Posted by John Goetz
I ran across the following announcement this morning:
September 4, 2008
at The Union of Concerned Scientists website:
Penguin Classics Joins the Union of Concerned Scientists in Call for a New Generation of Environmental Writers
Penguin Classics has partnered with the Union of Concerned Scientists to carry the legacy of classic environmental writers Emerson and Thoreau into the 21st century. The literary publisher and science group are inviting aspiring writers and photographers to submit their personal stories and images about global warming for a new online book, Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, to be published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2009.
“From Henry David Thoreau to Rachel Carson, writers have played a profound role in drawing attention to our natural environment and inspiring people to protect it,” said Elda Rotor, executive editor of Penguin Classics, publisher of some of the greatest environmental works ever written. “We believe the readers of our classic literature are concerned about global warming and will be interested in sharing their voices, photos and inspiration for this project.”
A light bulb (CFL, of course) went off in my head, and I could not resist spreading the message.
To participate, contributors must write a 200- to 500-word first-person account of global warming that relates to their life or the world around them: a special place that they want to protect; people, animals or activities they love that are threatened by a warmer climate; or the steps they are taking to stem the tide of global warming. Or, they can send a photo related to these topics. The best submissions will be included in the online book and in a limited-edition hardcover version. The submission period closes November 15, 2008.
“The writings of a new generation can inspire Americans to take on the challenge of global warming and save our natural—and national—heritage,” said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “What better way to get the word out about this book project than through a global publisher of classic literature?”
Booksellers across the country are displaying easels and free bookmarks publicizing the project. The project will be supported by a major print and online publicity campaign, as well as a 25-city radio satellite tour, and national and trade advertising.
Contributors can submit their essays or photographs at www.ucsusa.org/americanstories.
We’ve seen many eloquent commenters on this website speak with passion about global warming. Now is their chance to reach a broader audience and let people know who the next David Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Stephen King, or P.J. O’Rourke is. Since not all submissions will be accepted, why not cross-post them here so that we have a complete, grass-roots record of how global warming is really affecting people.
Submission guidelines can be found here. Please take particular note of the following:
Essays that center on locations must be consistent with observed shifts or future projections of global warming. For example, climate is the average of many weather events tallied over several decades; global warming cannot be blamed for individual weather events.
What an opportunity for the jeez’s and Pamela Gray’s of this forum to really shine! I am not suggesting anyone spam this effort by the UCSUSA. Be thoughtful, forthright, and witty. And for heaven’s sake use a spell-checker. Perhaps, after the submission deadline closes, we can vote for our favorite essay and image and post here for all to see. So sharpen your keyboards and get writing!
Why even bother to enter? James Howard Knustler has already been picked as the winning UberPessimist™.
I just heard Obama stumble through a question about global warming. I could hardly believe his ignorance on this subject is so dismally complete, yet I’m sure it is as I heard it. This in itself is a depressing dead end. I cannot vote for him as it is and McCain isn’t any better! The media has totally failed to inform Americans about this issue and time is running out. The debates, moderated by uninformed journalists will be a joke, as far as they concern energy and climate.
Given that (at least as I understand it) global warming primarily affect the poles, and the decreasing the temperature difference between the poles and the equator reduces the power avalible to generate storms.
Write an essay about how, because of global warming, you miss sitting out watching to massive thunder / hail storms of your youth. The violent majesty of fields of crops smashed flat. The awe inspiring power of vast floods sweeping bridges away. Etc.
I bet they won’t get this guy…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7599810.stm
Reply to David Gladstone,
I think there may be a ray of hope. Gov. Palin does not buy into the
AGW theory and is a proponent of developing more fossile energy. What would be interesting is that Obama’s campaign is going to have prominent female politcians such as Gov. Sebelius of Kansas counter her with bread and butter issues affecting family finances. I can image a interesting debate on power generation between them. How much more will power cost in Kansas as a result of Gov. Sebelius’s blocking of any more coal fired power plants?
More on lewis Pughs paddle in the Arctic. He was accompanied by a TV news team.
http://www.itv.com/News/newsspecial/KayaktotheArctic/default.html
A trip to the North Pole wich I guess would have taken a couple of weeks seems to be over after only 3 days of paddling. I’m sure this expedition will be portrayed as a great success in the world of global warming.
Interesting quote from that itv.com article: “His journey will show how cracks in the ice have made it possible to travel through what used to be permafrost.”
