As we receive news that the Antarctic ice sheet is less stable than we thought and that we could be facing catastrophic sea level rise in the next century, China Miéville’s nightmare vision of a polluted city in “Perdido Street Station” is a wake-up call.
Thoughts about the genre label “cli-fi” and an annotated list of past posts about literature and climate change.
Weather disappeared largely from literature when it was seen unrealted to the actions of humans. With climate change now upon us, however, a new literary genre has arisen.
Looking back over the past year, I repost an essay on John Donne’s “Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and climate change denial. Given that 2015 has been the warmest year on record and that “the weather outside is frightful,” Donne’s comments about “moving of th’ earth” are only too relevant.
In this Scott Bates poem about Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 American-Soviet rescue operation that liberated three ice-bound gray whales, the possibility for international cooperation to save the planet is imagined. Were he still alive today, my father would be excited by the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Madeleine L’Engle’s 1971 Advent poem anticipates the gloom we feel today about climate change. Yesterday’s international accord, however–miraculously signed by 195 countries–gives us some glimmer of Christmas hope.
If we refuse to do anything to counteract climate change, we are doing grave injustice to our children and grandchildren. Russell Hoban’s post-apocalyptic fantasy “Riddley Walker” captures the selfishness that we would be guilty of.
