Earth Abides

Ish is despondent that their former civilization has languished, and the survivors have been unable to rebuild some of its most basic elements. He assesses the Tribe and decides his son Joey is the only one with the intellectual and creative spark to initiate the rebuilding process. He contends that the Tribe must be more proactive about the future and not simply scavenge for survival. They must begin to rebuild the social infrastructure: government, laws, culture, family.

Digression: Over time, a leak in a major aqueduct erodes the ground beneath the support structure. Eventually, it collapses, rupturing the pipes and sending rivers of water cascading down the hills. The same thing happens across countless aqueducts, slowly draining water from the reservoirs.

Ish laments the wasting of resources and the reliance on food and materials from the Old Times. Emma counters that there’s not much difference between raiding a store for supplies and mining or growing them from scratch, but Ish worries about the lack of creativity among the survivors and believes a day of reckoning is coming in which they will have to organize and act.