Playing with futures that are not apocalyptic.
Imagining ways humanity and our beautiful biosphere
might survive and thrive past the climate crisis.

Making Saltgrass has meant that I have spent years talking to people about the climate crisis, nature, and humanity. I feel uniquely placed and deeply motivated to start telling stories, not just of what people are doing now through the medium of the podcast, but imagining into what might be through creative writing and solarpunk.

Those of us who have been working in the climate space for a long time can get deeply weary and jaded about the pace of change, the regular and strategic road blocks that are put in place to prevent positive change.

I found myself in some burnout after years of making the show (listen to this update if you want to hear about it) and I found myself reading a lot of cosy fantasy. It is a genre where people are nice to each other and, sure, there are bad guys and challenges and conflict, but in the end it all comes good and often there are detailed descriptions of delicious food, comfortable homes and beautiful friendships.

I realised the solar punk is a kind of cosy fantasy, but grounded on earth in our reality – no orcs or dragons, but people working together in a world that had come through the worst of it. The story lines are generally low stakes and the problems are not on the scale of ‘imminent threat to all life on earth’. We get enough of that in our newsfeed and it isn’t a relaxing way to spend your down time, especially when your day job is literally to talk about how all of life on earth is under threat.

I also realised, in my burn-out recovery, that I needed to put more creativity back into my life. Saltgrass is very meaningful and wonderful, but it isn’t a creative outlet. As someone who has always made art and written stories, over the last six years I had largely been so consumed by podcast production that I hadn’t had any time to stretch that part of myself.

So, I started writing.

I now have a little stockpile of stories. One of the first ones I wrote is shared here. I am planning to use Patreon or Substack to publish them, haven’t quite landed on which to use yet. But I just wanted to put this one out there, as a sample of what I am talking about.

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Jellyfish

By Allie Hanly 2025

Ada set the bucket down gently, careful not to spill any of the salty water or shock the jellyfish that floated within. It was an overcast, gusty day, her clothes and hair were being tugged and whipped. She frowned, squinting over the flat, cracked expanse of the claypan. The sky was dark over by the mountains, broken occasionally by jagged flashes of lightning. She pressed the button on her earring and waited for a response. A familiar voice spoke smoothly. 

‘Good afternoon Ada. How can I help you?’ 

‘Hello Jeeves, can you please check the weather report? I think I’m seeing twisters out on the clay.’

Jeeves confirmed politely that the satellite reports had just been updated to include twisters. ‘There are now warnings to retreat indoors and take precautionary measures.’

Ada stood a moment longer contemplating her options. The yellow ‘caution’ lights started flashing a steady beat on all the buildings. It was not the red light of imminent danger and no alarms had sounded yet, but they might at any moment, and the bad weather could last for days. 

She was on her way to the Aqua Zone and the jellyfish she was transporting needed to be put in its habitat as soon as possible. The jellyfish was large and the bucket was not. She could take the jellyfish back to her pod, which was temptingly close. They could shelter there together, but if the wild weather locked them in for a couple of days, it would suffer from lack of oxygen and space. If she went all the way to the Aqua Zone to drop it off in the tanks, she might get caught there for the duration of the bad weather, which could be several uncomfortable days for her. 

All of the zones in the complex were able to support you in case of bad weather, but it wasn’t home. It was always a gamble how many Shelter in Place rooms were available and what condition it would be in if you did get one. If you didn’t get a room you just had to hang out in the foyers and other rooms of the building. The buildings all got cleaned regularly and there was a social contract to keep the emergency accommodation tidy if you ever used it, but people were people, and some were more respectful than others. 

The whole precinct was set up in a cobweb of parks, paths and buildings. Each building was no more than a five hundred metres from the next and collectively they all formed a complex and beautiful system. 

