BOOK DISCUSSION: Great Lakes/Great Books

Now in its 10th season, Great Lakes/Great Books meets the first Thursday of the month September – May to discuss books that have the Great Lakes as setting or subject matter or that are related to water and/or the Great Lakes region. All are welcome, whether you have read the book or not! The selection for this month is, Fen, Bog, and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and its Role in the Climate Crisis by E. Annie Proulx.

About the book:

A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth’s survival and, in four illuminating parts, Proulx demonstrates their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit.

In a vivid and revelatory journey through history, Proulx describes the fens of 16th century England, Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia’s Great Vasyugan Mire, and America’s Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. She introduces the early explorers who launched the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and writes of the diseases spawned in the wetland — the ague, malaria, and marsh fever.