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<font size="+1"><i>December 16, 2017<br>
</i></font> <br>
[AGU Fall Meeting]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-pnhDVrXI">Are the worst
climate outcomes unavoidable? Are we doomed?</a></b><br>
Climate State<br>
Published on Dec 15, 2017<br>
At the AGU Fall Meeting 2017, Michael Mann explained why the
narrative of certain doom of mankind is equal to denial, and that
our actions today make a difference to what we can expect with
future warming. Watch the entire panel discussion at: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2k2tpbfVk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2k2tpbfVk</a>
<br>
"Acts of climate change are no longer subtle"<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-pnhDVrXI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-pnhDVrXI</a><br>
-<br>
[American Geophysical Union (AGU)]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2k2tpbfVk"><b>2017 Fall
Meeting Press Conference: Climate solutions</b></a><br>
Published on Dec 13, 2017<br>
A late-breaking panel discussion will address the challenges
humanity faces with global climate change on Tuesday, Dec. 12. The
discussion will aim to define conceptual frameworks and practical
methodologies aimed at fostering and promoting the innovations
needed to respond to the global challenge of climate change. A media
availability with the panelists will be held the morning of the
session.<br>
Participants:<br>
Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.;<br>
Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.;<br>
Sarah Myhre, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.;<br>
Stefan Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,
Potsdam, Germany.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2k2tpbfVk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2k2tpbfVk</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate Liability News]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/12/15/nam-climate-liability-industry/">Trade
Group Gears Up to Discredit Climate Liability Movement</a></b><br>
By Dana Drugmand<br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">In response to
a growing wave of climate change lawsuits and legal investigations
attempting to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for
climate consequences and decades of deception, a large industry
trade group is now<span> </span></span><a
href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/manufacturers-push-back-against-environmentalists-climate-court-strategy/article/2642361"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">fervently pushing
back</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight:
400;"><span> </span>with an "accountability" initiative of its
own.</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The<span> </span></span><a
href="http://www.nam.org/" style="box-sizing: inherit;
background-color: transparent; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);
text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span style="box-sizing:
inherit; font-weight: 400;">National Association of
Manufacturers</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;
font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>(NAM) has launched the<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/about-us/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Manufacturers'
Accountability Project</span></a><span style="box-sizing:
inherit; font-weight: 400;">, (MAP) which aims to undermine what
it calls a coordinated campaign that "jeopardizes the ability of
all manufacturers to continue growing and providing jobs to
millions of Americans." NAM identifies those behind the campaign
as "trial lawyers, public officials, deep-pocketed foundations and
other activists."..<br>
</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">MAP
targets the new climate tort cases filed in California, as well as
the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general investigations
into ExxonMobil. Blog posts on the MAP website call out actions by
specific individuals and organizations, including attorney<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/2017/12/04/second-installment-insights-pawas-calculations-legal-strategy-attack-energy-manufacturers/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Matt Pawa</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">, New York Attorney
General<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/2017/11/28/rise-partisan-ag-schneiderman-takes-peabody/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Eric Schneiderman</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">, 350.org founder<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/2017/12/08/two-years-later-politically-motivated-investigation-rallying-cry-manufacturers/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Bill McKibben</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">, the<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/2017/12/01/money-power-corrupted-union-concerned-scientists/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Union of
Concerned Scientists</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;
font-weight: 400;">, the nonprofit news website<span> </span></span><a
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/2017/11/13/la-jolla-anatomy-plot-part-ii/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">InsideClimate
News</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight:
400;"><span> </span>and others.</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The project
springs from NAM's<span> </span></span><a
href="http://www.nam.org/The-Center-For-Legal-Action/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Manufacturers'
Center for Legal Action</span></a><span style="box-sizing:
inherit; font-weight: 400;">, which alleges that this activist
campaign is politically motivated and intended for profit at the
expense of American workers. "It has become clear that these
activist plaintiffs' attorneys, sympathetic academics and
agenda-driven media outlets are distorting the use of tort
litigation to advance their narratives with the ultimate objective
of undermining manufacturers and the engine of the American
economy," NAM senior vice president and general counsel Linda
Kelly said in a<span> </span></span><a
href="http://www.nam.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2017/11/NAM-Unveils-Campaign-to-Expose-Activist-Litigation-Against-American-Manufacturers/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">press release</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>announcing
the initiative.</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">One of its main
arguments is that plaintiff attorneys are bringing these climate
cases purely for their own profit and the expense of fighting the
claims comes at the expensive of job and wage increases. In a<span> </span></span><a
href="https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/trial-lawyers-relentless-war-on-manufacturers-kills-jobs-lowers-standards-of-living/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">November op-ed</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>in
Investor's Business Daily, Kelly wrote, "Trial lawyers are waging
a reckless assault against American manufacturers in pursuit of a
fat payday for themselves."</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Carroll
Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental
Law debunked Kelly's claim that climate cases are driven by trial
lawyers seeking a big payday, calling it simplistic and incorrect.<br>
</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">"The
challenge with that argument is that these cases are not simply
being brought by lawyers. They're being brought by nonprofit
organizations, they're being brought by state attorneys general,
they're now being brought by cities' attorneys," Muffett said.
