Louis MacNeice captures what northern California is experiencing in “Brother Fire.” The poem also reveals a disturbing dark side in how we respond to catastrophe.
Tag Archives: climate change
Brother Fire Ravages California
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Brother Fire", California wildfires, climate denialism, Donald Trump, global warming, Louis MacNeice, Scott Pruitt Comments closed
Prayer for My Granddaughters
As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida after having devastated several islands, I find myself delivering up Yeats’s “Prayer for My Daughter.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Prayer for My Daughter", climate denial, denialism, Hurricane Irma, hurricanes, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Still Falls the Rain
As Hurricane Harvey pounds the Gulf Coast, Edith Sitwell’s poem “Still Falls the Rain” comes to mind. Sitwell was writing about the World War II London blitzkrieg, but the poem still applies.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Still Falls the Rain", Edith Sitwell, environmental disasters, Hurricane Harvey Comments closed
Caves of Ice, Prophecies of War
Scientists are detecting faster-than-predicted melting of the Greenland glaciers, which would lead to catastrophic sea level rise. Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” with its caves of ice and prophecies of war, comes to mind.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Kubla Khan" Greenland, melting glaciers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sea level rise, Syrian War Comments closed
Trump, GOP Sacrifice Our Climate Future
Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out the the Paris Climate Accord, and the GOP’s willingness to go along, reveal an absolute contempt for the next generation. Such contempt is at the heart of Russell Hoban’s dystopian nightmare “Riddley Walker.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, dystopian literature, global warming, Paris climate accord, Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban Comments closed
Climate Change, Fairies Fighting
Some of the extreme climate events we are currently experiencing are described in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where they are the result of fairy infighting
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bacchae, Donald Trump, Euripides, Midsummer Night's Dream, pollution, William Shakespeare Comments closed
“Enemy of the People,” Badge of Honor
Donald Trump has been attack the media as “the enemy of the people,” bringing to mind Heinrik Ibsen’s 1882 play. The play is about a truth-telling scientist but the parallels are still very apt: stand up for truth, regardless of the consequences.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Enemy of the People, Heinrik Ibsen, Media, press, scientists Comments closed
