Radford University Professor of English Rick Van Noy will give a talk at Book No Further on Saturday 2/16, at 2 PM. His most recent work, Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate Changed South (University of Georgia Press, 2019), is an exploration of Southern coastal and mountain communities adjusting and preparing for what might be considered ‘the new abnormal’—shifting and unexpected weather patterns resulting from a changing climate and rising sea levels.
An investigative travelogue, Van Noy’s 200 pages recount climate research and scientific models. But that and our overly politicized context are just a background for his primary subject: what forward-looking individuals, organizations, and communities are doing to adapt.
It’s an approach similar to Beth Macy’s look at the opioid crises in Dopesick—focus on those frontline leaders making a difference where they can. Otherwise, complex and impending crises can render a sense of powerlessness and futility, leading to further inaction as trillions of dollars in long term investments, in communities and homes, wash away, sink, or are abandoned because of saltwater intrusion.
Can’t make the talk? Read Van Noy’s January 15 BOOK CITY Q&A. ★
BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke 