“You know, scientists and other people are trying to get their message across about various aspects of the climate change issue,” Georgia Institute of Technology professor Judith Curry told NPR. “And it seems like fiction is an untapped way of doing this — a way of smuggling some serious topics into the consciousness of readers who may not be following the science.”
That is a quote from Dan Bloom’s recent OPED (7/11/14) in the Washington Post. I love the thought that I smuggled serious topics into The Straw That Broke. That is a wonderful way of putting it. As you know, if you have read my earlier posts including an interview with Bloom, Dan is the father of the cli fi genre and is working tirelessly to bring works of fiction that reference climate change to the attention of the world media. Dan has informed me his Washington Post piece has now resulted in an invitation to do something similar in the NYT. Keep pushing that rock up the hill, Dan!
http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/4628520-climate-change-creating-a-new-strain-of-science-fiction/
Also, yesterday NPR ran several interviews intended to highlight the extreme measures that have been put in place to stop water abusers in California—experiencing the worst drought in twelve centuries. In an earlier post, I mentioned that on a spring 2014 book tour from San Diego to Santa Barbara I had observed little voluntary effort to conform to the state-wide water emergency that Governor Jerry Brown had issued. Apparently studies have now revealed what I anecdotally observed. Those who do not comply are being fined $500.00.
Finally, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum newsletter for summer 2014 featured in a cover article (A Pulse of Hope in The Colorado River Delta) the life-giving return of water to the Colorado River Delta. I referenced this miraculous event in an earlier post. But I learned a new and gratifying fact from the ASDM article. American Indians have been included in the process of water surges to the delta—which are happening because of the herculean efforts of many organizations including the Sonoran Institute—for the first time in fifty years. This includes representatives from the Tohono O’odham Cultural Center. Considering that the Tohono O’odham reverence for water plays such a key role in The Straw That Broke I found that bit of information affirming and reassuring.
Maybe it is not too late, after all.