Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics joined together and went looking for interested citizens to participate in a new anthology.
The topic: personal stories about global warming.
The response: overwhelming. There were over 1,000 submissions from established writers and new voices from across the country.
The result, Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories About Global Warming, is a collection of 67 essays from scientists, students, activists, parents, journalists, grandparents, artists and business people, all of whom have stories to tell and views to express.
Named after Henry David Thoreau, one of America’s earliest environmentalists, the anthology starts with a foreword by Barbara Kingsolver who sets the book’s tone as she calls on all to realize that we cannot simply pretend nothing is wrong. Writing with energy and enthusiasm, Barbara asks everyone to actively combat climate change.
The essays, chosen by a team of reviewers from Penguin Classics and the Union of Concerned Scientists, fit into the seven chapters that are loosely organized around themes relating to people, the landscape, wildlife and faith.
A limited-edition hardcover coffee table book is available. You can also read the anthology for free at the Thoreau’s Legacy website. Have a look and pass in it, virtually, through email and your social media networks.