"The most obvious profit motive involves those companies who are
being sued, not those who are bringing the investigation."</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">"The deep irony
is the name of the website and of the project," Muffett added. "We
would welcome them helping us hold those who are most responsible
for climate impacts responsible, but that is clearly not their
goal."</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The timing of
the initiative is also telling. "What is ironic is the launch of
this project at precisely the moment when the courts are finally
addressing and overwhelmingly rejecting the sort of empty legal
arguments that Exxon and its corporate and political allies have
been making with respect to the ongoing investigations," Muffett
said....</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"></span><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">"These companies
shouldn't be able to hide behind their trade associations and take
contradictory positions." NAM, he said, "is not only a hypocrite,
but it doesn't have the courage to take a stand under oath." <br>
</span><font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/12/15/nam-climate-liability-industry/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/12/15/nam-climate-liability-industry/</a></font><br>
-<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/">The Manufacturers'
Accountability Project (MAP) </a></b>will set the record
straight and highlight the concerted, coordinated campaign being
waged by trial lawyers, public officials, deep-pocketed foundations
and other activists who have sought to undermine and weaken
manufacturers in the United States.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/">http://mfgaccountabilityproject.org/</a><br>
<br>
<b><br>
</b>[Science Daily News Release]<b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144522.htm">Effects
of climate change could accelerate by mid-century</a></b><br>
Environmental models are showing that the effects of climate change
could be much stronger by the middle of the 21st century, and a
number of ecosystem and weather conditions could consistently
decline even more in the future.<br>
Nature lovers beware, environmental models used by researchers at
the University of New Hampshire are showing that the effects of
climate change could be much stronger by the middle of the 21st
century, and a number of ecosystem and weather conditions could
consistently decline even more in the future. If carbon dioxide
emissions continue at the current rate, they report that scenarios
of future conditions could not only lead to a significant decrease
in snow days, but also an increase in the number of summer days over
90 degrees and a drastic decline in stream habitat with 40 percent
not suitable for cold water fish.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144522.htm">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144522.htm</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Carbon Brief]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans">Analysis:
Why scientists think 100% of global warming is due to humans</a></b><br>
There are many techniques that can be - and are - deployed to avoid
acting on climate change.<br>
Perhaps the easiest, in terms of minimising mental effort, is to
simply refuse to accept that it is happening at all. But this
becomes quite challenging to maintain when it can be shown
demonstrably that the global climate over the past century has
changed, according to a <a
href="https://carbonbrief.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b25e6afa81d7ffc0e925ee9&id=afae5441ce&e=04b4ed6ded"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2f8fce;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: none;">variety of metrics</a>.<br>
Another tactic is to refuse to believe that humans are in anyway to
blame for those changes. However, this also becomes a hard position
to defend when you weigh up <a
href="https://carbonbrief.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b25e6afa81d7ffc0e925ee9&id=bd46460fbe&e=04b4ed6ded"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2f8fce;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: none;">all </a>the <a
href="https://carbonbrief.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b25e6afa81d7ffc0e925ee9&id=d784b9fbc9&e=04b4ed6ded"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2f8fce;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: none;">scientific</a> <a
href="https://carbonbrief.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b25e6afa81d7ffc0e925ee9&id=82cd3f9c6a&e=04b4ed6ded"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2f8fce;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: none;">evidence</a>.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/sKDWW9WlPSc">What's
