August 19, 2007

Did climate change inspire FRANKENSTEIN? Or other famous literary works?
posted by HawthorneWingo 17 years ago
  • LIFE! DO YOU HEAR ME? GIVE MY CREATION... LIFE!
  • Climate is the average and variations of weather over long periods of time. A cold, wet year in 1816 would not be climate change.
  • I would suggest that the circumstances of being snowbound and writing competing ghost stories was luck, and that depictions of violent weather have much more to do with giving a voice to Nature in opposing Man's technological transgressions of Nature's limits. But whatever.
  • Reading older books about this part of the world, I note that it was normal for the Skagerak to freeze over during the winter, locking the shipping close to the coast for several months of the year. These days, such an event would make world news. Climate-change may or may not have inspired literature, but literature (and other art forms) can reveal ways in which the climate has changed.
  • Hmmmm, if it's a nice day, I think I'll take a walk. If it's raining, I'll stay in and write a book. He's overthinking his plate of beans.
  • He's overthinking his plate of beans. Tch-tch - such a giveaway!
  • A cold, wet year in 1816 would not be climate change. My bad. Shoulda said "climate" instead of "climate change."
  • No, no, no! This is NOT a giveaway. But it is a good deal. Five tickets for a dollar! Get your tickets for the plate of beans raffle right here.
  • Well, that one wet, cold year was only the start of what's referred to as the "Little Ice Age," that lasted throughout the nineteenth century. Mary Godwin wouldn't have KNOWN it was climate change at that early date, but I'd still call it climate change.
  • If you look at the cold summer of 1816 as part of the "Little Ice Age" that lasted from roughly 1600 to 1900 then you could say that it was part of climate change. Add to that the eruption of Mt. Tambora, which helped create the "Year without a Summer" (scroll down) in Europe and North America, and you get some pretty freaky weather that year. Link on the Little Ice Age and social effects.
  • This weekend our local newspaper ran a Cal Thomas column which completely denied global warming. I find his words disturbing on many different levels. Not happy to merely debunk what thousands of scientists agree upon, he throws in name-calling for good measure. What's really scary is that many people will believe what he says.
  • Idunno, kinna. A lot of ordinary non-sciencey people up here in Ontario are firm believers in Global Warming, based on animal and plant life showing up that was never here before, and particularly the changes to the seasons. Last winter, especially, which didn't show up until really late in the game, and then was the toughest we've seen in a long time. The Great Lakes drying up, driest summer in fifty years... Of course, these aren't signs in and of themselves of climate change, but people know that something is going on. And people are catching on that global warming doesn't necessarily mean warming so much as changes in weather patterns overall.
  • Thanks for the reassurance, Cap'n. I wish I could believe that folks have Common Sense, but sometimes I wonder... We, too, had a really weird winter season last year, and every day I read about pests attacking in areas where previously they could not survive. If the Snows of Kilimanjaro no longer exist, and the Alps are bare, and countries are fighting over what's under the polar ice cap in the belief that it will soon melt--if all this is not enough to convince people, what will? Humans lean towards expediency... and taking responsibility for climate change will be hard work. Here's hoping that folks wake up and smell the emissions, and soon.
  • When the ice caps melt Cthulu awakens.