It's interesting to note that Lewis and Tolkien were both strong environmentalists. Lewis' trilogy sets the forces of industrial 'progress' against the supporters of tradition, spirituality and kindness. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Lewis was writing against industrial abuse of the planet and lack of respect for nature.

He was well acquainted with the politicking of quangos: in particular, the final book in the Cosmic Trilogy (That Hideous Strength) is prophetic in its warnings about the ease with which academic administrations can be corrupted by malignant forces. Higher education is seen as a seeding ground for powerbrokers (as indeed it can be). Thus when people who are privileged, clever and psychopathic take over the agendas of higher education and politics, humanity and the natural world are in peril. The morality of academic philosophical positions is put under Lewis' clear and hostile scrutiny. The hard thing to realise is that more than half a century after these books were written, the very horrors he warned about have come to pass.