A Thoreau report

Anthology features Americans’ personal stories of global warming 2

Thoreau\\'s LegacyUnion of Concerned Scientists“I knew climate change had no boundaries,” writes Michelle Nijhuis, prominent science writer and Grist contributor, in Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, “even so, I didn’t expect to see its effects on the shores of Walden Pond.”

In what proves to be an appropriate opening to Thoreau’s Legacy, a new anthology of first-person accounts of global warming, Nijhuis writes that spring flowers on the shores of Walden now bloom about seven-days earlier than they did during Henry David Thoreau’s time.  Even the landscape that spurred 150 years of environmental writing is not immune to the forces of climate change.

A joint project by Union for Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics, Thoreau’s Legacy explores the subtle and overt ways that global warming is changing the United States. The anthology consists of a foreword by novelist Barbara Kingsolver and 67 stories and images from writers, photographers, activists, scientists, and students on the personal impacts of climate change.

“It’s been very satisfying for us to have been able to help generate public participation in this project,” said Elda Rotor, editorial director at Penguin Classics. “We hope their voices will be heard; particularly as Congress debates legislation to reduce the pollution that contributes to global warming.” 

Thoreau’s Legacy is available online as an interactive book. The publishers said hardcover and e-book editions will be available soon.

For more information, visit the Thoreau’s Legacy website.

Sara Barz is a writer based in Seattle.

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  1. AntonioSosa Posted 5:25 pm
    22 Jun 2009

    More propaganda to enslave us!No patriotic and informed American can support the ACES Act (global warming/cap and trade scam), a huge Ponzy scheme that will kill the U.S. economy.Cap and Trade "would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy-all without any scientific justification," says famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.Cap and trade represents huge taxes and cost increases, which will hurt mostly the poor and the middle class. Cap and trade will give dictatorial powers to Obama and will further enrich his billionaire friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama's Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, the United Nations, etc.) -- all at our expense and at the expense of our children and grandchildren.Those brainwashed to the point of wanting to destroy the economy to "prevent global warming" are behaving like the most primitive human beings who were duped into believing that human sacrifices would ensure them good weather. Human beings don't have the power to control climate! And killing the economy will not help the environment. Poor countries can't protect the environment. Just look at Haiti!More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. http://www.climatechangefraud.com/content/view/3562/218/Additionally, more than 30,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." http://www.petitionproject.orgWe pray that honest leaders - both Democrat and Republican - are able to save us from Obama's criminal ACES Act (cap-and-trade) scam. 
  2. randino Posted 8:23 am
    23 Jun 2009

    More and more scientists and thinking people realize that the trolls and deniers have their heads up their you-know-whats.  They are ideological fanatics of the right, and deserve to be consigned to obscurity and irrelevance that the conservative movement is headed to.  They also like to target sites like Grist for whatever perverse and strange reasons drive them.  Ignore them.  Deny them an argument.  Don't jump down their rabbit hole. Randy Cunningham

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