The book is worth a read – with some qualifications.

"Solar" - Ian McEwan's new book inspired by climate change

Some parts of the book show McEwan at his best. The development of the selfish, self-centred, ‘human’ character of the main protagonist, Nobel Prize winning physicist Michael Beard, is vintage McEwan. But it’s the climate change piece that is somewhat disappointing. The incorporation of climate change issues into this novel does, however, come across as an awkward add-on. Speeches and discussions on the intricacies of climate change and possible solutions seem pasted on to the main plot, interrupting rather than enhancing the flow of the book.

McEwan has clearly done his research – an in some depth. But it is not clear to me why he has to submit his readers to the tedium of the intricate detail of particle physics. He seems to have forgotten his own advice when saying that part of the issue with trying to communicate climate change issues is that all the jargon puts people off. In an interview prior to publication, he stated: “Even writing sentences about splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, already I know that about half the readers [will] see the names of those gases and their minds white out. Just seeing the word hydrogen they panic”.  You can imagine how my eyes and mind whited out when I came across this passage – and many more like it:

“…made elliptical references to BLG or some overwrought arcana in M-theory or Nambu-Lie 3-algebra as if it were not a change of subject.”

Yawn.

For climate change enthusiasts, those who have adopted the moral high ground and think of themselves as superior do-gooders, here is some advice worth taking when thinking about solutions:

“The matter has to move beyond virtue. Virtue is too passive, too narrow. Virtue can motivate individuals, but for groups, societies, a whole civilization, it’s a weak force. Nations are never virtuous, though they might think they are. For humanity en masse, greed trumps virtue. So we have to welcome into our solutions the ordinary compulsions of self interest, and also celebrate novelty, the thrill of invention, the pleasures of ingenuity and cooperation, the satisfaction of profit.”

At the end of this novel, one is left wondering whether the author believes in climate change as an issue with possible solutions or whether he sees it as simply another bandwagon on which have jumped a new generation of scientists and entrepreneurs. That ambiguity is also McEwan at his best and may be a true reflection of today’s state of the public’s acceptance of climate science.

William Blake says: Everything that Lives is Holy

Long live the Child
Long live the Mother and Father
Long live the People

Long live this wounded Planet
Long live the good milk of the Air

Long live the spawning Rivers and the
Mothering Oceans
Long live the juice of the Grass
And all the determined greenery of the Globe

Long live the Elephants and the Sea Horses,
the Humming-Birds and the Gorillas,
the Dogs and cats and Field-Mice –
all the surviving Animals
our innocent Sisters and Brothers

long live the Earth, deeper than all our thinking

we have done enough killing

Long live the Man
Long live the Woman
Who use both courage and compassion
Long live their Children

Adrian Mitchell

Acclaimed British author Ian McEwan is one of my very favorite authors.  He is the author of, among others, ‘First Love, Last Rites’, ‘On Chesil Beach’ and ‘Atonement’ - adapted in 2007 into a major movie starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.  I was naturally delighted to hear that his next novel – due in 2010 – is inspired by climate change.

To my knowledge this is the first time that such a prominent, award winning author is producing a novel inspired by environmental issues. The entry of climate change into the literature through a work of fiction must represent a major milestone in the involvement of the arts in sustainability.

McEwan is an acute observer of the darker side of human nature, addressing complex psychological and moral issues in a terse style that is gripping and often somewhat disturbing.  What has been described as “McEwan’s preoccupation with disquieting subject matter” makes me wonder in anticipation as to whether he can be the first to bring out in a meaningful manner the truly disturbing human behaviors that are leading to climate change and its consequences.

Unfortunately we still have some time to wait.  But meantime, environmentalists might benefit from taking heed from what this highly acclaimed author had to say in a recent interview about what it takes to keep audiences interested and listening to your message:

“That’s another problem with writing about climate change – it’s full of facts and figures. We’re putting into the atmosphere 16 gigatons of carbon every year; it takes 16 terrawatts to run civilisation. It’s very necessary to keep these out. My character is engaged in a project to use light to split water, imitating something of the process of photosynthesis. Even writing sentences about splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, already I know that about half the readers [will] see the names of those gases and their minds white out. Just seeing the word ‘hydrogen’, they panic.”

Full interview here.