It had once been a vast wasteland of discarded clothing, back in the Years of Waste. Documentary footage showed mountains of scraps and tangled dirty fabric that had been shipped in from all over the world. People used to pick over it to see what could be salvaged, re-used or sold for rags. But it was risky. The piles sometimes slipped and collapsed, people died buried under avalanches of other people’s discarded clothing. Also, the hills of waste sometimes just spontaneously combusted, and because so much of it was synthetic, the fumes from the fires were highly toxic.

It had taken many decades to restore the damage done, and a great deal of money and effort. The bricks of all the buildings and paths they walked on were made of compressed textiles from that time. Tonnes and tonnes of it had also been processed into bricks to be used elsewhere. The ginormous piles, hillocks and filthy humps of textiles gradually diminished as the brick industry chewed through it until they reached earth again. The entry to the precinct was still a brick factory and they still accepted textile waste from around the world, but it was on their terms now, and the whole community benefitted from that industry.

The earth beneath their feet was still considered unsafe to grow food in, thanks to those times, but they had the Ag Zone for that. A series of glass buildings with layers and layers of garden beds and growing systems, all climate controlled and enclosed to protect the plants and animals from the unpredictable weather. She glanced towards the closest one and could see people moving cattle, goats and chickens inside. 

Remembering the Years of Waste had reminded her of one of the founding principles of her culture. Fairness. Human to human fairness was embedded in the concept, of course, but, as she had been taught over and over again since kindergarten, it also included all plants, animals, fungi and the ecosystems that connected everything. Now was not the time for a deep analysis of the fairness of this situation, she had to make a decision relatively quickly, but she did pause to think it through. 

She had power over the life of this jellyfish. It was powerless in her bucket, put there by humans, its entire life controlled by humans. Therefore she was responsible for it. She also had to consider the comparative levels of discomfort they would each experience. If the weather did lock them in she would be much more comfortable stuck in the Aqua Zone (as uncomfortable as that may be) than the jellyfish would be in the bucket back at her pod. She might not have all of her creature comforts, and may not get much privacy or sleep, but at least she would be able to breathe, eat and have room to move around. 

She sighed and picked up the bucket and continued walking towards the Aqua Zone. It wasn’t the worst of the public buildings to shelter in. 

She picked up her pace, glancing over her shoulder towards the mountains. The claypan between the mountains and their complex was so salty not much could live out there and the flat unbroken surface was perfect for unimpeded wind which easily grew into twisters. Just because the ones she could see were far away, didn’t mean that a new one wouldn’t develop much closer to her at any moment. 

The path gently curled around a stand of trees and the Aqua Zone came into view. It never got old. The building was actually just a series of big fish tanks, with human spaces slotted between. Each tank was four stories tall, 20 meters long and 5 meters wide. There were pipes connecting them if needed, but mostly the tanks were isolated from each other. The human corridors and rooms all had windows into the tanks at regular intervals, but the best bit were the tunnels through the tanks, connecting the human habitats, that was when you felt like you were walking underwater. 

The outside of the building was enclosed by textile bricks, but the fourth floor was open to the sky, a sparkling crown, made entirely of reinforced, engineered acrylic. Even from a distance you could see shapes moving through the water. 

Ada recognised a familiar figure ahead, holding a mug and watching the weather. Ada called out, her voice snatched away by the wind, but Kayt must have heard something, because she turned, grinned and waved. They walked in the main entrance together and Ada sighed as the intensity of the wind gave way to serenity. Light rippled across the floor in soothing shades of turquoise. She put the bucket down gently and gave her friend a long hug.

‘What are you doing here? You’re not on Aqua roster are you?’

‘No, I just came to show some people around. I’m on Tourism. They’re getting the Aqua Zone rundown from Geo.’

Ada’s eyes widened ‘I’m glad I was on jellyfish duty then. You saw the twisters too? I hope we don’t get locked in for days with the tourists. How many in the group?’

‘Twelve. They’re an alright group. I’m glad we’re here actually, it’s a much nicer place to get caught than some others.’

‘The laundry.’ They said in unison and laughed. 