causing global warming?</a> video <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/sKDWW9WlPSc">https://youtu.be/sKDWW9WlPSc</a><br>
Carbon Brief's analysis finds that:<br>
- Since 1850, almost all the long-term warming can be explained by
greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities.<br>
- If greenhouse gas emissions alone were warming the planet, we
would expect to see about a third more warming than has actually
occurred. - - - - They are offset by cooling from human-produced
atmospheric aerosols.<br>
- Aerosols are projected to decline significantly by 2100, bringing
total warming from all factors closer to warming from greenhouse
gases alone.<br>
- Natural variability in the Earth's climate is unlikely to play a
major role in long-term warming.<br>
...the IPCC's implied best guess was that humans were responsible
for around 110% of observed warming (ranging from 72% to 146%), with
natural factors in isolation leading to a slight cooling over the
past 50 years.<br>
Similarly, the recent US fourth national climate assessment found
that between 93% to 123% of observed 1951-2010 warming was due to
human activities...<br>
A human contribution of greater than 100% is possible because
natural climate change associated with volcanoes and solar activity
would most likely have resulted in a slight cooling over the past 50
years, offsetting some of the warming associated with human
activities...<br>
While there are natural factors that affect the Earth's climate, the
combined influence of volcanoes and changes in solar activity would
have resulted in cooling rather than warming over the past 50 years.<br>
The global warming witnessed over the past 150 years matches nearly
perfectly what is expected from greenhouse gas emissions and other
human activity, both in the simple model examined here and in more
complex climate models. The best estimate of the human contribution
to modern warming is around 100%....<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans">https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Religion]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/15-december/comment/opinion/hoping-against-hope-in-the-face-of-climate-crisis">Hoping
against hope in the face of climate crisis </a></b><br>
Despite the urgent need for a rapid, international response, wealthy
nations such as the UK continue to perpetuate a collective "soft
denial" of the climate crisis. This was underscored in the latest
Budget, in which the Treasury quietly published a document stating
that there would be no new subsidies for renewable energy until at
least 2025....<br>
This state of cognitive dissonance set the context for the Green
Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley's recent Annual Lecture for the
William Temple Foundation (Comment, 24 November), "Engaging a
Politics of Hope". The lecture powerfully explored a wide range of
policy areas, presenting nothing less than a green paradigm shift
made necessary by the interconnected crises of environment,
economics, immigration, education, and health.<br>
YET "hope" is a word that I have struggled with as I have begun to
research the strange psychology of our response to issues such as
climate change. As Bruno Latour puts it in his book Facing Gaia,
there is something about the climate crisis in particular which
"drives people crazy". There is, of course, the insanity of outright
denial, represented out of all proportion by the media on both sides
of the Atlantic.<br>
But the danger of focusing on the madness of the "climate-change
deniers" is that it normalises our own often equally "mad"
responses. Latour suggests there are at least four other forms of
commonplace madness:<br>
-the "low-level" madness of quietism, a lack of political action
generated by the assured hope that some transcendent Other (be it
God or Nature) will swoop in to save the day;<br>
-the frenetic madness of hyper-modernity that places its hope in
geoengineering: radical technologies such as "solar radiation
management" and "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) that provide the
illusion of control;<br>
-the hope-filled madness of those who believe that our existing
political institutions - especially our governments - will surely
act rationally when the situation calls them to do so;<br>
-and, finally, the hopeless madness of those who despair at the
urgency of the situation and our collective inaction: a phenomenon
that the social scientist Dr Renee Lertzman has dubbed
"environmental melancholia", which may be more widespread than
appearances betray.<br>
"There is no cure for the condition of belonging to the world,"
Latour says. If we are living in a mad world - a situation that the
novelist Amitav Ghosh calls "The Great Derangement" - then it may be
