be welcome by the nations less affected. The story tells of a community marooned on boats and rafts in a sheltered bay, forced to live on what can be found in the sea, caught between the border forces and pirates, with nowhere to go.
Reading this book on a beach in North Cornwall, barely an hour’s drive from Ilfracombe, it was easy to imagine the rugged Cornish coastline with the sea rolling into cliffs topped by a concrete wall snaking along the coast.
Climate change is happening, now more quickly than we thought. Hundreds of millions will be displaced over the next 20-50 years. In 2024, riots broke out across the country with some proudly displaying their hatred and prejudice towards others. Our political class continues to pander to racism, treating border protection as the solution rather than taking steps to provide the peace, justice, and security that people everywhere crave. Instead, a new border command is established to stop the boats crossing the channel.
We are not treating climate change as the emergency it is and not taking urgent action to reduce CO2 emissions. In 1939, when war was declared on Germany, the government saw that victory required prioritising the productive capacity of the nation, and similar action is needed today.
Other governments are focused on building new walls, ignoring the history of the walls built by the Chinese, Romans, and Soviets. Wall building is even accelerating climate change, with estimates that suggest that the carbon footprint of the Mexico border wall could reach millions of metric tons of CO2. They are also implementing tighter checks and controls on the movement of people. National and commercial interests are taking priority over addressing the real threat to all humanity.
The seeds have already been sown for a future like this. Can humanity overcome the hold that vested interests have over our political class and media to ensure climate change is recognised as the serious security threat that it is?
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