Somewhere within Nicholas Belardes's novel "The Deading" is a fascinating environmentalist horror novel, mixed in with an alien virus invasion story rSomewhere within Nicholas Belardes's novel "The Deading" is a fascinating environmentalist horror novel, mixed in with an alien virus invasion story reminiscent of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".
The problem is that getting in the way of the novel is a distracting (albeit entertaining) obsession with bird-watching, a less-than-clear explanation for what the hell is actually going on, and characters that simply aren't relatable or well-developed.
There's something about an invasive species of highly aggressive snails that seems integral to the plot, but it is mentioned in the beginning and then dropped.
And I'm not sure what the hell "deading" actually is. Belarde, I think, is cleverly making a wry joke about our "Youtube/Tik Tok" culture by explaining that "deading", in the novel, started out as a viral movement in which young people (middle school and high school age mostly) fake dropping dead en masse and then getting up after a few minutes as if nothing happened. Later, when the "alien virus outbreak/invasion" starts, people start deading in real-life. They appear to drop dead and then come back to life. Except they aren't zombies, but they aren't quite their original selves either. Something is very different about them.
Comparisons have been made to Stephen King's novel "Under the Dome", but I don't see it, except for the fact that the entire novel takes place within a small coastal town that is immediately quarantined and monitored by drones. That's about the only similarity.
Frankly, I wasn't taken in by this novel, mainly because it feels like a lot is left unexplained, which normally isn't a problem for me, except that a lot of what isn't explained is essentially integral to a basic understanding and appreciation of Belardes's worldview, which remains muddled and ambiguous, at best....more
The natural world may be full of dangers and violence, but it does not compare to the world of men. Nature has a balance, one unsullied by morality orThe natural world may be full of dangers and violence, but it does not compare to the world of men. Nature has a balance, one unsullied by morality or a lack of one, whereas men have no qualms about destroying the world around them for profit and greed, the very world that they themselves need to survive. Men are contradictory that way.
Vida does not live in the world of men. She is of the world of men, of course, but she has foresworn the petty hatreds and mindless, wanton violence of humanity. She has tried to live a life in balance with the natural world around her, and, for the most part, she has succeeded.
Then, one day, the man she loves and plans to marry is taken from her, violently, by the scheming and profit-driven motives of evil men. And, she learns, they plan on taking much more, as their plans involve the destruction of one of the last beautiful places on Earth. This, she can not allow.
Thus begins the fantastic new novel by Dean Koontz, "The Forest of Lost Souls", a contemporary western with flourishes of magic realism and dark fantasy, as well as the horror that Koontz fans come to expect.
The horror in this novel is not a supernatural horror. It is the horror of the evils of the modern world: rampant technological growth, environmental destruction, unchecked capitalism, the blatant apathy of society in the face of evil. It is the horror of watching---and doing nothing---as the natural world slips away at the steady encroachment of more shopping plazas, oil pipelines, strip-mining, deforestation, urbanization, overpopulation.
Koontz has written one of the most intense and suspenseful western action thrillers I have read in a while, and he has created a heroine for the ages in Vida....more
Resistance is vital to our survival. That's not hyperbole. That's simply a statement of fact about life in the United States in 2025. We must resist tResistance is vital to our survival. That's not hyperbole. That's simply a statement of fact about life in the United States in 2025. We must resist the Trumpian attempts to destroy the environment, foment class warfare, roll back on basic safety regulations that protect workers and consumers, and turn the United States into a target of ridicule and hatred by the rest of the world.
Naomi Klein's call-to-arms book "No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need" may have been published in 2017, but it is just as relevant and important to read today. Sadly, some of what she was writing about then may be too late today, but we must still try. For our children's sake.
Resist. Fight. Never compromise. Never capitulate.
If Lee Child, Blake Crouch, and Brad Meltzer ever collaborated on a novel, the result would end up something like a James Rollins novel. Rollins deftlIf Lee Child, Blake Crouch, and Brad Meltzer ever collaborated on a novel, the result would end up something like a James Rollins novel. Rollins deftly combines action/adventure, hard science, and well-researched history in his contemporary pulp novels that are reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, if Burroughs and Haggard were actually decent writers.
“Kingdom of Bones” is the 16th book in Rollins’s Sigma Force series, but it is the first of the series that I have read. Basically imagine if G.I.Joe routinely worked with Fringe Division to solve international X-Files cases, and you kind of have an idea of what Rollins is going for in these books.
