Robustness and Vulnerability: Caring for the Earth in an Age of Loss

IF 0.2 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM
W. DeBuys
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The old metaphor of the canary in the coal mine has lost its edge. When applied to global warming and climate change, the relevance of its parts has become reversed—the canary is clearly dead, and it died a good while ago, its warnings mostly ignored. The coal mines of the world, meanwhile, are busier than ever, as the power plants they serve pump vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. A better metaphor for the present human predicament is the frog and the kettle of water. Everybody knows that the frog, if thrown into hot water, will leap out. No problem there. But we pity the frog placed in cool water because, when its kettle is gradually heated, the complacent frog hasn’t the sense to escape, and it stays until it boils. . . . Climate change is transforming the polar regions of North America fastest—melting ice, thawing permafrost, and drowning polar bears— but for most people who live in the Lower 48, those transformations are nearly as remote as a tsunami hitting Borneo. While we lament such calamities at a distance, the warming kettle, now rattling up toward a boil, is working changes closer to home that promise sweeping transformations. The place where those changes might best be observed is a region already straining from rapid growth, whose water resources are stretched to the utmost—the aridlands of the North American West. What happens under the turquoise skies of the continent’s most celebrated landscapes will presage changes that human frogs in kettles the world over can expect to experience.
稳健性与脆弱性:在失去的时代照顾地球
煤矿里的金丝雀这个古老的比喻已经失去了意义。当将其应用于全球变暖和气候变化时,其部分的相关性就被颠倒了——金丝雀显然已经死了,而且很早以前就死了,它的警告大多被忽视了。与此同时,世界各地的煤矿比以往任何时候都更加繁忙,因为它们所服务的发电厂向大气中排放了大量的二氧化碳。对于当前人类的困境,一个更好的比喻是青蛙和水壶。大家都知道,如果把青蛙扔进热水里,它会跳出来。没问题。但是我们同情放在冷水里的青蛙,因为当它的水壶逐渐加热时,自满的青蛙没有逃跑的感觉,它呆在那里直到水沸腾. . . .气候变化正在改变北美极地地区,以最快的速度融化冰层,融化永久冻土,淹没北极熊——但对大多数生活在美国本土48州的人来说,这些变化几乎就像海啸袭击婆罗洲一样遥远。当我们在远处悲叹这些灾难的时候,暖暖的水壶正在哗哗地烧开,它正在我们身边发生改变,预示着彻底的变革。最能观察到这些变化的地方是一个已经因快速增长而紧张的地区,那里的水资源一直延伸到北美西部的干旱地区。在非洲大陆最著名景观的蓝绿色天空下发生的事情,将预示着全世界水壶里的人类青蛙有望经历的变化。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
审稿时长
23 weeks
期刊介绍: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, based at the University of Łódź, is an international and interdisciplinary journal, which seeks to engage in contemporary debates in the humanities by inviting contributions from literary and cultural studies intersecting with literary theory, gender studies, history, philosophy, and religion. The journal focuses on textual realities, but contributions related to art, music, film and media studies addressing the text are also invited. Submissions in English should relate to the key issues delineated in calls for articles which will be placed on the website in advance. The journal also features reviews of recently published books, and interviews with writers and scholars eminent in the areas addressed in Text Matters. Responses to the articles are more than welcome so as to make the journal a forum of lively academic debate. Though Text Matters derives its identity from a particular region, central Poland in its geographic position between western and eastern Europe, its intercontinental advisory board of associate editors and internationally renowned scholars makes it possible to connect diverse interpretative perspectives stemming from culturally specific locations. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture is prepared by academics from the Institute of English Studies with considerable assistance from the Institute of Polish Studies and German Philology at the University of Łódź. The journal is printed by Łódź University Press with financial support from the Head of the Institute of English Studies. It is distributed electronically by Sciendo. Its digital version published by Sciendo is the version of record. Contributions to Text Matters are peer reviewed (double-blind review).
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