Environmental Collapse and Circularity in In Ascension

Introduction

Martin MacInnes’s In Ascension presents a world where environmental collapse is not a final catastrophe but a phase in a deeper cycle of destruction and renewal. Earth’s continents are submerged, algae become a primary food source, and ancient migration patterns unravel — yet the novel insists that life persists through transformation. This analysis defines the thematic claim that collapse and circularity are inseparable, traces the idea across three distinct plot strands, examines character and symbol connections, and addresses the complexity inherent in such a vision.

Thematic Claim

The novel argues that environmental collapse cannot be understood as a linear end point. Instead, it is part of a recursive pattern in which systems consume themselves and regenerate. The drowned globe, the hypergrowing algae, and the turtles’ broken but re‑enacted migrations all point to a biological and cosmic circularity: endings feed beginnings, and destruction is a necessary prelude to new forms of life.

Plot Traces

1. The Turtle Die‑Off in Kourou

During Leigh’s training in California, a colleague reports that migrating green turtles from the Ascension population are washing up dead on Brazilian beaches or attempting to nest in unnatural places. The animals show malnutrition and their migration — a circular journey that has wrapped the Earth for millions of years — is breaking for the first time. This event is directly linked to the power trials of the Datura technology, implying that human-driven collapse fractures ancient biological cycles. Yet the fact that turtles still attempt to nest, even on roadside verges, hints at an undimmed drive toward circularity.

2. Algae Hypergrowth on Nereus

Onboard the spacecraft, the algae garden meant to sustain the crew undergoes explosive, uncontrolled growth. The algae spreads across the capsule, consuming the dead crew members Tyler and K, weaving green threads through their blood. Leigh notes that “bodies consumed only by what exists inside the capsule” — a closed loop of eating and being eaten. The algae both saves the crew’s life and accelerates their decomposition; it is a symbol of circularity in which sustenance and decay are the same process.

3. Leigh’s Final Dive into the Submerged Earth

In the novel’s final pages, Leigh returns to a wholly flooded Earth. After the capsule splits open, she breathes the thin, cold air and then descends into “ultramarine” water. She feels everything “merging, fruit opening, a billion seeds” and expresses gladness at being “intermediate in this flux, cycles of transformation, not ending but beginning again.” This is the most explicit statement of circularity: the collapse of the human world and the physical dissolution of Leigh’s body are reframed as an entry into life-filled waters, a return to the oceanic origin.

Character Connections

Leigh Hasenbosch embodies the transition between worlds — born below sea level, she moves from the deep ocean to deep space and finally back to the sea. Her journey mirrors the circularity of life; she is both victim and agent of collapse. Helena, Leigh’s sister, witnesses the turtles nesting on Ascension Island and feels the weight of broken cycles, yet her own journey to the island is a search for origins. Uria, the director of ICORS, orchestrates the very technologies that cause collapse, suggesting that human ambition is inseparable from the cycles it disrupts. Tyler and K die on the ship, their bodies consumed by algae — a literal enactment of circularity.

Symbol Connections

Algae is the novel’s central symbol of circularity: it feeds the crew, recycles air, and also devours the dead. On the submerged Earth, algae blooms replace land; in the capsule, it creates a “green fuzz” over everything. The deep‑sea vent represents the origin of life in the novel — a hydrothermal system that cycles chemicals and sustains unique organisms. The Datura object has its own circular propulsion, an alien technology that loops back on itself. The green turtles nesting on Ascension Island perform a perfect circular migration that is now failing; their presence on the beach nonetheless affirms the persistence of ancient rhythms.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not romanticize circularity. The turtle die‑off shows that cycles can break; the algae consumes friends; the Ouroboros syndrome mentioned in chapter three — birds eating themselves — suggests that circularity can become pathological. Furthermore, the same technologies that cause collapse (Datura’s power trials, the Proscenium 1 mission) also enable Leigh’s transcendent dive. There is no easy moral: collapse is tragic, but it also gives way to new life. The terraformed Green Mountain on Ascension Island, built from seedlings from five continents, is an artificial circular system that both mimics and exploits natural cycles.

Study Questions

1. How does the novel define “circularity” in relation to environmental collapse?
   Circularity is portrayed as a biological and cosmic process in which destruction and renewal are linked. The end of one system — e.g., the drowned continents — initiates another, such as the algae‑dominant ocean.

2. What role does algae play in the narrative of collapse?
   Algae is both a life‑sustaining resource and a force of consumption. It feeds the crew and recycles air, but also grows over the dead, symbolizing that sustenance and decay are the same cycle.

3. Why do the green turtles matter to the theme of circularity?
   Their migration is an ancient circular journey that depends on stable environments. When the journey breaks, it signals ecological collapse; but the turtles still attempt to nest, demonstrating that the drive to complete the cycle persists even when conditions fail.

4. How does Leigh’s final dive complicate the idea of an “ending”?
   Leigh’s dissolution into the ocean is described as a beginning. The language of “fruit opening” and “new life” reframes death as a generative act, suggesting that collapse is a passage into another cycle.

5. Does the novel endorse hope or despair about environmental collapse?
   It endorses neither. The ending is ambiguous: the human world is gone, but the natural world endures in transformed forms. Hope lies in circularity itself, yet the cost is immense. The novel leaves readers to sit with that tension.