‘Who’s this then?‘

‘I’ve been calling her Belle. She’s been in the dining hall fishtank and needs to come home for a bit. Someone noticed she wasn’t doing so good. We’re hoping that coming back here will help her feel better. Want to come and help me put her back in the jellyfish tank?’

‘Sure, I’m on break and I should have plenty of time, there is a young man in the group who will ask lots of very specific questions.’

‘Got a curious one?’

‘Yeah he’s from the city – some kind of amateur engineer. He wants all the specs of every building we go in.’

‘Geo will love him.‘

‘Yeah, it’s a match made in heaven. I may have to rescue the rest of the group from the two of them eventually though.’ 

They walked the cool, dim corridor together, then crossed three sections to get to the right tank. Fish swam alongside them behind the walls, darting, drifting and chasing each other through the long tendrils of kelp. Sunlight filtered down through the kelp forest but not much reached them here on the ground floor. Crabs and octopuses moved through the rocks and sand near their feet. It was serene and beautiful.

They reached the service lift at the back of the building and selected the top floor. The lift hummed as they swapped notes on their current roster, what work they had to do, and who with.

The lift chimed softly as a gentle female voice told them they had reached their destination. The fourth floor, with its walls and roof made of crystal clear engineered acrylic, felt like they were walking out into the turbulent sky. 

Ada opened one of the access hatches and held the bucket partially submerged while she and Kayt chatted. The water in the bucket had to adjust to the water temperature of the tank, or the transition would be too shocking for the jellyfish when she tipped it in. She asked Jeeves to set a reminder so that they didn’t lose track of the time. 

‘It has been five minutes.’ Jeeves said, in his old fashioned British accent. Ada slowly tipped the bucket and Bessie slipped out and drifted into the tank below.

‘I love that you have Jeeves, he’s so funny.’

‘Which voice do you use?’

‘I switch around a lot, it depends on my mood.’

‘I like the British butler vibes of Jeeves. He’s so polite!’

‘It is extremely satisfying to have the voice of a white coloniser as my servant.’

‘Exactly. But also, I just like him. He’s calming somehow.’

They walked to the edge of the building and looked out over the landscape below. The greenery of the parks and gardens between the buildings looked chaotic, but was carefully designed to support wildlife and human life. Rain started splattering across the walls and roof around them. Yellow lights were still pulsing in time across the whole complex, still no escalation to red, which was a relief. In fact, the sky seemed a little lighter, like the centre of the storm was going to pass by to the south. 

‘Looks like we might make it home tonight.’ She did like sleeping in her own pod, in her own bed, with the lights set at her preferred levels and the drink dispenser at the right temperature and all of her familiar and favourite things around her, including her dressing gown and slippers. 

They took the stairs down two flights, and walked back through one section to find Geo and the tourists. Geo was talking fast and, as expected, seemed to be talking almost exclusively to one young man. The focus of his attention was tall and lanky, chunky glasses, shaggy hair and his eyes sparkling with impatience and challenge.

‘The kelp forests, algae and microorganisms of the ocean are instrumental, as I hope we all know from school,’ Geo managed to acknowledge the rest of the group briefly, then zeroed in on the young man again, ‘in managing the carbon levels in the atmosphere. They sequester more carbon than land forests by significant measure and the kelp is a habitat for marine animals, can be used as soil fertiliser in farmland, and can be made into substances like faux leather for clothes and bags just like your satchel. It is truly incredible.’

‘Yes, yes, of course we all know the basics but my question was about the specific rates of sequestration in comparison to the energy used to power a community like this and compared to kelp forests in the actual ocean.’

Geo drew a deep breath, but Kayt interrupted smoothly. ‘We’re on the national sequestration database and all of our data is updated daily, so if you have any interest in those specifics, you can find it all there. Those figures take into account our emissions, so the number you see there is the net sequestration.’ 

Geo added, because he couldn’t help himself, ‘Generally our operations are so efficient that we need to reduce our sequestration rate, based on national and global sequestration levels getting too high. So we just harvest some of our kelp forests and close down that tank until we need to reinstate it. It’s all about balance. It’s much easier to measure our sequestration rate accurately than the oceanic kelp forests and we are able to respond in real time to atmospheric needs.’

