Climate Change in Different Climates, Different Books

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5 books

Fiction reflects our lives and our lives are more and more affected by the awesome power of nature. Climate events such as storms and drought are intensifying in size and frequency due to the immense amount of carbon humans have been pumping into the atmosphere for the past 150 years. The ensuing floods and wildfires have increased human suffering around the globe, and loss of wildlife habitat due to development has increased the likelihood of viruses like Covid jumping to humans. In this light, I’ve created a list of a few novels that reflect growing environmental pressure not just on humans but all species.

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My Last Continent

Midge Raymond, 2016

This novel opened my eyes to the incredibly fragile ecosystems in the Antarctic, and how it can all break down so quickly. I thought of it as a lifeless block of ice, but it is far from that. Something as small as a shift in the shark population can throw this fragile environment out of balance, and the environment is already extreme. The characters are there for the penguins and grieve for them as they struggle with warming oceans. The humans are struggling, too, because underneath it all is a love story. I like a book I can learn from, and from this one, I learned the different types of ice conditions: brash, pack, slush, rotten, black, pancake, frazil, grease, fast.

Flight Behavior

Barbara Kingsolver, 2012

In the mountains of Mexico, environmental degradation has affected the behavior of the migratory Monarch butterflies who should be wintering there. Instead, they winter in Appalachia, which is not a good thing. They’ll freeze come winter. I love this book because, as always, Kingsolver’s fiction is deeply rooted in science, all the while telling a good story about what the humans are doing. It woke many readers up to the plight of the interconnectedness of species and how it is all so precariously balanced.

The Stark Beauty of Last Things

Céline Keating, 2023

In Montauk, Long Island, nature is gorgeous but dangerous, with wildfires one season, and hurricanes the next, and a future that gets bleaker by the day. “The town’s natural resources employees know what is awry in the natural world: the drop off in songbirds, the disappearance of right whales, the rising of the oceans.” Every character seems to have a stake in a small plot of land that is ripe for development, and that always makes for a good story. Enjoy the natural beauty in this novel, while it lasts.

North Woods

Daniel Mason, 2024

North Woods is set on a single piece of wooded land in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, and we experience the American story through the lens of this property and how humans have changed it over the centuries. Along with the stories of the changing residents and their spirits, the narrative is revealed through the likes of a stuffed catamount, doctor’s notes, true crime columns, academic papers, and prison pen-pals. In contemporary times, a naturalist comes to study the woods. “No sooner had she learned her trees than she began to understand the degree by which the trees were changing.” The story of this precious piece of woods extends a bit into the future, and it’s just what you’d expect when humans put their own wants over the care of the very land they inhabit.

The Pelican Tide

Sharon J Wishnow, 2024

This book is set in Grand Isle, Louisiana, in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and we feel every drop of that oil in our mouths. Every living thing dies or struggles, as well as the humans whose livelihoods are destroyed. “It hurts to watch nature die and do nothing to stop it,” says our protagonist. This is a novel of frustrations at every turn, but there is always hope, and of course, being Louisiana, some food for everyone.