The plot of this novel—-like most Rollins novels—-is too detailed and convoluted to go into, other than to say it is set in the heart of the Republic of the Congo, and it involves a supervirus, mutated baboons, a lost kingdom of gold, a legendary Congolese Christian king, pygmies, aardwolves, robotic killer dogs, and a life-giving Mother Tree that may have provided the genetic material that helped in the jumpstarting of the evolution of humanity. There’s also, of course, a stock Bond-type villain who is plundering the Congolese natural resources for his own avaricious desires. There’s also a lovable military dog named Kane.
It’s not totally necessary to know the main characters. They are all kind of cardboard cut-out Action Heroes with names like Grey, Frank, Tucker, and Kowalski. These are the recurring characters, and I don’t know their back-stories.
Despite its silliness, “Kingdom of Bones” is an exciting action thriller with a lot of fascinating science and African history to keep you turning the pages, assuming the heroic dog isn’t enough to do that.
I “read” this as an Audiobook on CD. It was narrated wonderfully by Christian Baskous....more
Another role perfectly suited for David Harbour to play in the inevitable film version, “The Frontiersman” is a cleverly-written satirical superhero cAnother role perfectly suited for David Harbour to play in the inevitable film version, “The Frontiersman” is a cleverly-written satirical superhero comic book that, like “The Boys” and “Invincible”, examines real-life implications of imperfect people with superpowers.
I only read the first issue of this series, but what I like about this series by Patrick Kindlon (writer) and Marco Ferrari (artist) is its focused aim at politicians, actors, and other celebrities who pay lip service to certain causes, while not actually giving a shit about them.
In this series, the cause is environmentalism. The old, grizzled recluse who once called himself The Frontiersman is retired and living in a cabin in the middle of the woods. His job as a superhero was protecting the environment. Now, he just watches a new batch of superheroes who claim to be environmentally conscious but are secretly on the payroll of corporations and politicians, fighting to save their vested interests, none of which involves a sustainable economy or helping to end global climate change.
When a young activist shows up at his cabin one day, the Frontiersman starts to feel the twinge of getting back in the game. He just needs to round up a few of his fellow retired superhero friends…
This was a great first issue, and it piqued my interest enough to read the rest of the series....more
If ever I was inclined to start a flower garden, I would definitely ask Michael Pollan for advice. Especially if my garden was full of plants that couIf ever I was inclined to start a flower garden, I would definitely ask Michael Pollan for advice. Especially if my garden was full of plants that could be used in the manufacturing of illicit pharmaceuticals.
In “This Is Your Mind On Plants”, Pollan looks at three different plant drugs—-opium, caffeine, and mescaline—-and their storied past, controversial present, and uncertain future.
Each of these plant drugs has a fascinating backstory, and Pollan does a great job of telling them, oftentimes in a humorous way, but underneath the light-heartedness is a more often than not disturbing examination of how ridiculous (and even harmful) federal regulations and governmental intrusion have made bad situations worse. In some cases, they’ve made situations in which nothing was wrong to begin with into catastrophic nightmares.
He also uncovers some pretty awful truths about our government and its relationships with these plant drugs. For example, under President Richard Nixon (who initiated the so-called “war on drugs” that our country has been losing for the past four decades), law enforcement agencies such as the DEA created a successful propaganda campaign to associate marijuana with the hippy movement and heroin with the Black Panther Party. Nixon notoriously detested both groups, and the association with those particular groups helped to vilify, in the general public’s minds, the groups as well as the drugs.
The War on Drugs is basically just another form of Prohibition. Unfortunately, it has had some unintended victims, such as harmless flower enthusiasts who purchase and plant poppies (the plant source of opium) in their gardens, not knowing that it is a federal crime. Innocent gardeners have faced ridiculous fines and even jail time for growing plants that the government has deemed criminal.
The story of peyote (source of the drug mescaline) is even more tragic, especially for many Native Americans. It has become a sullied tale of cultural appropriation, an egregious violation of First Amendment rights perpetrated by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a simple case of supply not keeping up with demand. What our government is doing to Native Americans and their relationship (an 800-plus-year-old one) with peyote is nothing short of a human rights abuse.