that there is no alternative to madness. In that case, we can only
choose which form of madness we will embrace.<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/15-december/comment/opinion/hoping-against-hope-in-the-face-of-climate-crisis">https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/15-december/comment/opinion/hoping-against-hope-in-the-face-of-climate-crisis</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[TIME magazine]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://time.com/5064577/climate-change-arctic/">Climate
Change Is Already Wreaking Havoc on Our Weather, Scientists Find</a></b><br>
While there are natural factors that affect the Earth's climate, the
combined influence of volcanoes and changes in solar activity would
have resulted in cooling rather than warming over the past 50 years.<br>
The global warming witnessed over the past 150 years matches nearly
perfectly what is expected from greenhouse gas emissions and other
human activity, both in the simple model examined here and in more
complex climate models. The best estimate of the human contribution
to modern warming is around 100%.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://time.com/5064577/climate-change-arctic/">http://time.com/5064577/climate-change-arctic/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Yale e360]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/how-a-wayward-arctic-current-could-cool-the-climate-in-europe">How
a Wayward Arctic Current Could Cool the Climate in Europe</a></b><br>
The Beaufort Gyre, a key Arctic Ocean current, is acting strangely.
Scientists say it may be on the verge of discharging a huge amount
of ice and cold freshwater that could kick off a period of lower
temperatures in northern Europe.<br>
The gyre's strange behavior is likely linked, at least in part, to
the profound warming of the Arctic.<br>
There just isn't enough Arctic data out there to make firm
predictions in a world where climate change, ocean currents, and
atmospheric forces interact in complex ways."<br>
Unprecedented Collapse of the Arctic Beaufort Gyre<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/JvJsV2NHlLU?t=4m33s">https://youtu.be/JvJsV2NHlLU?t=4m33s</a><br>
Wikipedia <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_Gyre">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_Gyre</a><br>
And in NSIDC <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/processes/circulation.html">https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/processes/circulation.html</a><br>
<font size="-1">In the Arctic, land encircles much of the sea ice,
constraining its flow, resulting in ridging and thicker sea ice.
The overall flow of Antarctic ice is quite different. There is no
northern land boundary for the northward flowing sea ice to run
into, so the ice flows northward until it melts in warmer oceans
and air temperatures. Because of this, Antarctic sea ice is
younger and thinner, on average, than ice in the Arctic. Most sea
ice in the Antarctic is less than a year old (see Thermodynamics
in the Processes section).<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/how-a-wayward-arctic-current-could-cool-the-climate-in-europe">http://e360.yale.edu/features/how-a-wayward-arctic-current-could-cool-the-climate-in-europe</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Cli Fi author interview Yale Climate Connections]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/12/dystopian-climate-fiction-gets-personal/">Dystopian
climate fiction gets personal </a></b><br>
Amy Brady interviews award-winning poet Megan Hunter on her novel
about a flood that destroys London.<br>
Born in Manchester, the award-winning poet Megan Hunter publishes
her first novel this month. The End We Start From stars a young
mother who gives birth during a massive flood that wipes out most of
London. Lyrical yet quick-paced, and beautifully written, the book
ekes something like poetry out of climate change.<br>
<br>
Like other books explored in this column, The End We Start From is
about more than the devastating realities of catastrophic events.
It's about how people love, grieve, and adapt in the face of such
disasters. I recently spoke with Hunter about her new novel,
including its mythic-like qualities and celebration of female
strength, and how her own fears of climate change led her to explore
the phenomenon in fiction.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: It feels strange to say it, but there are many
end-of-civilization scenarios to choose from. Why did you pick a
massive flood?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: It was always going to be a flood, and this was
important to me for several reasons. First of all, it is one of the
most probable - and already existent - outcomes of climate change.
