Volume 17, Issue 2, 2020
Stem to Steam: The Ethical Impact of Cultural and Artistic Practices at a Time of Crisis
Simon C. Estok
Pages 29-40
Art, Ethics, Responsibility, Crisis
Literature and Climate Change
Literature has an ethical obligation to respond to the climate change crisis, and scholars have a responsibility to understand how these responses work. Neither the humanities nor the sciences have a good record when it comes to encouraging people to limit their desires, their consumption, or their growth. While there may be genetic reasons for this failure, calls for humanity to limit itself need better responses. Literature can help us to respond better to climate change, but only if we reconceptualize narrative and accord to it the importance it once held as a source not only of entertainment but of knowledge necessary for our very survival.