BOOKMONGER
Coping with a
changing climate
BY BARBARA LLOYD McMICHAEL
I’d already been reading two books on
climate change for this week’s column
when I heard a disconcerting story on the
news. A peer-reviewed analysis by First
Street Foundation predicts that much of
the Midwest will become an extreme heat
belt over the next 30 years, subject to sum-
mer temperatures of 125 degrees Fahr-
enheit, while the Southeast can expect to
broil in 100-plus degree heat for 100 days
annually.
The same study shows that while the
West Coast will become hotter than it is
now, it will remain relatively temperate.
But this region likely will become a mag-
net for climate refugees.
It’s deeply unsettling news, and if I’d
hoped to find solace in Kathleen Dean
Moore’s new book of essays, “Take Heart:
Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers,”
I was about to be disappointed.
The Corvallis writer is well-known for
her environmental advocacy and books
that celebrate nature. In this new collec-
tion, the titles of her essays are uplifting:
“Take a Stand,” “Express Gratitude with
Good Work,” “Set a Strong Example,” “Be
Earth’s Ally” and so on.
I should have stopped there, because in
the essays themselves, the author dwells
on the causes for her own anguish and
regret – a maimed fish, a mortally injured
dog, kids who spitefully kill crabs and
more. She laments society’s “failure to be
cut to pieces by the suffering of others.”
Did she really think that readers who
would be moved to pick up a book titled
“Take Heart” haven’t already experienced
their own encounters with despair? By the
book’s end, Moore shifts in tone to uplift-
ing messaging, but for this reader it was
too little, too late.
I found more solid encouragement
in “At Home on an Unruly Planet.” In
this book, Seattle-based science journal-
ist Madeline Ostrander reports from four
locations around the United States that are
grappling with different aspects of climate
change.
In the Northwest, it’s the fire-prone
14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
“At Home on an Unruly Planet” is by Madeline
Ostrander.
This week’s books
“Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s
Weary Lovers” by Kathleen Dean Moore
Oregon State University Press –
160 pp – $18.95
“At Home on an Unruly Planet”
by Madeline Ostrander
Henry Holt – 352 pp – $28.99
eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains.
Down the coast, it’s a Bay Area commu-
nity that’s been bedeviled by multiple
environmental disasters, many caused by
an oil refinery located there.
In Alaska, Ostrander focuses on a
Yup’ik community that’s been displaced
from its customary home on a now melting
tundra. In St. Augustine, Florida, she talks
with preservationists who are struggling to
“Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers” is a collection of essays by Kathleen
Dean Moore.
DID SHE REALLY THINK THAT READERS WHO WOULD
BE MOVED TO PICK UP A BOOK TITLED ‘TAKE HEART’
HAVEN’T ALREADY EXPERIENCED THEIR OWN
ENCOUNTERS WITH DESPAIR? BY THE BOOK’S END,
MOORE SHIFTS IN TONE TO UPLIFTING MESSAGING,
BUT FOR THIS READER IT WAS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.
protect historic sites from rising sea levels.
This book provides stories of people
who are confronting the realities of climate
change in their communities, what they’ve
learned and how they’re trying to adapt.
“I am not giving you a book of doom.
I don’t want to ruminate on all the ways
we might be evicted or displaced. This is
a book about home,” Ostrander writes.
She provides thoughtful examples of how
communities are trying to reduce the dam-
age that’s already been done and, going
forward, are developing ways to settle in
safely. “At Home on an Unruly Planet” is
constructive and well worth your time.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on books, authors and publishers
of the Pacific Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com.