Tag Archives: global warming

Finding Beauty in Ravaged Landscapes

By Robin Bates | Published: April 20, 2016

In “Gift of Gravity,” Wendell Berry finds beauty even in ravaged landscapes. But is there a limit to how much of a devastated landscape he could learn to love?

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A Talk with a Cli-Fi Activist

By Robin Bates | Published: January 25, 2016

Dan Bloom, inventor of the term cli-fi for climate fiction, tirelessly advocates for such fiction, regarding it as indispensable in the struggle to save the human race. I interview him in today’s blog.

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Monarchs & Ezekiel’s Burning Coals of Fire

By Robin Bates | Published: January 23, 2016

Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” shows us Baptists farmers, not normally friends of environmentalists, turning to religious language to save the environment.

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Introducing a New Genre: Cli-Fi

By Robin Bates | Published: January 7, 2016

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.

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Donne’s Warning about Climate Change

By Robin Bates | Published: December 29, 2015

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.

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Climate Inaction Will Lead to a Dystopia

By Robin Bates | Published: December 2, 2015

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.

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Tolstoy and Climate Change Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: September 28, 2015

The denial of the citizens of Moscow as Napoleon approaches the city, described by Tolstoy in “War in Peace,” resembles climate change denialism.

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An ABC of Our Attack on the Earth

By Robin Bates | Published: September 3, 2015

In his “ABC of Radical Ecology,” Scott Bates sets forth an alphabet primer for various environmental ills.

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Donne and Climate Change Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2015

Somewhat unexpectedly, John Donne’s “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” gives insight into climate change denial.

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