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Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis

Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis

by Annie Proulx

Scribner ·2022 ·208 pages
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63/99
Near the Top

71/99

Critics' Rating Index

Maybe Someday

28/99

Readers' Rating Index

Top of the Pile

89/99

Scholars' Citation Index

66/99

Volume of Reviews

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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."

Robert Eagan· Library Journal Read review ↗ Near the Top

"She considers plenty of archaeology, history and literaturealong the way, sprinkling in reminiscences of her own wetland encounters as well."

Anne Bartlett· BookPage Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"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."

Rohan Silva· The Guardian Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Proulx's prose is, as ever, stunning ..."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"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 ..."

Donna Seaman· Booklist Read review ↗ Near the Top

"ranges widely in this short book."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

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