Dune was written in the wake of the novel Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, a book that focused on the detrimental effects of people on the environment and species of animals. Dune explores some of these ideas; Herbert talks of the planet Arrakis like it is a living being. Writing about ecology as it relates to Dune, Herbert says "The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realise about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.” (Frank Herbert). This universe explores the idea of living without water and how it affects the planet as well as the idea that a planet and its people can exist with very little water. Arrakis is a planet with very little water; the Fremen have adapted to life with little water and have found ways to harvest water from those that die or are killed. They coexist with giant sandworms that rely on the little water there is left.
Arrakis is a desert planet, dry and barren. It is only valuable because it possesses large quantities of melange, a spice valued by the Bene Gesserit amongst others. As Jessica states "Arrakis, the one source in the universe of melange, the prolonger of life, the giver of health" (Herbert 103). One of the characters in Dune is Liet Kynes, an ecologist with a close bond to the planet. Kynes wants to protect the planet from those that would take advantage of it just to take the spice.
Arrakis is a desert planet, dry and barren. It is only valuable because it possesses large quantities of melange, a spice valued by the Bene Gesserit amongst others. As Jessica states "Arrakis, the one source in the universe of melange, the prolonger of life, the giver of health" (Herbert 103). One of the characters in Dune is Liet Kynes, an ecologist with a close bond to the planet. Kynes wants to protect the planet from those that would take advantage of it just to take the spice.