Category: Around the Web

Around the Web

Generation A and The Year of the Flood

Generation A
Douglas Coupland
Toronto: Random House, 2009, 320 pages.

The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2009, 448 pages.

Information is important, but stories­ are essential. While scientists can tell us about the extinction of species­ and the loss of Arctic sea ice, we need stories to help us make sense of these events.

But we are buried in unfinished stories. After decades of expert analysis, we remain unable to sketch a narrative of how to get from here to a sustainable future. From climate­ change to the fate of bees, we just don’t know how it will turn out.

Perhaps that’s why there is so much appetite for films and books that know how to finish a story. The big movie this year is Avatar – a tale of conquest and defence of nature and homeland. As with much speculative fiction – recall Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four or the fable at the start of Silent Spring – stories are often not just about the future, but about their own time. They confront the fear that we are walking into disaster, and the hope that we may yet get it right.

In 2009, Canadian authors told two of the more interesting such stories. In Douglas Coupland’s Generation A, bees sting into motion bizarre events involving five characters from around the planet, and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood takes genetic manipulation and corporate control into grim territory.

Generation A presents… [Click here to read more!] Continue reading Generation A and The Year of the Flood

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New Eco Books issue – just released

Alternatives Journal’s latest issue – New Eco Books – features over 60 titles to keep you buried in books this spring and throughout the year. Stephen Bocking compares dystopic future visions from two of Canada’s finest novelists, Douglas Coupland and Margaret Atwood, Nicola Ross analyzes the success of bestseller Slow Death By Rubber Duck, and Ellen Desjardins interviews activist Vandana Shiva. Atwood’s The Year of the Flood also gets a stunning visual interpretation from graphic novelist Evan Munday. Green Book Reviews will be featuring many of these great articles in the coming weeks.

Ask for it at your local newsstand or bookstore – find one near you with the Alternatives Newsstand Locator OR buy the paperless copy online today.

Click here for more information and to subscribe to Alternatives Journal. Continue reading New Eco Books issue – just released

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It’s “Now or Never” to Avert Climate Catastrophe

Now or Never
Tim Flannery
Toronto ON: Harpercollins Canada 2009

In the 1970s, the environmental movement was regularly criticized for being too negative, and providing too little emphasis on positive solutions. Or, they were simply dismissed as “chicken little” radicals. These early criticisms ushered in several years of hushed tones and muted pessimism.

These days, as the world’s ecological and climate woes continue to worsen, there seems to be a little more straight talk from the green corner. The reason is hardly worth mentioning, but here goes. While ecological destruction throughout the… [Click here to read more!] Continue reading It’s “Now or Never” to Avert Climate Catastrophe

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A Physicist’s Plea For The Environment

Terracide
Hubert Reeves, translated by Donald Winkler
Toronto, ON: Cormorant Books Inc. 2008, 200 pages

Hubert Reeves was born in Montreal, but is a household name in France, where he once directed a national research centre and appears regularly on television. He is one of many scientists (an astrophysicist, to be precise) who has switched gears recently in order to sound the alarm about climate change. His most recent publication, Terracide, was first written in French (Mal de Terre) in 2003, but has been updated for this newer translation in English.

Reeves’ overview of our ongoing environmental crises may seem a little over-generalized to some readers… [Click here to read more!] Continue reading A Physicist’s Plea For The Environment