Pollan reiterates the word “relationship” throughout—-a gardener’s relationship with flowers, coffee-drinkers relationship with caffeine, Native Americans’ relationship with peyote—-and it’s appropriate. If we subscribe to the view that we live on a planet where humans exist in balance with the flora and fauna all around us, where humans have a special relationship with plants and animals, then the arbitrarily labelling of certain plants as “criminal” or “illicit” is beyond absurd. It’s potentially dangerous and threatens to upend the ecological balancing act that makes this planet unique. ...more
Douglas Preston writes supernatural thrillers with co-author Lincoln Child. Consistently best-sellers, their books appeal generally to fans of contempDouglas Preston writes supernatural thrillers with co-author Lincoln Child. Consistently best-sellers, their books appeal generally to fans of contemporary pulp and aficionados of grade-B horror and sci-fi. Occasionally, they publish individually.
While Preston’s latest has the gloriously spectacular title---“The Lost City of the Monkey God”---and all the pulpy grade-B horror elements of his previous novels, “Lost City” is, actually, nonfiction.
In 2012, an archaeological survey was conducted in an uncharted section of rainforest in Honduras. Preston was invited along to document the events for National Geographic magazine. The search was on for what historians and archaeologists have, for decades, called “The Forbidden City”, “The White City”, and, most ridiculously, “The Lost City of the Monkey God”, a legend that began with the conquistador Hernan Cortes’s accounts of an enormous city, filled with riches, buried somewhere deep with the Honduran rainforest. Numerous attempts throughout the past several centuries to find this “lost city” were fruitless, but reports of wayward travelers and occasional findings of ancient pottery kept the legend alive.
There is very little of the Indiana Jones-style derring-do and fisticuffs within this book, but Preston is describing a very different world of archaeology. Long gone are the days of traipsing illegally through other countries, plundering ancient burial grounds, and essentially stealing property that does not belong to anyone, legally, except for the dead. All in the name of "fortune and glory".
Today’s archaeology is months and months, if not years, of requests for permits from foreign governments, permits which may never be approved, or, if they are, may be invalidated if the government undergoes a political or military coup. Assuming an archaeological team does get permission: digging up ancient pottery in the middle of a military hot zone may not be one’s idea of fun.
Indeed, a military coup was exactly what happened in Honduras in 2009, when President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and replaced by Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa. Excited at the prospect of good news for his country and, perhaps, as a way to deflect the attentions of his people away from the fact the country was a hot economic mess, President Lobo was extremely excited about the archaeological dig and quickly approved all permits. The dig was a go.
Except, “dig” probably isn’t the best word to use anymore. Given today’s amazing technology, especially in the field of laser imaging and a tool called “lidar”, most archaeology nowadays is done in a plane, on a laptop, and without a shovel touching the ground.
A relatively new technology for archaeology, lidar had been used for mapping the surface of the moon by NASA and for searching buried IEDs in Baghdad by the U.S. military. Finding 1,000-year-old ruins buried under trees and foliage would be a unique endeavor.
I probably don’t have to tell you that it was a success. For a brief, synopsis-like reportage of the actual dig, here is Preston’s own article that he subsequently wrote for Nat Geo about it: (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/20...)
The far more fascinating and disturbing part of the story happens after the dig, weeks and months after all members of the team are safe at home, basking in the glow of success.
Then the itching started...
One of the recurring legends of the White City was that anyone who came upon the city would eventually suffer death at the hands of an ancient evil. Spooky shit, huh? Well, as it turns out, it’s true. Sort of.
Every single member involved in the dig was stricken with a disease so unusual that it had the CDC bewildered. After vigilant research, doctors from numerous health groups around the world agreed that every member contracted an extremely rare form of parasitic infection, one that was not necessarily lethal but extremely unpleasant and certainly incurable. I won’t go into details (especially if you’ve just eaten), as Preston goes into excruciating detail of his own symptoms.
In all seriousness, the disease illustrates the dangers of upsetting the environmental balance of our planet’s ecosystems. Deforestation of the rainforests is at an almost unstoppable pace, and many scientists believe that the rainforests will be completely gone by the end of the century if things don’t change drastically. Besides being an irreparable scar on the surface of our planet, millions of previously comfortable microorganisms will find themselves homeless, and they will have no choice but to spread out to new homes: namely, cities.
Health experts agree that a global health crisis caused by a heretofore unknown virus or bacterial outbreak is not a question of “if” but a question of “when”. New diseases are springing up all the time.
Preston’s book manages to encapsulate a lot, and while it ends on kind of a downer of a message, it’s a message that probably needs to be pounded into all of us: No ancient civilization or empire ever survived, at all. Individuals, yes, but the great cities built by wealth and greed and on the backs of the oppressed all fell into ruins eventually, if not by wars, then by internal political strife; and if not by strife, then by Mother Nature herself.
