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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
"Fans of Proulx's fiction, even those with marginal interest in peatlands, will be intrigued by the snippets of memoir and the habits of a writer's mind that this collection reveals."
"She considers plenty of archaeology, history and literaturealong the way, sprinkling in reminiscences of her own wetland encounters as well."
"The Harvard biologist EO Wilson wrote that chopping down the rainforest to make money is like burning a priceless Renaissance painting to cook a meal."
"Proulx's prose is, as ever, stunning ..."
"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 ..."
"ranges widely in this short book."
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