The New Yorker is a cultural bellwether and Jonathan Franzen is a famous author. The magazine has published pieces by climate hero Bill McKibben. Unfortunately, this prestige did not prevent them from publishing a technically inaccurate and morally vacuous 'think piece' about climate. Franzen's complacency is that of an aging well-to-do white dude who looks out the office window on the 38th floor of One World Trade Center and sees not too much to worry about. Eustace Tilley examining butterflies pretty much sums it up.
We should be listening to the voices of the dispossessed and marginalized, those indigenous tribes losing a way of life, those Bahamians suffering from environmental injustice, and those youth who will live their lives in whatever world we are choosing now. Franzen and the New Yorker demonstrated their disconnect from the real world. Let's hope they work to find the connection.
The reading list:
- Franzen in the New Yorker
- Kate Marvel on Franzen
- Amy Westervelt on the Case for CLimate Rage
- GRIST corrects Franzen
- Marvel on Courage, not Hope
- Heglar on why home is worth it
- The actual view from the 38th floor
- True history of Eustace Tilley
Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for a building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist the United States transform it’s energy sector, over the next decade, under a just and equitable plan, that uses regulations, investments and a price on carbon to safeguard our collective future.
Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre