Stories from the Great Transition: How the Arts Prepare Us for Life in the Time of Climate Change

The warnings come one after another, from biologists, meteorologists, pathologists, and hydrologists, all offering some variation on the same story: the world we inhabit is changing rapidly—and not always for the better. Centuries of fossil fuel consumption has caused atmospheric levels of carbon to spike beyond anything our species has ever experienced. Each month brings record temperatures as clean water grows scarce. 200 million environmental refugees are expected by 2050.

In a world increasingly characterized by the effects of climate disruption—political, environmental, economic, and social—it comes as no surprise that writers and artists have begun to seize and depict the personal and collective implications of climate change. Across media and genre, writers and artists convey urgency and bear witness to the ongoing destruction of our planet, while encouraging humanity to rise to the challenges ahead. This presentation will explore the ways in which American writers and artists imagine and translate the science of climate change.

Laird Christensen is a professor of English and environmental studies at Green Mountain College, where he directs the graduate program in resilient and sustainable communities. Christensen earned a PhD from the University of Oregon for his dissertation, entitled "Spirit Astir in the World: Sacred Poetry in the Age of Ecology." His poems and essays have appeared in the "American Poetry Anthology," "Aurora," the "Ecotone," "Wild Earth," "Whole Terrain," and 'World Literature Today," among others; and he has contributed to numerous publications on environmental literature, education, and native lands, editing the volumes "Teaching about Place: Learning from the Land" and "Teaching North American Environmental Literature (Options for Literature)."

Registration begins February 1 at 9 am.

To register, go to: https://bbd.bostonathenaeum.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=300

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The Athenæum's five galleried floors overlook the peaceful Granary Burying Ground, and, as Gamaliel Bradford wrote in 1931, "it is safe to say that [no library] anywhere has more an atmosphere of its own, that none is more conducive to intellectual aspiration and spiritual peace." The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

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