I wrote a paper on Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” for my senior year AP English class and received an “A+” for it... WITHOUT HAVING READ THE DAMNED BOOI wrote a paper on Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” for my senior year AP English class and received an “A+” for it... WITHOUT HAVING READ THE DAMNED BOOK! Not bragging (okay, maybe a little...), but it’s a testament to two things: 1) the great in-depth class discussions about the book in Mr. Milheim’s class from which I took copious notes and 2) my talent for bullshit. I could write a paper on any topic, not knowing anything about said topic, and make it sound great, by simply bullshitting my way through it. This is pretty much how I made it through college... But that’s beside the point.
The point is: I have never actually read “Moby Dick”, and I kind of feel guilty about that. It is, after all, one of those American Literature “classics” that many learned people revere, talk about, and quote from constantly. I consider myself a pretty well-read person, but never having read “Moby Dick” is, in my opinion, a glaring shortcoming on my part.
I know, I probably shouldn’t feel that guilty. Lots of people haven’t read it either. Probably for the same reasons I could cite for not finishing it: Melville’s tendency to interrupt the narrative with chapters describing whale physiognomy, types of whaling vessels, the history of the whaling industry, etc.; the slow build of character introductions and scene-setting; the complete inability to find any relevance to my own life.
I mean, seriously, what do 19th-century Nantucket whalers on a voyage to hunt down an elusive whale have anything to do with me?
The question is meant to be rhetorical, although the answer is a definite “nothing”.
Still, if I had read Nathaniel Philbrick’s “In the Heart of the Sea” before attempting “Moby Dick”, I may have had a better appreciation for Melville’s classic, and I may have actually finished it.
Here’s why, in reasons listed in importance from least to most:
1) I probably could have skipped over some of the chapters in Melville’s book in which he writes about the different types of whales in the sea, the brief history of the whaling industry, and the different types of boats. Philbrick does a fantastic job of incorporating all of that in this book, and he has the benefit of writing his book with a 21st-century knowledge. Philbrick’s information is, at the very least, up-to-date. Not that I probably would skip those parts, but having a better understanding of what Melville was talking about may have helped me slog through some of the more boring long-winded chapters to the heart of the novel.
2) Philbrick helps answer the question, “Why should I be interested in a book about whalers from Nantucket?” The simple answer is that the whaling industry was, in its heyday, a major player in the global economy and of major importance for the economy of the fairly-new United States of America. Nantucket, Massachusetts---being at the center of this lucrative whaling industry---was one of the most important cities in the United States at the time. Knowing how important whaling was to our nation’s financial success in its early years may have gone a long way in enticing me to read further in Melville’s book.
3) Knowing that “Moby Dick” was based on an actual incident, and a terrifying and sad one at that, would have given me that spark of interest to read further. I’m sure it was mentioned at some point during Mr. Milheim’s class discussions that Melville based his novel on the very real story of the whaleship Essex, which, in November 1820, was struck not once but twice by a sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific. It may have been mentioned, but it didn’t fire my imagination at the time. Perhaps it was because I didn’t know the full story, which Philbrick so wonderfully elucidates in grand detail. If I had known that the motivation behind “Moby Dick” was a true story that makes “Jaws” seem tame and that involves cannibalism on the high seas, I would have devoured that novel.
The weirdness and the creepiness of the Essex tragedy probably trumps its historical significance, but Philbrick writes the story as if it is still vitally important. In a sense, it still is, especially knowing what we now know about the environment, how ecosystems thrive, how we are decimating animal species into extinction horrifically, especially whales, and how intricately the global economy is intertwined with environmental issues.
Clearly, Philbrick is conscious of all that, but if that was his sole intent, it would be a whole lot of preaching to the choir for most readers.
I think Philbrick just knows a damn good story when he hears one, and the Essex tragedy is still a damn good story.
So good, in fact, that it has encouraged me to finally give “Moby Dick” the chance it finally deserves. ...more
Welcome to the Apocalypse. It’s a lot quieter than you thought it would be, right? It’s like a time-lapse video of entropy in action. It’s like slow-mWelcome to the Apocalypse. It’s a lot quieter than you thought it would be, right? It’s like a time-lapse video of entropy in action. It’s like slow-motion decay. It’s like the Big Bang in reverse. It’s like this: (https://www.boredpanda.com/abandoned-...).
