Fen, Bog and Swamp: from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize

£9.9
FREE Shipping

Fen, Bog and Swamp: from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Fen, Bog and Swamp: from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize

RRP: £99
Price: £9.9
£9.9 FREE Shipping

In stock

We accept the following payment methods

Description

I'm still not at all sure just how I would classify the book, which is divided into three sections, the first being fens, the second bogs, and the third swamps. (Since these three types of what Proulx terms “peatlands” comprise the title of the book, this division is not at all surprising.) Each section includes a bit of scientific information intended to help the reader distinguish just what comprises a fen or a bog or a swamp and how each differs from the other two. Dabs of history relative to the topic of each section are mentioned as well as the author's own experiences with each of these types of wetlands.

There is no doubt that we are creating a vast ecological disaster with the ways we treat our bogs and fens. Recently, we find that the underground peat fires that burn for months in the northern tundra regions, not only emit vast amounts of CO2 and methane which had been sealed up by the peat, but even the heavy deposit of soot that settles on the melting ice causes the ice to lose reflectivity and so makes it absorb more heat and melt even faster.This book is an incoherent mess of emotions and contradictory views and statements. The essay on swamps was the least frazzled section in this book. I'd hardly call this a history of wetlands and their destruction. Rather it is a history of her emotions and the judgements she makes based off of those emotions. And because emotions vary and shift they aren't a good thing to base value, moral, or scientific judgments off of.

She does go off in some interesting tangents which I was happy to read about. I also was glad to be informed about the impacts of draining the wetlands and restoration projects. Then, they walked around the perimeter, where Annie was fascinated by all the new things she saw, some she remembers to this day. She was hooked. Proulx goes slightly mystical, or else gives a shout-out to Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, when she invokes Alexander Pope's genius loci to describe the particular environs of fens, bog, and swampland. She grew up playing in wetlands, she shares many memories of the many species of birds, fish, amphibians, etc., that she watched as a child, and it's very clear that the destruction of wetlands feels like a harbinger of doom to her. As a child I often went camping near a protected coastal estuary and have fond memories of tromping through mudflats with herons, cranes, and flamingos. I don't know if they're still there, but I hope so.Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. Is it too late to stop or reverse or slow climate change? Can humans alter their concept of using the natural world to respecting it? The rights of nature is an emerging concept, and if we can alter our behavior and laws, perhaps the very worse can be avoided. Maybe.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

Delivery & Returns

Fruugo

Address: UK
All products: Visit Fruugo Shop