The Books Briefing: The Literary Transformation of Climate Change
One of the longest-lasting storytelling themes is that of the all-consuming apocalypse. From some of the oldest texts known to humankind to the newest movies streaming on Netflix, tales of world-ending disaster continue to enthrall and terrify readers and viewers today. While some apocalyptic and postapocalyptic stories concern themselves with the supernatural, others point to causes far more earthly and realistic, such as climate change. What has emerged is a robust catalog of literature about the natural world that engages readers with the very real threat of global warming.
Barry Lopez’s which follows his travels to six regions around the world, takes a new approach to the travel-writing genreseries, William T. Vollmann offers up some of the “most honest” arguments about climate change in a style that addresses an imagined, hostile reader who lives in a future in which soil is radioactive, the oceans are boiling, and humans must survive on insects and recycled urine.