The end of the world used to scare me, and I suppose it still does, but I’ve accepted it now as a normal phase of history, an inevitability, a given. I’ve also accepted the beauty of it, because death and destruction can be beautiful, especially when there is a promise of rebirth.
Jeff Vandermeer’s novel “Annihilation”, his first book in a three-book cycle called The Southern Reach, is an apocalyptic science fiction tale in which one never really knows whether the apocalypse is going to happen, is happening, or has already happened. Based on that, of course, one would think the novel is confusing or purposely enigmatic. It’s not. Well, not completely.
In the near (or not-so-distant, rather---it’s never specified) future, a demarcated section of the planet, called Area X, has become uninhabitable due to inexplicable ecological anomalies. Scientific expeditions have been made to study the phenomenon. Most of them have failed. Correction: all of them have failed. Several expeditions were never heard from again. During one expedition, all members committed suicide. Another expedition resulted in every member returning safely, only to have every member develop an aggressive cancer that killed them within months.
A new expedition is underway. This four-person all-female team of scientists has been specifically picked for the expedition, although they are not privy to the reasons why. At least, the novel’s narrator---known only as “the biologist” (names are unnecessary and distracting in Area X)---is not certain why she was picked, although she suspects part of the reason is that her late husband was a member of a former expedition.
The novel starts at the Tower, an anomalous structure that is not featured on any maps and may or may not have formed naturally. (Although the term “naturally” in this book, like many scientific concepts, is ever-changing in its definition.) It is also only referred to as “The Tower” by the narrator. Every other member of the expedition refers to it as the Tunnel.
About the narrator: she may be completely unreliable. She admits to this early on, but it is a possibility that is continuously alluded to throughout the book. She describes herself as never fitting in, socially, even with her husband, and finding solace only in natural settings, completely cut off from civilization. Perhaps this is why Area X calls out to her. Its alienness is, to her, refreshing and comforting, even when its implications do not bode well, at all, for humanity.
About the expedition: it may not be what it seems to be. In fact, the narrator has determined, early on, that every member of the team, herself included, has been lied to by their superiors, and that even each team member is hiding secrets from the others. Dangerous and deadly secrets.
When the narrator is accidentally (or not) “infected” by an unknown contagion, things start to get really weird.
Vandermeer’s novel is a Lovecraftian horror thriller about the environment and apocalyptic decay. It is a story about the cascade and crescendo of death and destruction that may or may not be happening now, in our own world. It is also a story of human connectedness, or lack thereof, which is either a symptom or a cause of the greater lack of connectedness between our species with the rest of the natural world.
While slow-moving, the book is never uninteresting, although some readers---especially those who require tangible facts and plot elements to grasp and hold onto---may be disappointed in its fungibility of truth. It is difficult to find scientific answers when one isn’t quite sure what the questions are.
9/18/23 addendum: Alex Garland's 2018 film adaptation of this film was not horrible but neither was it that good. It was beautifully filmed, very atmospheric, boasting great acting from Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Tessa Thompson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but it was nowhere near as good as the book. In fact, Garland's version is a reductively bowdlerized version of VanderMeer's novel that takes away the mystery and the weirdness by turning it into just another alien-invasion trope. Avoid the movie. Read the book. ...more
Barbara Kingsolver, in her novel “Flight Behavior”, has brilliantly succeeded where other novelists have failed. She has written an intelligent and moBarbara Kingsolver, in her novel “Flight Behavior”, has brilliantly succeeded where other novelists have failed. She has written an intelligent and moving novel about global climate change without sounding preachy or pandering to either side of the political spectrum. She also doesn’t resort to lame pyrotechnics or outrageous conspiracy theories. She addresses both sides of the issue compassionately, which is interesting in itself as there is really only one side---factual evidence----and the “other side” is simply a denial of those facts, based primarily on an anti-intellectual, faith-based political agenda. Yet she gives the climate deniers their undeserved due by not really blaming them for not seeing the dying forest for the trees. Instead, she makes a pretty decent argument that a large percentage of the population refuses to see the facts in front of them simply because they are incapable of seeing them.
Her protagonist, Dellarobia Turnbow, is one of those deniars. At least, she starts out being one, without really knowing it, mainly because she has never given much thought to it. She has left all that stuff up to others, because she doesn’t think she has the intelligence to deal with it. Her husband is a climate deniar, as well as her neighbors, and just about everyone in her church and community, so she has simply been brought up seeing no alternative viewpoint. It was never taught in her schools. At one point, she jokes that her science teacher was the wrestling coach, and she never paid much attention in class anyway. It’s not a funny joke.