There is also the link with mythology and religion, a sense that
water has always been at the core of humanity's imaginings of both
its beginning and end. It was also important to me to link the
waters of the earth to the waters of the pregnant woman's body: to
connect the primordial with the amniotic.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: Climate scientists are no longer asking whether the
world's major cities will be flooded by the end of the century -
they're asking how bad the flooding is going to be. Do issues of
climate change interest you beyond what you write about in your
fiction?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: Yes - my imagination has been shaped by the prospect
of environmental decline and disaster since childhood. I grew up in
the countryside and have always spent a lot of time walking and
exploring nature. I was very angry and overwhelmed about climate
change when I was younger, and then this developed into something
slightly different when I had children: a kind of deep sadness
connected to their future, and a need to explore this in my writing.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: One of the things I loved most about The End We Start
From is its focus on the narrator's inner life. Yes, we see hints of
just how bad things have gotten in London post-flood, but mostly we
witness the narrator's thoughts and feelings about herself, her son,
her husband, and her new friends. What led you to write a
quasi-apocalyptic novel that's so centered on personal psyches and
interpersonal relationships?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: For me, these are some of the most interesting
questions that literature can begin to answer about disastrous
situations: How does it feel? How does it taste, and smell, and what
happens to our usual thought processes? This is what I love most in
fiction, its ability to present the intricacy of our experience at
the most tangible and simultaneously stretching way. There is an
atmosphere in dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives that
interested me, and I wanted to go inside this atmosphere and
understand it as a personal experience. I grew up watching disaster
movies but the people in them never seemed fully three-dimensional.
Perhaps I wanted to fill some of those gaps - to explore, through
one woman's experience the ways that climate change may change our
self-perception, but also to think about what wouldn't change, what
might stay just the same despite it all.<br>
<br>
'There is an atmosphere in dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives
... I wanted to go inside this ...' CLICK TO TWEET<br>
Amy Brady: I've seen some critics draw symbolic parallels between
the biblical flood and the flood that destroys London in your book.
Is this a connection you intended?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: Yes - and not just with the biblical flood. In my
readings of creation mythology I was struck by how much the
beginnings of the world are characterized by the earth emerging from
the water. There is a hope as well as a destructive power in the
water, a sense that we are always having to define ourselves in
relation to the power of the sea. I knew that I wanted the book to
have a particular shape characterized by endings and beginnings, and
by both loss and redemption.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: The last few lines are deeply moving, and I don't want to
spoil them for future readers. But I will say this: Your book feels
very hopeful by the end. Are you hopeful when it comes to climate
change?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: I am hopeful, and I'm aware that this might seem naïve
in the face of the challenge ahead. But I think that hope is
actually essential if we are to take action: If there is no hope for
the planet then there is no point doing anything. And hope, for me,
is not the same as optimism: it isn't about conceiving of something
tangible in the future that necessarily provides hope, but about
recognizing the essentially unknown nature of the future, the
reality of possibility. I am very influenced by the philosopher
Ernst Bloch's ideas about hope. In his work he is interested in
uncovering the traces of hope in everyday life, literature and art.
And there is something similar happening in the creation myth of the
earth diver, who finds a scrap of material in the water that becomes
the whole world. So that is what I am exploring at the end of the
book: the idea of finding a scrap or trace of hope amidst
desolation, something to carry us forward, without somehow
pronouncing that everything is OK.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: The strength with which the narrator deals with the
changes in her body post-birth make her seem tough as nails - like
someone who can get through anything. As I read, I was struck by
just how rare it is to read about early motherhood in literature -
the breast feeding, the pain, etc. - and how even rarer it is to see
this in novels featuring end-of-the-world events. What inspired you
to write about a young mother instead of, say, a brawny male hero?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: I had been exploring motherhood in poetry and fiction
for years, and was keen to convey the way that the experience itself
can feel dystopian at points: as though the whole world changes and
your place in it is suddenly uncertain. There is a strangeness to
everything that can be alienating but also refreshing: I thought it
would be interesting to make this experience "real", manifested in
changes in the physical world around the narrator.<br>
<br>
I was also struck when having my own children by the bravery and
persistence that is required in early motherhood, and how little
this is lauded in literature (or elsewhere!). The fact is that, for
many women, they are having to deal with profound changes in their
bodies and minds while having to care for someone else who is
utterly vulnerable and completely dependent on them. I don't think
there is enough acknowledgement of this, and so much of it - birth
injury, birth trauma - goes unspoken and unrecognized beyond the
(fairly time-limited) event of the birth itself. It's a taboo,
still. In the book, the mother is made vulnerable by her new
motherhood but is also strengthened by it: as you say, there is a
sense that she has to survive, that she can keep going.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: The narrative of The End We Start From is occasionally
interjected with passages from other works. Where did these passages
come from and how did you arrive at this particular structure?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: The italicized passages were there from the beginning,
interspersed with the main narrative. I'm very interested in
collage, and the idea of a literary collage appealed to me. Writing
the book felt more like something musical at points: dancing, or
singing, if that doesn't sound too ridiculous. It was very
instinctual and based on what the rhythm of the text needed to be.
