This teaching resource was contributed by Kaitlin Mondello, Ph.D.
Core Text
A Tale of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World edited by John Freeman, Penguin Books, 2020.
Summary
This book collects writing across genres and across the globe on the pressing issue of climate change. As the subtitle indicates, it gives particular attention to the economic disparity in which poorer countries bear the brunt of the effects of climate change caused by wealthy polluting countries. This is the third book edited by Freeman focused on economic inequality (links). He collects texts ranging from poems to short stories to non-fiction accounts from over 30 countries, giving a global snapshot of a world in crisis.
Freeman’s powerful introduction to the collection frames issues of climate change as a moral choice: inaction is tantamount to valuing some lives less than others. He champions the power of stories and storytelling as a way to garner attention to the worsening climate crisis, as well as a space to find hope and community. He claims that the power of stories “is to wake the reader up into the present, by transporting them into a dream—one vivid enough to reorient how they see things upon waking” (xxiv).
With over 30 selections from around the world, the collection is ideal for educators looking for short works on climate issues. The headlining pieces are by well-known authors like Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat. Atwood’s short poem “Tracking the Rain” explores changes in climate, asking “Will it be burn or drown?” (line 28) while Danticat’s “Machandiz” details political and economic turmoil in Haiti.
Several additional pieces from the collection have been particularly impactful on students, particularly to broaden perspective globally. Burhan Sonmez’s personal essay “Born Stranger” lyrically recounts his experiences as a Kurdish minority in Turkey, including the many inequalities (by ethnicity, nationality, class and gender) that immigrants face. He also details the changes in plant and animal species due to pollution and climate change. Tahmima Anam’s “The Unfortunate Place” is a short fairytale-inspired piece that recounts her heritage in Bangladesh, a country that has faced many environmental and political challenges.
Speculative fiction in particular provides a haunting sense of the increasing inequality in a world that is becoming uninhabitable. Sayaka Murata’s story “Survival,” set in Japan, begins as a romance in which people are graded and ranked by health and wealth. When the woman in a mixed-rank couple refuses her lot in life, she devolves into an animalized state, a kind of terrible freedom. In “The Astronomical Cost of Clean Air in Bangkok,” Pitchaya Sudbanthad satirizes the willful denial of the vicious cycle of environmental destruction.
Though this volume came out in 2020, its call for economic and social justice through stories from around the world continues to be a useful volume for introduction students to the extent of the global crisis of climate change. The breadth of the collection further demonstrates the power of stories to help us process difficult realities, as well as to imagine better futures.
Teaching Resources
- Interview with the editor:
In this interview, Freeman explains his goals and choices for the collection. It includes additional powerful statements that expand ideas from his introduction.
- Article by Naomi Klein in The Nation:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-does-blacklivesmatter-have-do-climate-change
Though this article is from 2014, it picks up important themes of climate and inequality from Tales of Two Planets in ways that are accessible to students. Klein extrapolates from the #BLM movement that climate injustice continues to be allowed because Black and Brown lives are considered expendable to climate disaster.
- Theoretical Book by Ursula Heise:
Heise, Ursula K. Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
In this critical touchstone, Heise argues against a long line of ecocriticism grounded in the local toward a new concept, “eco-cosmopolitanism,” defined as “environmental world citizenzhip” (10), influenced by postcolonial theory. She advocates for a deeper sense of the planet as interconnected, while challenging models of belonging based on the local or nation-state. While densely theoretical, this work introduces a key concept for students to debate, especially in terms of the downfalls and benefits of different perceptions of belonging (local, national, global).
Discussion Questions
Apply any idea from Freeman’s introduction to a text on this collection. For example:
- How do you see your assigned story as contesting or complicating nationalism or the nation-state vs place-based cultural identity?
- How does one of the stories comment on the role of language in relation to the climate crisis?
- How does the story make the abstract idea of climate change feel more tangible or real?
- Where do you see meaningful similarities/overlaps or importance differences between stories?
Another set of questions could focus on the intersecting issues (real-world context) that the stories raise:
- What environmental issues are discussed here?
- How do the environmental issues intersect with social issues?
- Does the story suggest any ideas for how to address the environmental and social issues? If not, what else could be done?
- How/did this reading influence the way you think about climate change?
- How can literature help us better understand scientific and/or social issues?
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