Do you want to connect with the world outside your four walls, but you’re fed up with Zoom already?
And your phone plan is dangerously close to maxing out?
And you’re worried about getting RSI from all the texting and emailing?
And your casual use of Netflix is turning into a need?
Do you also want to hide the game console and set a good example for the kids while they’re home-schooling?
And frankly, could you do with some shoosh and a bit of me-time while we’re all stuck in here?!?
Well, my friends, I have the answer… read a book. Perhaps read it together!
Of course, you could read any old book, but you could also check out some creative takes on our other global crisis – climate change. (And I’m not talking about climate change reports, although I do highly recommend you also get your head around the Climate Change Authority’s March 2020 report, Prospering in a low emissions world: An updated climate policy toolkit for Australia, and ClimateWorks’ March 2020 report, Decarbonisation Futures: Solutions, actions and benchmarks for a net zero emissions Australia.)
I’m talking about climate change fiction, a relatively new genre, which the great and not-so-great novelists of the world have begun to explore.
And in reading an actual book for once, you could also support your local bookshop, which is probably in sore need of your custom right now, and/or your local library. At least some libraries and bookshops are offering free home delivery.
Here are some climate change novels to get your started. I’m not giving you links to buy online, so you’ll need to ring your library or local bookshop to order them.
Solar – Ian McEwan, 2010
This is the master at his nasty clever best. On one level, it’s a gripping, witty story about the spectacular downfall of a genius who cynically embraces climate change as a cause. On the level of allegory, it’s pure brilliance.
The Year of the Flood – Margaret Atwood, 2010
I haven’t started this one yet – it’s near the top of the messy pile next to my alarm clock – but as we’re in Ms Atwood’s sure hands, I think it’s safe to recommend it. Blurb: ‘The sun brightens in the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The vultures roosting on the hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them. The air smells faintly of burning. The waterless flood – a man-made plague – has ended the world…’
Vapor Trails – RP Siegel and Roger Saillant, 2011
Set amidst the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, this novel is equal parts thriller, mystery and romantic romp, with some moral commentary about environmental destruction thrown in. Entertaining, and it gave me a view of New Orleans, always a bonus.
The Sea and the Summer – George Turner, 1987
This one is in my ‘to read’ pile, right under The Year of the Flood. The late author was Melbourne-based and highly prescient. Blurb: ‘2041: In a dangerously overpopulated world, Francis Conway is Swill – one of the ninety percent who subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. Government corruption, official blindness and unchecked global climate change have conspired to turn his home – and those of billions like him – into a watery tomb. Now, Francis seeks desperately to rise above his circumstances and escape the approaching tide of disaster. But here, at the end of everything, there is no higher ground…’
Now go forth (actually, stay put) and read!
And please also send me your own recommendations and reviews. I’ll publish any good ones. The rules: must be fiction or at least narrative, must relate directly to climate change, must be at least readable (no unedited, self-published fan faction, please) and no spoilers.
Photo: A response to Brimbank City Council’s to-your-door library service
