This climate crisis future is terrifying enough, but might this be a future that remains open to our own agency and the potential in working together toward solutions?
I’ll be presenting on what we Berkshirites can expect in the next three decades from climate change at Lee Public Library, 100 Main Street, Lee, MA 01238, April 12, 2024, 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
I’m the author of The Steep Climes Quartet, a literary climate fiction thriller series that follows several Berkshire residents as they react to the effects of climate change across the span of nearly three decades. Kill Well takes place a couple of years from now (Book One, published in Fall 2023). Dear Josephine begins in 2029 (Book Two, publishing this Spring). The action in Over Brooklyn Hills occurs in 2035 (Book Three, coming next Fall). Farm to Me takes place in 2047 (Book Four, due Spring of 2025). The theme of the series is our fractured society and the solidarity climate progress requires of us.
The climate change science, technologies, and politics in the books are grounded in long-term and in-depth study, rejecting needlessly gratuitous exaggeration for realistic extrapolation designed to help readers identify with their own reality of near-and mid-term futures. When it comes to climate change effects in our region, these are already present, making our world a more dangerous place and challenging citizens with difficult choices and surprising costs.
But the most important question is this: Can we rewrite our climate’s future?
After a brief introduction, the presentation follows this outline:
- Knowing the Present State of Climate Change in The Berkshires
- Imagining the Future of Climate Change in The Berkshires
- Climate Change’s Potential Relevance to Political and Social Trends
- Reading a Selected Excerpt from Kill Well
There will be plenty of time for questions and comments.
David Guenette is the author of The Steep Climes Quartet, a literary climate fiction series, Publisher at CMTI Publishing, and climate change blogger at https://www.davidguenette.com. He was founder of Retrosheath, a deep energy retrofit digital tools start-up. He is a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (https://citizensclimatelobby.org/chapters/MA_Berkshires/) and is on the CCL Berkshires Chapter Media Team. He lives in New Marlborough, MA.
