Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times

by Catriona Sandilands (Editor)

Overview

Ice melt; sea level rise; catastrophic weather; flooding; drought; fire; infestation; species extinction and adaptation; water shortage and contamination; intensified social inequity, migration and cultural collapse. These are but some of the changes that are not only predicted for climate changing futures, but already part of our lives in Canada. Although these transformations are global and dramatic, they are also experienced locally and particularly by people who are struggling to understand the impacts of climate change on their daily lives.

Rising Tides is a collection of short fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry addressing the past, present and future of climate change. Bringing stories about climate change—both catastrophic and subtle—closer to home, this new anthology inspires reflection, understanding, conversation and action. With more than forty purposefully written pieces, Rising Tides emphasizes the need for intimate stories and thoughtful attention, and also for a view of climate justice that is grounded in ongoing histories of colonialism and other forms of environmental and social devastation. These stories parallel the critical issues facing the planet, and imagine equitable responses for all Canadians, moving beyond denial and apocalypse and toward shared meaning and action.

Contributors to the anthology include established writers, climate change experts from different backgrounds and front-line activists: Carleigh Baker, Stephen Collis, Ashlee Cunsolo, Ann Eriksson, Rosemary Georgeson, Hiromi Goto, Laurie D. Graham, David Huebert, Sonnet L’Abbé, Timothy Leduc, Christine Lowther, Kyo Maclear, Emily McGiffin, Deborah McGregor, Philip Kevin Paul, Richard Pickard, Holly Schofield, Betsy Warland, Evelyn White, Rita Wong and many more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773860817
Publisher:	Caitlin Press
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Catriona Sandilands is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She is a fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a former Canada Research Chair and past president of both the Association for Literature, Environment and Culture in Canada and the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (US). Cate is internationally known for her work in the environmental humanities, including three (sole and co-authored) books and over eighty scholarly and popular articles, essays and stories. In addition to Rising Tides, she is working on a book about plants and environmental philosophy (Cultivating Feminism) and a memoir about her journey to write a book about Jane Rule (The Jane Book). Cate lives and writes in Toronto, ON, and on Galiano Island, BC.

Table of Contents

Levi Wilson & Emily Menzies, "Territorial Acknowledgement" 1

Catriona Sandilands, "Reflections for Climate Changing Times" 7

What We Have Lost

Rosemary A. Georgeson, "A Lifetime with Bulb Kelp" 15

Ashlee Cunsolo, "Transfearance. Transfearmation." 21

Bernard Soubry, "riparian blues" 28

Evelyn C. White, "Where Did We Go Wrong?" 30

Jesse Thistle, "Ceremony" 34

Rebeccah Nelems, "Short Walk Home" 40

Elysia French, "Absence" 45

David Huebert, "Underfolk" 50

Betsy Warland, "Bluestem & Bull Kelp" 57

Kyo Maclear, "Love and Lifeboating" 62

What Worries Us

Alison Colwell, "Wildfire" 71

Reed Osier, "Hidden Gardens" 77

Richard Pickard, "The Ends of the World" 82

Emily McGiffin, "The Prodigious" 87

Colleen Doty, "What the Sea Eats" 90

Deblekha Guin, "In Between Red, Blue, and Green" 97

Indra Singh, "field notes from the wide zone" 104

Lisa Szabo-Jones, "The Change" 105

Suzanne Fournier, "Are We Facing the Death of the Tree of Life?" 111

Christine Lowther, "More Perilous Than a Leaning Tree" 116

Jamie Snook, "Futures on Ice" 118

What We May Understand

Deborah McGregor & Hillary McGregor, "All Our Relations: Climate Change Storytellers" 125

Christopher Campbell-Duruflé, "All on the Same Train: Bringing the Paris Agreement Home" 130

Dylan M. Harris, "Left Behind" 137

Catriona Sandilands, "Concerto for Scotch Broom" 142

Sara Barron, "Such Good Friends" 147

Carleigh Baker, "Where Were You?" 152

Sonnet L'Abbé, "Scale Model" 158

Astrida Neimanis, "Our Bodies, Our Wetlands" 166

Laurie D. Graham, "The North Saskatchewan" 171

Peter Hobbs, "To the Post Office and Back" 174

Philip Kevin Paul, "Running in with a Word" 179

What We Imagine

Lois Beardslee, "Grow Pumpkins on My Grave" 183

Holly Schofield, "Five Ways to Talk about Twisted Oak Moss" 187

Ann Eriksson, "Ocean" 193

Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon, "Key to the Conifers of Galiano Island, 2150" 199

Tzeporah Berman, "Just. Don't. Say. It." 205

Hiromi Goto, "This Is the Way" 210

Timothy B. Leduc, "Q da gaho de:s: Isle Weaving in Climates of Change" 213

Stephen Collis, "For the Deep Future" 219

Rita Wong & Emily McGiffin, "Keeping Watch at Kwekwecnewtxw" 223

Zoe Todd, "Tidal" 227

Contributors 233

Other Acknowledgements 245

About the Editor 248

Editorial Reviews

"Rising Tides—to reflect and think about times past and times to come. Rising Tides—so many words. Words of sorrow, words of loss, words of concern and fear. But also, words of connection to trees, to ice, to nature. We need these words to apprehend the changes coming upon us. I commend Catriona Sandilands for bringing together this diverse group of people that honoured climate change through these words.

In their story, Deborah and Hilary MacGregor say, “The spirit’s call to action has him troubled. That responsibility to act—what can one person do?” This is the power of words—to find ways. Plato said that we knew nothing if we could not name it. Rising Tides uses words on climate change to name it, tame it and act as science tells us to, before it is too late—before, as Jessie Thistle tells us, we see the red light of the cigarette and understand who lit the fire." — Dr. Catherine Potvin, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forest (Tier 1)

From the Publisher