Interstellar Migration, the Population ‘Problem’ and the Climate Emergency

suggested that Nolan's film 'plainly states that American ingenuity can save the world'. 5en years on, against the backdrop of a deepening climate crisis and in an era in which space travel is once again back on the international agenda, the stakes of the issues raised by Interstellar are exponentially higher.What does 'techno-optimism' mean and is its ultimate vision of 'interplanetary' humanity antithetical to environmentalism?What is the ecological alternative, and how does Interstellar illuminate these positions?In his January 2025 inaugural address, President Trump claimed that 'we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars'. 6With the pioneer of commercial space travel, Elon Musk, now one of the richest and most influential people in the world-even if he is no longer at the centre of the Trump administration-what might Nolan's epic teach us about reaching for the stars in an age of neoliberal capitalism and climate emergency?I suggest here that Interstellar opens up urgent questions about the relationship between technology, environmental stewardship and human population.