Can novels save the Earth…or at least our climate?

Ned Tillman, author of ''THE BIG MELT''
https://www.amazon.com/Ned-Tillman/e/B0028OC7Y8

 

 
Can novels save the Earth…or at least our climate?

 

An OpEd by Ned Tillman

 

[NOTE: This is a guest post by Ned Tillman, author of the newly-released ''The Big Melt.'' He can bereached by email at ned@sustainable.us    This book and his other two award-winning books, ''The
Chesapeake Watershed ''and ''Saving the Places We Love'' are all available on Amazon.]

November 1, 2018 -- Fiction has certainly played a key part in many of our nation’s cultural movements.

 

And in England, the horrific state of eople in poverty in London was clearly expressed and brought to life by Dickens in ''A Tale of Two Cities.''

 

The conditions of African-Americans living under slavery was expressed in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
''Uncle Tom’s Cabin."

 

Sinclair Lewis brought the reality of laborers working in the meat packing industry
to all of us on a visceral level in ''The Jungle.''

 

These books helped to shift our understanding, our perspectives, and the need for change on these major issues.

When asked about our changing climate, non-fiction pieces tend to be mentioned. Clearly
Rachel Carson’s ''Silent Spring'' was critical to the environmental awakening of the 1960s.

 

I also found also  Aldo Leopold’s ''Sand County Almanac'' and Warner’s ''Beautiful Swimmers'' key in my continuously growing appreciation of nature.

 

But is there a great American novel that is inspiring us to take more action on slowing down greenhouse gas emissions and the warming of the surface of the Earth?

The two classic works of fiction that inspired me to become an advocate for climate action were
not even written with climate change in mind.

 

John Steinbeck’s ''Grapes of Wrath'' scares the hell out of
me when I read about what it must be like trying to feed one’s children during the last great Dust
Bowl when there was no food. Of course, there will be more dust bowls.

 

''The Monkey House
Gang'' by Edward Abbey showed the futility of trying to fight The Man as society charges forward.

Climate change is often the theme or the setting for many modern novels ranging from
Barbara Kingsolver’s ''Flight Behavior'' to Paolo Bacigulipi’s ''The Water Knife.''

 

Some are cautionary tales and others are predictions of life in dystopian futures. Each and every one of these ''cli-fi'' pieces does help us try to visualize what the future may look like. And rhat is a start, trying to imagine the future.

In my new novel, titled ''The Big Melt,'' I do not try to extrapolate far into the future. I paint a picture of what could happen tomorrow, and maybe what is actually happening today, someplace on the Earth.

 

I wanted to know how a typical cast of characters might react if a range of climate catastrophes
happened overnight. How would teenagers react? How about old people, farmers, parents, and
yes even the wildlife -- how would each of us respond to real life impacts? In writing the book, I
was surprised where this took me. I started with my teenage protagonists on the streets of
suburbia. They then went to the forests and the farmland, and ended up searching for answers
from the people they trusted. They resorted to doing the things they already knew how to do.

That brings me to the question of, “Now that the climate is changing, what can we do to prevent
such a horrific future where many people suffer?” Some of us are disengaged because we are
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem of a changing climate. “What can I do when the
problem is so large – so global?” We all need to struggle with this question because it will take
all of us to make a difference. Fortunately, there is evidence from around the world that people
of all countries are taking action to slow the warming.

 

Many of us are taking the most important step by voting. We each need to vote with the climate
in mind and pick elected officials who will admit climate change is a big issue and who will
work with others to manage it.

Following the election, we need to launch a nationwide campaign to move our elected officials to
pass a carbon fee with dividend or a carbon tax so that the real cost of burning fossil fuels is
fairly reflected in its price. No more passing the significant health costs related to burning fossil
fuels on to individuals and communities.

In addition to those two major steps, individuals have even more they can do to slow down the
warming of the atmosphere, the continents, and the oceans. ''The Big Melt'' has a list of 10 things
that most of us could do.

We can demand that businesses take the lead to a cleaner and more sustainable future by only
buying products from those firms who are leaders in a clean energy future. For example, many of
us could easily switch to hybrid or electric vehicles the next time we buy a car. We can also
divest from those firms who are the big polluters and who are dragging their feet. Tell your
broker to invest in mutual funds that focus on environmental, social, and governance issues.
Then it comes down to our individual behaviors. Each of us could reduce our use of fossil fuels
pretty quickly by insulating our homes and offices, using energy efficient lights and appliances,
and switching our electricity suppliers to 100 percent solar or wind. We each need to start thinking
about our lives and our actions.

This is where fiction can play a very big role. It shows us the horrors of a future where we did
not take action soon enough. It also shows us what what we need to do to prevent the worse from
happening. Fiction shows us that we need to act now and how the characters in the story respond.
Fiction helps us look at things through a climate lens. It can show that we each need to be
climate informed in all the decisions that we make.

 

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