Climate Change
Spring/Summer 2018 | Volume XVII, Number 3
Table of Contents
Editor’s Letter →
by June Carolyn Erlick
First Take
The Timescales of Climate Change
The energy choices we make today are resulting in changes in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere that will be seen in the composition of the atmosphere for hundreds
Confronting Climate Change
The Brave New World of the Digital Herbarium
Here in the northeast of the United States, spring will soon be upon us, pulling us from the darkness and cold of winter’s grip. Spring’s exuberance—singing and nesting birds returning from
Preparing Students to Lead Social Change
English + Español
Far from Boston’s windowless lecture halls and projector screens, the small Yucatecan town of Santa Elena became a dirt-paved classroom rooted in culture and global change. As the
Fragments of Hope Nursery
The drive to protect the coastline in Belize doesn’t end at the water’s edge: the most important need for protection can be out of sight, under the crashing surf. Reefs play a critical role in the…
Fleeing the Weather
English + Español
The streets of Santiago K are quiet. This village in the highlands of southwestern Bolivia bustled throughout centuries of conquest and expansion, but the mayor is now one of the few remaining
Beyond Climate Change: The Latin American Sewage Crisis and Environmental Justice
Carmen offered to show us around the neighborhood. We turned onto unpaved streets that housed surprisingly dissimilar buildings. Homes made of brick and mortar with finished lawns
Through the Lens of Literature
Words that Matter
Those of us with little children often read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to them at bedtime. The story points toward the past, because the Lorax is a ruin, with only residues remaining of something…
Writing at the End of the World: Mayra Montero’s In the Palm of Darkness
Mayra Montero’s In the Palm of Darkness (Tú, la oscuridad, 1995) takes us on an in-depth journey that allows us to understand relationships between the crises caused by climate change and
Who More Cli-Fi than Us?
When I tell people that I research climate change and literature, they usually start asking me about novelists like Kim Stanley Robinson, Claire Vaye Watkins or Jeff VanderMeer. It makes sense. Climate fiction—or cli-fi—that depicts the earth after some kind of future weather-induced apocalypse seems like a natural starting point for a literary study of climate change…
The Melting of Humankind
Imagine one thousand ice-figurines covering the steps of Berlin’s Gendarmernmarkt Square Concert Hall on a warm September day. Similar scenes had emerged before in cities such as São
Climate Consequences
The Parrots of the Caribbean
I ask you, for a few moments, to imagine a Caribbean region where you can suddenly be rendered breathless by the sight of a flock of a thousand Amazona parrots flying overhead, darkening the skies like a gaily colored, deafeningly squaking eclipse of joy…
Climate Change and Resource Pressures
Droughts in already dry places are lasting longer because of climate change and human intervention, but sometimes it’s hard to distinguish where climate change leaves off and human exploitation of natural resources begins…
Understanding Global Climate Change from Andean Glaciers
English + Español
In the summer of 2007, a small glacier disappeared north of La Paz, Bolivia.
At 17,000 feet above sea level, the small mountain Chacaltaya is a mere foothill of its giant,
Resilience and Resistance in the Peruvian Deserts
English + Español
Just a few decades after Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru and the Inca Empire, a natural disaster struck the Peruvian coast, threatening to put an end to the colonial project. Locals
Extreme Hydraulic Urbanism
Growing up on Peru’s coast, we are always told as children that we don’t have enough water and that we shouldn’t waste it. But we also learn to get used to disasters, especially El Niño, which
Climate Change and Food
The rains had just begun in Huánuco in central Peru when we arrived in early February 2016. This time of year is usually midway through the roughly six-month rainy season that stretches from
Public Spaces, Local Solutions
Why Local Governments Matter
English + Español
When confronted with the need to address climate change, we environ-mentalists often set our hopes on global environmental agreements with strong enforcement capabilities. We look
The Green Leap Forward
Chilean architect Cazú Zegers once stated, “The landscape is for Latin America what the cathedrals are for Europe.” The cultural power of territory has evaded every intention to dominate
Design with Water
Water is a key to the founding and shaping of cities. The first humans established settlements alongside bodies of water. Whether these populations flourished or not depended largely on
Book Talk
Prisoner of Pinochet: My Year in a Chilean Concentration Camp
English + Español
On September 11, 1973, at about eight o’clock in the morning, Sergio Bitar, one of Allende’s top economic advisers and the Minister of Mining, received a phone call from a colleague: the
One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps
English + Español
In One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, Andrea Pitzer offers a thoughtful combination of investigative journalism and historical analysis that identifies the roots and