For a few days in early November, and again in early December, Santa Fe was colder than Anchorage, Alaska. As humans and the remaining straggling birds shivered, as the last of the marigolds in my garden froze solid, friends in Alaska resignedly told me that the snow that had cheered (most of) them up had melted.
Author: Debra Denker
Imagine a World Without Elephants—or Lions, or Tigers, or Polar Bears
“A world without elephants is like a world without oxygen.” —Turkana member of Kenya Wildlife Service, in the film Walking Thunder. I don’t want to live in a world without elephants, lions, tigers, rhinos, or polar bears. Or mosquitos, for that matter. It’s not just about the large mammals known in conservation circles as “charismatic … Continue reading Imagine a World Without Elephants—or Lions, or Tigers, or Polar Bears
Climate Cassandras: Seeing the Truth Unflinchingly
Like Cassandra, the Prophetess of ancient Troy, we who have been speaking, writing, and researching about climate change—many for decades—have been cursed to be always right and never believed.
Trapped by Climate Change
I am fortunate to live a life filled with many options. Physically escaping climate change, I am learning, is not one of them. On my bad days, I think it must be a curse. Heat and drought seem to follow me wherever I go. In 2013, I gently gloated, thinking that I would be getting … Continue reading Trapped by Climate Change
Review of Deena Metzger’s “A Rain of Night Birds”
This is the review I posted on Amazon and Goodreads: Deena Metzger’s achingly beautiful and poetic cli-fi novel unflinchingly evokes the planetary anguish of facing climate change and environmental devastation. I started reading it on an airplane and was immediately transfixed. The characters of climate scientists Sandra Birdswell and Terrence Green come from radically different backgrounds, … Continue reading Review of Deena Metzger’s “A Rain of Night Birds”
Reclaiming Cycles in a Time of Loss
Year by year, we are losing the seasons that have marked human culture, animal migrations, and the cycles of plant life for thousands of years. Spring comes to the Arctic 16 days earlier than a mere decade ago, according to a recent article in The Guardian. And it’s not just the Arctic, as any careful … Continue reading Reclaiming Cycles in a Time of Loss
Love Letter to Winter from the American Southwest
Dear Winter, Please come back, all is forgiven. We need you, to give the earth a rest, to let the trees and plants stay dormant, to nourish the land with snow. We need your freezing temperatures to kill bark beetles and viruses, to keep juniper pollen at bay, to allow for a time of rest … Continue reading Love Letter to Winter from the American Southwest
Planetary Anguish and Spiritual Ecstasy
I didn’t know there was a name for the peculiar floating anguish I have felt all my life. It is an empathy with the Earth so deep that I felt the pain when a tree was felled by wind, or worse, cut by a viciously whining saw. From my earliest years, I felt the burning … Continue reading Planetary Anguish and Spiritual Ecstasy
What is Cli-fi?
I’ve always believed that the purpose of fiction is to re-imagine the future—and in the case of a time travel novel, the past.
The Plasticity of Time
What if time is non-linear? What if it doubles and stretches, contracts and expands, and folds back on itself? What if linear time is merely a convenience in our third dimensional reality? Newtonian physics perceives time as purely linear. Confined to the speed limit of light, even Starships from an advanced extraterrestrial culture would take … Continue reading The Plasticity of Time
