Fen, Bog and Swamp

- Blurb -

From Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx - whose novels are infused with her knowledge and deep concern for the earth - comes a riveting, revelatory history of our wetlands, their ecological role, and what their systematic destruction means for the planet. A lifelong environmentalist, Annie Proulx brings her wide-ranging research and scholarship to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important yet little understood role they play in preserving the environment - by storing the carbon emissions that greatly contribute to climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth' s most desirable and dependable resources, and in four stunning parts, Proulx documents the long-misunderstood role of these wetlands in saving the planet. Taking us on a fascinating journey through history, Proulx shows us the fens of 16th-century England to Canada' s Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia' s Great Vasyugan Mire, America' s Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and the 19th-century explorers who began the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Along the way, she writes of the diseases spawned in the wetlands - the Ague, malaria, Marsh Fever - and the surprisingly significant role of peat in industrialisation. A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is a stunningly important work and a rousing call to action by a writer whose passionate devotion to understanding and preserving the environment is on full and glorious display.