Interstellar opens on an utterly ravaged Earth, where dust storms cloud the landscape and crops are slowly dying out, leading to widespread famine and a back-to-basics humanity. Clearly this science hating, war-free species haven't yet reached the Soylent Green point just yet But while we know the motivation for Cooper and the rest to travel into the stars (literally), there's not actually an explanation for where the problems come from in the first place. Dust storms wouldn't become a regular occurrence in America overnight, while a worldwide blight would have to have some index case. Are the two at all linked? And if so, which came first? They could very easily be co-dependent, but it's less explained than how love is the biggest power in the universe. John Lithgow's Donald comments on how the consumeristic attitude in the present were a damning element of humanity, suggesting that, to some degree, it's our own doing, but the specifics of that are incredibly vague. Potential Answer: Given the institutionalised marginalisation of science, it seems likely that it was humans who initially started all this. You maniacs! Damn you all to hell!