Kayt again interjected. ‘If you would like specifics I’m sure we can put you in touch with Geo by email. In the meantime why don’t we talk about how our tanks act as a type of sanctuary and refuge for other ocean life?’ Her voice fell into the cadence of someone well practiced at telling this story.

‘As many of you know, near the end of the Years of Waste the ocean temperature started to rise and the water was becoming acidic. Many ecosystems and individual species were under very real threat of extinction. It was with the development of tanks like this right around the world that we were collectively able to preserve enough ocean life to supplement and support the remnant wild populations. We still do that even to this day. It also serves to protect species by isolating certain populations and preventing disease from wiping out entire species. Ocean cleanup activity has been in place for over a century, but we still need to protect wildlife from toxins and plastics. Who knows what happened to the Great Ocean Garbage Patch?’

A child raised their hand and Kayt nodded and smiled at them. 

Ada saluted her friend as she started to edge away. Kayt acknowledged with a smile. Ada watched the group, children with faces pressed against the glass, gazing at the swaying kelp forests and the ocean life that coexisted with it. She remembered being that age and feeling that sense of wonder.

As Ada closed her pod door she took one last look out over the clay pan and at the trees near her home, still buffeted by remnants of the storm. She was glad she wasn’t worrying about a jellyfish in a bucket, she probably wouldn’t have gotten much sleep if she had chosen to bring it home. Also, she wouldn’t have gotten to see her friend, so it was a good decision all around. Now she could put on the kettle with a clear conscience and relax. 

She took off her shoes and changed into her softer home clothes. Her whole wardrobe was organic cotton, certified and circular. Made with minimal impact to the planet and then when it was old and tired she was able to compost it. It was pretty standard in her community, but she knew that some people still wore synthetics. That people would choose to wear synthetics seemed like a weird and terrible decision to her, child as she was of a place literally made from a previous generation’s fashion waste. 

She slipped on her slippers and tied her dressing gown belt firmly around her waist. Lastly she took off her earrings and put them on the tray to recharge. 

She personally liked the earring model of Jeeves. There was such a huge range of earring designs, and new ones being released all the time. You could even draw your own and have it printed. Maybe she could do a jellyfish design. You just needed to include room for the processing chip, microphone and speaker.

She had never liked the necklace version, it was a bit far from your ear and so it tended to be louder, less discreet. She wouldn’t be caught dead with the headband version and the ear bud version irritated her ears if she wore them for too long. Some people paid a lot of money to have it surgically implanted behind the ear, that was also not for her. She liked to take it off sometimes and just disconnect. 

She made a cup of tea and curled up on her couch. 

She spoke to the room, ‘Jeeves, please record the following message and send it to Kayt.’ 

Jeeves replied pleasantly, his voice surrounding her from speakers embedded all around her pod, ‘Certainly, begin when you are ready Ada.’

‘Kayt!! It was so lovely to see you today. Come by later for a cuppa if you have time.’

Jeeves waited for a moment. ‘Is that the full message?’

‘Yes.’

‘Please confirm that it is to be sent to your Close Friend contact Kayt.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Message sent… and received.’

‘Thank you, Jeeves.’ It didn’t hurt to be polite to the AI help. 

‘Jeeves, of my favourite take away options, which have I not ordered recently?’

‘Of your nominated top ten delivery options, the one you have ordered least recently is pizza.’

‘Amazing. Please order my regular. Payment approved.’

‘One large veggie supreme with garlic bread – total cost including delivery is 25 units. The expected delivery time is 40 minutes.’ 

‘Thank you Jeeves, and the weather for tomorrow please?’ 

‘The forecast is for a sunny day. 10% chance of rain. 2% chance of extreme wind.‘ 

‘That’s what you said about today, when I asked you yesterday.’ Ada observed.

‘Indeed ma’am.’