I don’t think they know what permafrost is: “permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water (0 °C or 32 °F) for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes (i.e. land in close proximity to the North and South poles), but alpine permafrost may exist at high altitudes in much lower latitudes.” (Wiki)
Ah, the well-informed press…
UAH is out:
http://climate.uah.edu/august2008.htm
As you can see, melting Arctic sea ice driven by nasty little apes is causing the entire world’s climate to burn burn burn. Your crimes against humanity and nature will affect your children, and your children’s children. If I were you, I would sell that beachfront property of yours. Can’t find a buyer? Don’t worry, I will buy it from you, but only for half-price. 😉
REPLY: That is still July data, the August temp anomaly here:
http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/public/msu/t2lt/tltglhmam_5.2
has not yet been updated – Anthony
Anthony:
Huh? Is the link broken on your end? It looks finished to me and ICECAP mentioned it as -0.01C. I don’t see how Lords Spencer and Christy could screw up and release unfinished data.
REPLY: Odd, they still have not updated the main dataset. That is what I go by, not by the summary page.
Good. I like science fiction books.
The writing contest is inspired by Thoreau and Carson, 2 emblems of AGW and the green philosophy generally; Thoreau was a hypocrite and one of the first examples of the cognitive dissonance which afflicts AGW; Richard Zacks sums up this armchair utopian’s reverence to an idealised nature well;
“While living the simple life in the woods, Thoreau walked into nearby Concord, Mass., (which nature-boy compared to a gopher colony) almost very day. And his mom, who lived less than two miles away, delivered goodie baskets filled with meals, pies and doughnuts every Saturday. The more one reads in Thoreau’s unpolished journal of his stay in the woods, the more his sojorn resembles suburban boys going to their tree-house in the backyard and pretending they’re camping in the heart of the jungle.”
The cognitive dissonance comes from the fact that AGW supporters seem to think the privileges and civilization which comes from keeping nature at bay will continue if the barriers are broken and benevolent mother-nature is reintroduced into our empty lives. The hypocrisy comes from the ability to similtaneously worship misanthropes like Carson while pretending that millions of deaths have not occurred because of the reduction in mosquito, and other pest and parasites, eradication methods because of Carson’s advocacy.
Books invoking these 2 are likely to be horror stories; how appropriate that Stephen King is on the board.
“Traditional” is how long in actual years?
Demesure (07:53:11) quotes from Ecoenquirer.com: While recent news reports have highlighted accounts of the native Inuits’ snowmobiles falling through the ice, threatening their traditional way of life…
Snowmobiles… traditional…
Thank you, cohenite (19:20:40). A clean and crisp debunking.
Re Pugh the Adventurer and his 30 ton supporting boat, compare to this kayaker who
hashad balls (sort of):“On March 2004, French-Finnish adventurer Dominick Arduin died making the attempt to solo trek the North Pole in a kayak.”
Roger Carr,
re traditional snowmobiles, the folks at Ecoenquirer.com know what they talk about.
[…] (Story picked up from Watts Up With That?) […]
I find it hard to believe that Thoreau would have smiled on this effort to cash in commercially on an environmental problem, perceived or real.
I disagree with the post that calls him a hypocrite, however. I suspect that many who celebrate his writing and views simply have not read him. He’s quite clear and straightforward about what he’s doing and why in his cabin by the lake. The idea that he was a hermit in the wilds is something people have said about him, not what he said of himself.
lichanos; did not Thoreau write;
“I never found the companion that was so companionable as soltitude.”
I think Thoreau was a hypocrite. He played at the pastoral; at least Whitman found what he thought was a true democracy in nature; even if it was a vision with the Blakeian red of claw romanticised to hazy insouciance. But as well as hypocrisy there is irony; Whitman distinguished between the man of science who distilled nature and the direct reverent experience of nature;
“Gentlemen! [men of science] to you the first
honours always.
Your facts are useful and real, and yet they are
not my dwelling;
(I but enter by them into an area of my dwell-
ing.)”
Isn’t a twisted version of this what we are seeing today in the reverence for nature and the incipient loathing for humanity’s efforts to overcome nature? AGW is predicated on an ideology that nature knows best and that interference with that superior wisdom brings [divine] retribution. The irony is, that ‘science’ is being seconded to support that stance which would have no traction without the ‘scientific’ support. Thus, to support a pure, hypocritical view of nature, which is unreal and only sustainable from the vantage of an unnatural society, we see the science and technology which has enabled that ‘unnatural’ society to develop being suborned to support the vision pure of nature.
cohenite…
I no scholar on HDThoreau, but my impression of Walden was that he liked being alone, and he thought it had great personal value. The fact that he didn’t want to be a hermit and cut himself off from everyone doesn’t make him a hypocrite. I like to be alone a lot too, but I need crowds as well, in small doses.
I agree with your point about science and AGW however. It seems to me that much of the enviro movement advances moral/ethical objectives as though they were scientific ones because that’s the only way they feel they can get traction. Personally, I’d rather they were up-front, and advanced their ethical view, but we live in a [pseudo]scientific age.
hi