Ian McEwan: Americans Are 'Profoundly Bored' By Climate Change

Telegraph:

McEwan blamed American apathy for the negative reviews afforded to Solar, his satire about global warming.

The New York Times critic dismissed Solar as one of McEwan's "lesser efforts" while the Washington Post called it "flaccid" and advised readers to "let Solar pass and wait for his next book to eclipse it".

Read the whole story: Telegraph

Comments

[GraceNotes]

10:57 AM on 07/20/2010

Percentage-wise, there are probably almost as many climate change deniers in Great Britain as there are in the United States.

[SF TKF]

01:08 AM on 07/20/2010

Well, either you've followed the science (and you trust science) and you already know it's true, or you're in deep denial and nothing will ever convince you it's true (cause all that science stuff is just so confusing and conflicting and Pappa Bear already told you it was a lie).

[Overtone]

04:44 PM on 07/19/2010

Climate change may now threaten to trigger a Tipping Point.

The life threatening impact of oil and the Gulf disaster may soon prove to be far more serious than has so far been realized!

Substantial oil is coming from fissures in the sea floor. Dealing with those leaks may be a huge problem.

See the new edit of What to Do! at http://www.aesopinstitute.org The subtitle is: A 5 Step Program to Increase the Odds We Will Survive the Oil Disaster!

400 parts per million of carbon has recently been found to be the Arctic Tipping Point, which could conceivably endanger all of humanity. We are presently approaching 390 ppm. The safe limit is 350 ppm. See www.350.org

A very thin film on the surface of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans appears to threaten to raise temperatures toward the catastrophic Tipping Point.

If these facts are accurate, an emergency mobilization appears urgent.

Little known and hard to fathom breakthroughs involving radically new energy technologies can help to supersede oil much more rapidly than might be readily understood or believed.

See Moving Beyond Oil on the same Aesop Institute website.

All renewable energy work should rapidly proceed on a 24/7 basis.

We need far more robust steps to effectively attack the problems in the Gulf and prevent as much oil as possible from reaching the Atlantic ocean.

Novels might help. John Atcheson, author of Ticking Time Bomb, aims to achieve the effect of Silent Spring.

[sabelmouse]

12:30 PM on 07/19/2010

i am profoundly bored by mcewan in general and solar in particular. very boring book and i am not american and not '' bored '' with climatechange.

[MikeyMike]

12:01 PM on 07/21/2010

Seconded! I was going to write the same comment.

[SkyCap]

11:38 AM on 07/19/2010

True artists take risks and sometimes they fail. Can't win 'em all.

[uglygnome]

11:20 AM on 07/19/2010

Mr. McEwan, you are one of my favorite living authors, however, I have to say, I found Solar to be your least engaging novel yet. Sorry.