One of the executive producers for Amazon’s The Rings of Power, Patrick McKay, compared the destruction of the Dwarf city of Khazad-dûm to climate change propaganda.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Rings of Power producers have opted to portray the downfall of the Dwarf kingdom and Khazad-dûm (also known as Moria) as a more gradual process. The conflict over the subterranean city will extend from the recently concluded second season into the third season. In Tolkien’s original texts, the city’s fall is depicted as a swift event, attributed to the monstrous Balrog, whose fiery rage drove the Dwarves from their great city.

When asked about how the series is handling the fall of Khazad-dûm, McKay emphasized that their interpretation draws parallels to global warming.

This is a thing where, how do societies fall? Usually it’s gradually, and then all at once. If you want to use climate change as a metaphor, climate change is not an event. Climate change is a process that ebbs and flows, that’s always headed in a dark direction. I think a kingdom as great and powerful as Khazad-dûm does not fall in a moment. The fall is the product of many disasters over time. And I think it would sell Khazad-dûm short for the Balrog to get out and then it’s all over. It’s more complicated. We think there’s a bigger story to be told here.

However, according to Tolkien’s Appendix A in The Lord of the Rings, Khazad-dûm is not depicted as taking years or decades to fall. Tolkien said that the city was abandoned roughly a year after the Balrog emerged and took control.

Although this may seem nitpicking regarding Tolkien’s lore, it highlights that McKay’s (ahem) modern interpretation of the fall of Khazad-dûm significantly deviates from the source material. It wasn’t depicted as a fall of a society. Khazad-dûm fell rapidly and there was no connection to climate change in Tolkien’s original writings.

It is almost as if Amazon is trying to use Jared Diamond’s ecocide theory as the basis for the story. However, Diamond theory he posited has been refuted recently. This yet another unfortunate instance of a modern agenda being forced into a classic story.

However, what is ironic is that not only are the producers of Rings of Power straying far from J.R.R. Tolkein’s lore as the basis for their efforts, this isn’t the first time Amazon has done this. Worst of all they’re also relying on a debunked theory as a key element for it.

The entire production has also been filled with virtue signaling regarding diversity and race issues. By the end of season one, this billion-dollar project had lost a significant share of its audience, and experienced a similar significant decline after season two.