The whole process was quite mysterious and like nothing I'd
experienced before: It felt like the book knew what it needed to be,
and I just had to listen and follow.<br>
<br>
The passages themselves are adapted from a very wide range of
mythology of both creation and apocalypse, and although they were
always present in some form, they also shifted quite a lot in the
editing process. I had to think about how closely I wanted them to
relate to the main text; as in collage, I didn't want the
juxtapositions to be overly obvious.<br>
<br>
Amy Brady: What's next for you?<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter: I'm currently working on a novel. I seemed to know as
soon as I finished The End We Start From that the next step for me
would be to write something longer, and in quite a different form.
It's taken me a while to work out what the exact shape and subject
of this would be; it's still important for me to be playful and to
try out new things in my work, even within this somewhat more
conventional structure. Hopefully I'm on my way now, and it's
proving to be a fascinating challenge. I'm struck by how thoroughly
it has felt like starting all over again, as though I've never
written a book before.<br>
<br>
Megan Hunter was born in Manchester and now lives in Cambridge with
her young family. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Bridport
Prize and she was a finalist for the Aesthetica Creative Writing
Award with her short story Selfing. The End We Start From is her
first book.<br>
<br>
The interview is re-posted here with permission of Brady and the
Chicago Review of Books.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/12/dystopian-climate-fiction-gets-personal/">https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/12/dystopian-climate-fiction-gets-personal/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Business Insider]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paris-agreement-not-on-track-climate-change-2017-12">Earth
will likely warm way beyond the crucial tipping point that the
Paris agreement was meant to avoid</a></b><br>
- A new report estimates that global temperature will increase 3.2
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the
century.<br>
- That's well over the 2-degree limit set by the Paris Agreement in
2015.<br>
- But it's not all bad news: China and India have made huge strides
in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, despite the US' pledge to pull
out of the agreement. <br>
The Paris Agreement pushed member nations to curb their greenhouse
gas emissions, like carbon dioxide and methane, in order to keep
global temperatures from increasing more than 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels. Each country submitted its own plan for
reducing emissions that cause our atmosphere to trap more heat. <br>
But if all of the signatories fulfill their pledges - and that's a
big if - global temperatures will still increase by 3.2 degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century,
according to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://climateactiontracker.org/assets/publications/briefing_papers/CAT_2017-11-15_Improvement-in-warming-outlook.pdf">Climate
Tracker's latest report</a>....<br>
It's important to note, however, that modeling climate change is a
highly complex process with many variables, so these effects are a
matter of probabilities, not an absolute certainty. <font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paris-agreement-not-on-track-climate-change-2017-12">http://www.businessinsider.com/paris-agreement-not-on-track-climate-change-2017-12</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="December%2016,%201995:%20The%202nd%20IPCC%20report%20is%20released.,,http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/1218/18032.html">This
Day in Climate History December 16, 1995</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
December 16, 1995: The 2nd IPCC report is released.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/1218/18032.html">http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/1218/18032.html</a></font><br>
<font size="+1"><i><br>
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