Novelist Jeff Vandermeer writes this week:
''When I say, at global warming conferences, or on panels, "we may only have 30 years before things get really bad" a certain number of people push back against that, saying "no, that's not going to happen." But without any evidence to support that assertion. And I'm beginning to think that even though these folks say they believe in global warming, they really don't. They're really global warming deniers, to dismiss the probability. The other thing I'm seeing is people who jump on the environmental bandwagon to promote whatever their pet cause is...but who clearly don't give two shits about the environment. So I'm taking a harder line on all of this going forward.''
UPDATE: When someone asked Jeff what he meant by "taking a harder line on all this going forward, he replied:
''Oh - - well, first of all addressing some of this in the book on storytelling and global warming that I'm writing -- and challenging that on panels and re other events. [He is hoping to finish that global warming book by the end of 2017.] He added: "I'm still working on a post about activism because I want to get it right."] But I'm still spending the next month thinking through every aspect of what I plan to say and do on these issues.''
A writer in Australia replied: ''I try to focus on the possibilities for change, partly because I feel we disempower ourselves by giving into despair, but I increasingly find myself wondering whether that isn't simply a form of denial. Because the reality is so horrific it's difficult to believe we could turn it around even if we wanted to (and the reality is most people don't).''
Said another commenter: "Speaking of Australia, one of the best but largely forgotten fictional near-future books on the potential effects of global warming and sea level rises was the rather prescient "The Sea and Summer" (1987), set in Australia, and written by George Turner (an Australian author), published in the US as "Drowning Towers" (1988)
Another commenter added: "30 years is generous. I suppose it's a question of what 'really bad' is."
''When I say, at global warming conferences, or on panels, "we may only have 30 years before things get really bad" a certain number of people push back against that, saying "no, that's not going to happen." But without any evidence to support that assertion. And I'm beginning to think that even though these folks say they believe in global warming, they really don't. They're really global warming deniers, to dismiss the probability. The other thing I'm seeing is people who jump on the environmental bandwagon to promote whatever their pet cause is...but who clearly don't give two shits about the environment. So I'm taking a harder line on all of this going forward.''
UPDATE: When someone asked Jeff what he meant by "taking a harder line on all this going forward, he replied:
''Oh - - well, first of all addressing some of this in the book on storytelling and global warming that I'm writing -- and challenging that on panels and re other events. [He is hoping to finish that global warming book by the end of 2017.] He added: "I'm still working on a post about activism because I want to get it right."] But I'm still spending the next month thinking through every aspect of what I plan to say and do on these issues.''
A writer in Australia replied: ''I try to focus on the possibilities for change, partly because I feel we disempower ourselves by giving into despair, but I increasingly find myself wondering whether that isn't simply a form of denial. Because the reality is so horrific it's difficult to believe we could turn it around even if we wanted to (and the reality is most people don't).''
Said another commenter: "Speaking of Australia, one of the best but largely forgotten fictional near-future books on the potential effects of global warming and sea level rises was the rather prescient "The Sea and Summer" (1987), set in Australia, and written by George Turner (an Australian author), published in the US as "Drowning Towers" (1988)
To which an Australian with a new cli-fi novel comiong out soon replied: "O yeah, read that one. Horribly, horribly prescient."
And JVM added: ''Honestly, the odds are that we're all already dead. I mean, I don't want to be too depressing, but to me the choices we make in fighting now are not about us surviving but about the planet and about our grandchildren possibly surviving. And because it's the only ethical and moral thing to do.''
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