In a time of climate breakdown and mass extinction there is a new urgency to environmental writing, both as literature and as science. So In their series, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith consider some of the most significant books published in the last few years, along with classic texts by Rachel Carson, James Lovelock and Robin Wall Kimmerer – tracing a loose arc from biology to society via questions of plant intelligence, biodiversity loss, the rights of nature, ecofascism and green capitalism.
Meehan Crist is writer in residence in biological sciences at Columbia University.
Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney
Non-subscribers will only hear an extracts from the episodes. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrnature
In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsnature
Books featured in the series:
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Zoë Schlanger, The Light Eaters
Helen Czerski, The Blue Machine
Sunil Amrith, The Burning Earth
James Lovelock, Gaia
Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive?
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival
Roy Scranton, Impasse
Alex Moore and Sam Roberts, The Rise of Ecofascism
Thea Riofrancos, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
Venomous Lumspcuker by Ned Beauman and Helm by Sarah Hall