Common Misconceptions About Surviving Extreme Cold

This article on surviving extreme cold is part of the Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy blog series. Each week, we tackle medical or technical aspects of science fiction or a historical / world-building topic of fantasy with input from an expert. Please join the mailing list to be notified every time new content is posted.

The Expert: Gideon P. Smith

Gideon P. Smith, MD PhD MPH is a physician-scientist. In an earlier career, he was a geophysicist. In fact, that is what the PhD is in. He spent several seasons working in Antarctica, planting seismometers while tracking whales with the marine biologists on board research cruises in the Drake Passage. He has published over 100 first and senior-author papers in scientific journals including in top-tier journals such as Science. In his spare time, he writes science fiction and epic fantasy and has written for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and Black Hare Press. You should check out his blog and maybe follow him on Twitter.

Common Misconceptions About Surviving Extreme Cold

In science fiction and fantasy, we often follow heroes through challenges thrown up by the world in which they live, or the world through which they must journey. These worlds often constitute some of the harshest conditions: lava lakes, acid rain, volcanic crags, frozen wastelands, or the depths of space.  However, while such environments can provide a dramatic backdrop, these environments should intrinsically affect the plot, the characters, and the world in meaningful and realistic ways. Unfortunately, we writers often fail to integrate the environment fully into the story.

In this three-part article, we are going to take a look at one extreme environment: extreme cold. There is no shortage of examples of it in speculative fiction: Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back; Rura Pente in Star Trek’s The Undiscovered Country, and Delta Vega in the Star Trek movie reboot; we constantly hear that “Winter is Coming” to Westeros; and even Earth itself is a snow planet in Snowpiercer.

In this first part, we will touch on cultural, and evolutionary aspects of cold environments, and how native species may survive. Later, in the second part of this article, we will look at the physics of cold so we can understand survival in this environment. In the final part, we will examine the impact of cold exposure on humans and the effect on physiology.

And in all three parts, we will look at how these things are often misrepresented in science fiction, and how we might go about getting it right. But first, in order to understand what is wrong in science fiction and how culture may play into environment, we’ll start by looking briefly at how this occurs on Earth.

Debunking Myths About Extreme Cold

Myth: Inuit rub noses, rather than kiss to prevent their lips freezing together.

Fact: Inuit do both of these but they occur in different situations.

You may be wondering why this is even in an article on cold environments in speculative fiction. If you want to read about ‘eskimo kisses’ there is a great Wikipedia article on it. But the reason I raise it here is that, as I said in the opening, your environment should affect all aspects of life for those native to that environment, and you should think about logical ways in which it might (people’s lips do not normally freeze together, but lips are often covered when meeting someone outside).

Not only is someone who lives on a planet that is frozen unlikely to ever put their gloves on once they have exited the building, so entrenched in their daily routine will gloving up prior to exiting be, but they will also have social customs, beliefs, superstitions, spirituality, all likely rooted in the bounties, threats or dangers of their world. Environment is more than just what it is doing to your heroes in this instant, it should be reflected in the entire world around them.

Examples of Problematic Extreme Cold/Exposure in SF/F

Inefficient or ineffective heat conservation

So if you watch the movie Narnia, the White Witch wanders around her frozen kingdom in what appears to be a somewhat flimsy wedding dress. Even if we assume she had some special ability to stay warm, the children themselves have shorts on. Inappropriate or incomplete dress is one of the most common ways cold environments are portrayed wrong.

If you want to see how it is done right, look at movies where it was actually filmed in the snow eg The Empire Strikes Back, filmed in Norway. As the actors have to be in the actual environment, somewhat appropriate clothing is necessary. Characters will have headgear to prevent heat loss that way, they will dress in layers, and they will often have eye protection.

Do not use movies filmed entirely on a set (Riddick) examples, as then characters can stroll around in the same leather vest on ice planets as they wear on volcanic planets. You should think about how people would dress and behave if they lived constantly, or had evolved on a planet with, a cold environment.

The world does not match the environment

In Dune the Fremen, native to a desert planet, have adapted to that planet’s environment. They wear still-suits, which conserve their water. They recycle the dead for their bodies water. They spit at people’s feet as a friendly offering of water. Their eyes are blue from the spice they mine. All aspects of their life, and the life of the spice worms, reflect the environment.

But it’s not always done so well. Do you like the hengrauggi in the Star Trek re-boot? It’s the giant red monster that attacks Kirk on Delta Vega. Cinematically, it was great. But evolutionary wise it seemed highly improbable. A giant, leathery-skinned monster, with multiple thin appendages, hundreds of eyes, and a large wet, exposed mouth. All of these things would lead to rapid heat loss and cold injury.

It is far more likely something that evolved on the planet would be adapted through evolutionary survival to the cold environment. Like in Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster, where the natives of the frozen planet Tran-ky-ky are cat-like and use their curved claws to skate across the ice.

That’s not to say everything has to be covered in fur. Birds survive in Antarctica with typical bird feet, but they have been specially adapted to survive via regional heterothermy. Their blood supply to their feet has countercurrent heat exchange keeping their core warm and allowing their feet to approach, but not reach freezing. But they still have dense fat and feather layers to give a warm core.

Ways to Get Cold Exposure Science Right in Fiction

Thinking about what we learned above, how can you get the social and evolutionary science right, and what might be some cool things to include in your science fiction?

Permanent habitations of local species should be designed for maximal thermal efficiency. This is a bit of a teaser, as we will cover the important physics in part 2 when we talk about emergency shelters, but the same principles apply here.

Think about how the cold environment is reflected in the evolution of local inhabitants, not just the temperature. Studies have shown for example that Inuit who live in Greenland and therefore experience sub-zero temperatures for more than 6 months of the year, more commonly have gene variants that result in shorter stature and denser body fat. Your native inhabitants are unlikely to be tall and skinny. Similarly, while hengrauggi may be great, you may want to think more polar bear, than dragons when creating your own native species.

Making it reflect reality can build in some potentially interesting plot elements. Think about questions like this:

• How do these people greet each other?
• Is it different outside in the cold?
• Is there a law of hospitality should a stranger be out at night?

Also, remember that it’s not only humans who are affected by extreme cold. In some fiction, they solve the ‘cold out there’ problem by sending the robot. But machinery often doesn’t work as well in cold environments either. Metal becomes brittle, lubricants more viscous, batteries drain faster. Consider all the ways your planet will affect your team’s equipment or different ways technology may have evolved to deal with cold or be used to protect people from it.

In conclusion, there are many ways to integrate a cold environment into your story. But first, think about how the world itself is likely to have evolved. If you make the world illogical, the world will not make sense when your heroes are stuck in this environment either. So think broadly about it. It’s not just what the temperature is at that moment.

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