Facing the Change, Steven Pavlos Holmes
Amidst the current deluge of statistics about global warming, this book provides a refreshing look at how individuals are affected. The contributors, a mix of poets and essayists, concentrate on small changes in nature, as well as the ways they cope with the immensity of the problem. Some describe concrete changes such as hanging laundry out to dry or splitting wood; others relay deeper reactions. For example, Willow Fagan writes in “Beyond Denial” that she finds comfort in the belief that “there is an order so much vaster…than we can comprehend, which nothing we do can threaten.” There are personal accounts of real events; an encounter with a starving bear, and parents trying to teach children about ecology without giving them nightmares. Contributors also look toward the future, in the poem “Florida,” Quynh Nguyen’s writes, “I want to apologize for my actions before I leave.” This is a beautiful book to keep near, open at random, and share the words of gifted writers as they prepare for the coming changes. -Publisher’s Weekly
Goodreads Reviews
4.1 rating based on 22 ratings (all editions)
ISBN-10: 1937226271
ISBN-13: 9781937226275
Goodreads: 17347667
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"Amidst the current deluge of statistics about global warming, this book provides a refreshing look at how individuals are affected. This is a beautiful book to keep near, open at random, and share the words of gifted writers as they prepare for the coming changes."
— Publishers Weekly
"How do you respond when the familiar, benevolent, and predictable world you count on becomes strange, hostile, and chaotic? First, you must face it. Next, bear witness. Steven Holmes has gathered compelling testimonies about the ways our earthly home is changing in the short space of our own lifetimes. They beg us to pay attention and act. We are wise to heed these passionate voices.”
—Chip Ward, author of Hope's Horizon
“These earnest and heartfelt poems, essays, and imaginings change our discourse from data to personal testimony, channeling ‘care and concern.’ Maybe, just maybe, these authors who call us to ‘unheroic’ action ‘on life’s behalf’ will steer us away from tragedy and chaos. ‘Emerging from denial is like moving from blindness to light.’ As the refrain from one writer puts it, ‘Good Lord! Good luck!’”
—Stephen Trimble, author of Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America
"Facing the Change shares the stories of some of the many people in the US and the world who are already witnessing climate change here and now. They are giving us early warning signs; it's up to all of us to act now."
—Mae Boeve, executive director of 350.org
"Facing the Change registers the impact of climate destabilization, not only on the sky above us and the earth beneath our feet, but also within our hearts. The voices in this eloquent and original book convey the dread and grief, the anger, but also the experiences of love and community that are intensified by the defining ecological challenge of our time."
—John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home, editor of The Norton Book of Nature
“These eloquent stories, essays, and poems by scores of 'emotional and cultural first responders' to the effects of climate change are sure to deliver a powerful wake-up call to anyone who has supposed that nothing an individual person can say or do will affect this impending disaster.”
—Lawrence Buell, author of The Environmental Imagination
"...the contributors to Facing the Change have begun to reveal the experiential heart of a planetary process. This is a truly important project."
—Scott Slovic, editor of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
Filled not with bare facts and dire warnings but with evocative, accessible stories, essays, and poetry, Facing the Change shows how global warming is affecting the everyday lives of people today. A wide range of writers brings courage, honesty, and insight to one of the major issues of our lives.
Steven Pavlos Holmes, Ph.D., is an independent scholar in the environmental humanities, with a special interest in people's personal experiences of the natural world. His first book, The Young John Muir: An Environmental Biography, won the Modern Language Association's Prize for Independent Scholars. He lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.