Then, something amazingly wonderful---possibly even divine---happens to her; something that makes her begin to realize that she is smarter than she ever thought. Of course, as the novel progresses, and Dellarobia’s mind is expanded, she realizes that what happened to her is anything but divine or wonderful.
The novel starts with Dellarobia--- a young mother of two (she had her oldest at age 16) who is married to a sweet but not very exciting farmer named Cub, who is still bossed around by his parents---attempting to escape her life.
That’s how she puts it, anyway. It goes beyond being a bored Tennessee housewife. Something inside her tells her that she wasn’t quite meant for this life, a life of changing diapers and constant housework and never having enough money for groceries and never going to restaurants and having to endure her husband in his La-Z-Boy recliner zipping through channels with the remote, never remaining on a single channel for more than a minute.
So, she decides, one day, that she can’t take it anymore, and she starts walking through the forest behind her backyard leading up to the wooded hills, with thoughts of committing adultery with the young grocery store clerk she always flirts with. Then, she comes to a clearing and sees it: millions of brightly-colored Monarch butterflies, fluttering in the tree branches and filling the sky with their beauty.
Word spreads, and the community sees the phenomenon as a sign, a portent heavy with religious significance. A sign of what? That’s unclear, but it is definitely something wonderful.
Then, Dr. Ovid Byron, a scientist specializing in butterflies, arrives in town. A tall, handsome Jamaican, Byron’s skin color is just as strange as his name. The fact that he is a scientist, too, is equally unnerving. Except to Dellarobia, who finds him fascinating. Perhaps, at first, sexually, but over time, she also finds him intellectually stimulating. Mainly because he never talks down to her. He assumes that she knows what he is talking about most of the time, and he never makes fun of her when she doesn’t.
Of course, what he teaches her is terrifying: that the butterflies’ presence is anything but a positive occurrence. Indeed, their presence in those Tennessee hills is simply one more indication of a damaged and dying world. He begins to teach her about global climate change, or “global warming”, which she automatically dismisses as rubbish because she has been taught to think that way by her community. In essence, what he teaches her is that the world is coming to an end---not the quick, explosive, flashy end that she has seen in Michael Bay movies but the slow, encroaching end of a frog in boiling water, unaware that the end is very near.
At first, she vehemently refuses to believe it, but Byron is used to that response.
“People can only see things they already recognize,” he tells her. “They’ll see it if they know it." (p. 282)
It’s a telling and profound statement. It’s also one that can be illustrated by a recent Yale-George Mason study, which determined that climate change denial among the general public has actually increased.
According to the study, “Back in September 2012, only 43 percent of those who believed that global warming isn't happening said they were either "very sure" or "extremely sure" about their views. By November of last year, that number had increased to 56 percent.” (http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marbl...)
The possible reason given for this increase is “the so-called global warming "pause"—the misleading idea that global warming has slowed down or stopped over the the past 15 years or so. This claim was used by climate skeptics, to great effect, in their quest to undermine the release of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report in September 2013—precisely during the time period that is in question in the latest study.”(http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marbl...)
So, basically, Byron’s statement is correct. That belief or non-belief in global climate change is, for many people, hinging on an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality is kind of shocking. Then again, it isn’t. It’s human nature.
Simply put, the end of the world is incomprehensible to most people, so they write it off as an impossibility. They deny the facts because they NEED to deny the facts in order to get through the day. As Dellarobia explains, getting through the day, for her, means “meeting the bus on time... getting the kids to eat supper, getting teeth brushed. No cavities the next time. Little hopes, you know? There’s just not room at our house for the end of the world." (p. 283)
Denial, unfortunately, is no longer an option for Dellarobia. She has had her eyes and mind opened. It unfortunately comes with a cost. She can no longer look at science---and faith---in the same way.
In one of the more thoughtful, terrifying, and human conversations in the novel, Kingsolver, via Dellarobia, explains why denial has become a necessary defense mechanism for many people.
