Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin has come out and told us a very real message that lies behind the franchise.
He's revealed there is a 'certain parallel' between his original book, A Game of Thrones - which is part of epic fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire - and the increasing threat of climate change.
Asked about whether his books offered a metaphor for understanding climate change, Martin told the New York Times: "It's kind of ironic because I started writing Game of Thrones all the way back in 1991, long before anybody was talking about climate change.
"But there is - in a very broad sense - there's a certain parallel there. And the people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth.
"Those [battles] 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.
"And there is a great parallel there to what I see this planet doing here, where we're fighting our own battles."
Martin continued: "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 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world.
"And we're ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. 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."
Martin added: "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."
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He's revealed there is a 'certain parallel' between his original book, A Game of Thrones - which is part of epic fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire - and the increasing threat of climate change.
Asked about whether his books offered a metaphor for understanding climate change, Martin told the New York Times: "It's kind of ironic because I started writing Game of Thrones all the way back in 1991, long before anybody was talking about climate change.
"But there is - in a very broad sense - there's a certain parallel there. And the people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth.
"Those [battles] 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.
"And there is a great parallel there to what I see this planet doing here, where we're fighting our own battles."
Martin continued: "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 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world.
"And we're ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. 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."
Martin added: "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."
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