Amitav Ghosh

Over the last several hundred years, human activity has impacted the planet in a such a dramatic and unprecedented way that many have taken to argue for the emergence of a new historical era, the Anthropocene. While this has led to a host of renewed approaches to climate change, this discourse is still largely centered around scientists, engineers, and and economists working in Western universities. As a result, solutions to climate change are posed in technological terms and the political and cultural contexts of global warming become eclipsed.What other frameworks can be used to address the problem? How has ideology and imperialism affected global warming? What are we not talking about when we are talking about climate change?

Ghosh’s talk is based on his latest book, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, which explores contemporary fiction’s failure to address the realities of climate change. A Q&A and book signing will follow the presentation. This event is open to the public and free. Indivdiuals are encouraged to RSVP.

This talk is made possible by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU and co-sponsored by the Environmental Humanities Initiative (with support from the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, the Sustainability and Spirituality Initiative, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Humanities at ASU, the English Department, the Center for Science and the Imagination, and the Center for Jewish Studies), the School of International Letters & Cultures, the Center for Asian Research, and the Institute for Humanities Research.