[Byron said,] “Science doesn’t tell us what we should do. It only tells us what is.” “That must be why people don’t like it,” she said, surprised at her tartness. Ovid, too, seemed startled. “They don’t like science?” “I’m sorry. I’m probably speaking out of turn here. You’ve explained to me how big this is. The climate thing. That it’s taking out stuff we’re counting on. But other people say just forget it. My husband, guys on the radio. They say it’s not proven.” “What we’re discussing is clear and present, Dellarobia. Scientists agree on that. These men on the radio, I assume, are nonscientists. Why would people buy snake oil when they want medicine?” “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You guys aren’t popular. Maybe your medicine’s too bitter. Or you’re not selling to us. Maybe you’re writing us off, thinking we won’t get it. You should start with kindergartens and work your way up.” “It’s too late for that. believe me.” (p. 321)
As Byron explains, “Even the most recalcitrant climate scientists agree now, the place is heating up. Pretty much every one of the lot. Unless some other outcome is written on the subject line of his paycheck. (p.366)”
Byron’s explanation is backed up by a recent NASA study, which states, “Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,1and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.” (http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-co...)
So, why, if an overwhelming majority of scientists agree on this, does the media and the general public still think that there is a “debate” about this issue? It’s not an easy question to answer, and “denial” is only a small part of it. Kingsolver shows that much of the blame goes to a media driven by ratings. Global climate change just isn’t “sexy” enough, and facing human extinction is something that the media has determined that the general public doesn’t want to hear. Possibly for good reason. After all, wouldn’t such news incite panic, depression, and anarchy?
Tina Ultner, a CNN reporter who originally broke the story of the butterflies on national news, confronts Byron. The exchange is brilliant:
“[Tina said,] “Scientists tell us they can’t predict the exact effects of global warming.” “Correct. We tell you that, because we are more honest than other people. We know evidence will keep coming in. It does not mean we ignore the subject until further notice. We brush our teeth, for instance, even though we do not know exactly how many cavities we may be avoiding." “Well, a lot of people are just not convinced. We’re here to get information.” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and showed his teeth in a grimace, the tip of his tongue just visible between his front teeth. When he finally looked at her again, this seemed to cause him actual pain. “If you were here to get information, Tina, you would not be standing in my laboratory telling me what scientists think." She opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “What scientists disagree on now, Tina, is how to express our shock. The glaciers that keep Asia’s watersheds in business are going right away. Maybe one of your interns could Google that for you. The Arctic is genuinely collapsing. Scientists used to call these things the canary in the mine. What they say now is, the canary is dead. We are at the top of Niagara Falls, Tina, in a canoe. There is an image for your viewers. We got here by drifting, but we cannot turn around for a lazy paddle back when you finally stop pissing around. We have arrived at the point of an audible roar. Does it strike you as a good time to debate the existence of the falls?" (p.367)
The beautiful part of Kingsolver’s novel is that, despite the knowledge that one’s world is ending, it is human nature to keep hope alive, even when there is none.
China's population is a staggering 1.3 billion people (as of 2011), with a projected growth of roughly 200 million more people. * A coal-burning indusChina's population is a staggering 1.3 billion people (as of 2011), with a projected growth of roughly 200 million more people. * A coal-burning industrial nation, China has burned roughly 4 billion tons of coal, making it the world's largest coal consumer. It is the fastest-growing nation in the world, in terms of economic and industrial growth, but it is also the most polluted.
Everyone knows that China can not sustain its growth, even the Chinese. To continue on the path that it is currently on, China poses an environmental threat not only to itself but also to the entire world. This is the frightening and beyond-inconvenient truth in Craig Simons's eye-opening book "The Devouring Dragon: How China's Rise Threatens Our Natural World". The amount of lumber alone that China requires makes it a very real possibility that, if continued unchecked, the rain forests of the world will be completely destroyed by the end of this century. The death of the rain forests would inevitably mean the extinction of millions of animal and plant species. Many of those extinctions are happening now.
In one of Simons's most emotional chapters, he writes about the rapid decline in the world tiger population, and how he desperately hopes that his newborn little girl will be able to grow up to see the beautiful creature before it, too, joins the list of extinct species in our lifetime. And, while our selfish world leaders continue to bicker over whether global warming is a real threat, global climate change continues to wreak havoc on the entire planet. Projections of global climate change and its effects on ocean levels, average global temperature, and precipitation rates are shocking.
