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Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis
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About This Book
A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment—by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth's survival, and in four illuminating parts, Proulx documents their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit. In a vivid and revelatory journey through history, Proulx describes the fens of 16th-century England, Canada's Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia's Great Vasyugan Mire, and America's Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. She introduces the early explorers who launched the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and writes of the diseases spawned in the wetlands—the Ague, malaria, Marsh Fever. A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is "an unforgettable and unflinching tour of past and present, fixed on a subject that could not be more important" (Bill McKibben). "A stark but beautifully written Silent Spring –style warning from one of our greatest novelists." — The Christian Science Monitor
Reviews
"She provides a particularly good compact history of the draining of the fens of eastern England in an act pitting capitalists against working people and turning the vast wetlands, 'one of the world's richest environments,' to farmland—and, of course, releasing greenhouse gases to accompany those generated by the first factories of the Industrial Revolution ..."
"Her eye for folly is sharply trained on the long record of ruinous drainage 'projects.' But while there are many occasions for eco-grief in the book, there are also glimmers of hope: e.g., in the scientists who laid the groundwork to the understanding of these ecosystems and the many restoration projects underway ..."
"One of Proulx's chapters is called 'Discursive Thoughts on Wetlands,' which sums up her approach."
"She doesn't blame Donald Trump or Joe Biden – her beef is with the Judeo-Christian belief that creation is made for humans, meaning we can use the world as we wish."
"National Book Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning Proulx's attunement to the intricacies and vulnerabilities of nature and humankind's reckless exploitation of the living world shapes her celebrated fiction ..."
"Proulx's prose is, as ever, stunning ..."
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