Yet, Simons manages to not create a xenophobic atmosphere. He doesn't see the point in finger-pointing, and if there is any finger-pointing to be done, The United States deserves a fairly good chunk of the blame, as well. Throughout the book, Simons is quick to remind the reader that the average Chinese citizen lives far below our standard of the poverty line. At one point, Simons makes the comment that the average Chinese citizen's life is far more "green" than the average American's, and they do it without trying and without a choice in the matter. Simons remains hopeful, as he points out the many sustainable-energy strides and attempts at protecting the environment that China has already made. Even though, as he says, "we were poking holes in the bottom of a sinking ship even as we debated how to plug them. (p. 211)"
* These are 10-year-old statistics. In 2022, China's population was close to 1.5 billion....more
Will Potter's "Green is the New Red" is an excellent reportage of how our government continues to tread on our individual liberties, especially if youWill Potter's "Green is the New Red" is an excellent reportage of how our government continues to tread on our individual liberties, especially if you happen to have pro-environmentalist leanings, and even more specifically if you are an activist for animal rights.
Potter admits early on that while he attempts to be objective, this is difficult for him as someone who considers himself an environmentalist and for an incident in which he was involved that was the impetus for the research for this book.
In 1998, as a new reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Potter offered to disperse leaflets that criticized a company for its many egregious animal rights violations. FBI agents immediately rounded up and arrested Potter and several others passing out literature. During the course of the interrogation (in which Potter was still kept out of the dark as to why he was being arrested), the FBI agents said that he would be placed on the domestic terrorist list if he didn't cooperate in naming names. All this, for passing out leaflets.
Frightened and confused, Potter felt that he needed to dig deeper into what he saw as an insidious trend, since 9/11, of labeling groups of people as "terrorists" for crimes that did not fit into a general concensus and definition of terrorism.
He soon found out that therein lied the problem: an adequate and specific definition of "terrorism" had never actually been stipulated by the government. What Potter discovered was multiple definitions across multiple governmental agencies, and this was just the federal government. Most if not all states had their own definitions of "terrorism".
He also soon discovered that many of these "eco-terrorists", as they were labelled by government agencies and the media, were often receiving twice or more than twice the sentencing that white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or Muslim terrorists were receiving. Keep in mind, too, that, according to the statistics of various governmental agencies, including Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, and others, the number of human and animal casualties resulting from "eco-terrorist" activities has been, to date, zero.
So, Muslim terrorists, whose actions continuously result in human casualties here and overseas, are given lesser sentences than activists who have released animals from laboratories and burned down buildings resulting in no loss of life.
Clearly, the value of property is more important than the value of human life to the government. No surprise, since our government is practically run by corporations, many of whom do not like animal rights activists.
This book will make you mad. It should make you mad, especially if you value things like First Amendment rights and the basic freedoms upon which our country was founded.
Potter has done an excellent job revealing an issue that has perhaps been kept hidden from the eyes and ears of the general public by a ridiculously super-wealthy group of corporations (some of which, not surprisingly, own media outlets such as FOX News and CNN) who believe that they can do anything they want, including the needless mass slaughter of animals and the destruction of the environment, not just to make a profit but simply because they can. ...more
A family drama about a clan of gator-wrestlers in the Florida Everglades doesn't necessarily sound like it would be a fascinating read, but in the hanA family drama about a clan of gator-wrestlers in the Florida Everglades doesn't necessarily sound like it would be a fascinating read, but in the hands of Karen Russell, it is.
"Swamplandia!" is a humorous dysfunctional family drama, a ghost story, a coming-of-age-story, and a commentary on the gradual destruction of our ecosystems in the name of "progress". It is both funny and deeply moving, at times heart-warming and other times disturbing, and it is beautifully written.
Russell's prose has the pace and ferocity that I can only imagine the Everglades possess, a kind of humid sultriness with pleasant surprises and exotic dangers lurking behind every corner.
The Bigtree children---Ossie, Kiwi, and Ava---are the strange products of Chief and Hilola Bigtree, whose family-run amusement park, Swamplandia!, has been a landmark of the Glades for decades. It has, sadly, seen better days.
After Hilola's unsuccessful battle with cancer, the Chief has taken to long hiatuses on the mainland. When Kiwi, the only male child of the clan, goes off to college, it leaves Ossie, the oldest, and Ava, the youngest, to maintain the amusement park they call home. On most days, they don't see any customers. Then, one day, Ossie goes off in to the wilderness because she has fallen in love with Louis. Ava doesn't like Louis that much. For one thing, he's been dead for over half a century. Poor Ava is left to fend for herself, but she IS a Bigtree, and Bigtrees are known for their resiliency.
This is, apparently, Russell's debut novel. I look forward to reading more by her. ...more