A WORLD FULL OF ISSUES
Resource extraction, the future of democracy and shrinking water supplies — these world-altering challenges are also themes in books by writers Andrew Nikiforuk (Slick Water), Micah White (The End of Protest) and Carrie Saxifrage (The Big Swim). They will be appearing as part of Vancouver Writers Fest’s Incite on April 13.
Q Tell us about your book. A My book is not just about the disruptive and unpredictable technology of hydraulic fracturing but the courage of women when confronting brute force. The book documents the ordeal of Jessica Ernst, a longtime member of the oilpatch. When Encana fracked the local aquifers near her home and turned her well water into a flammable mess, Ernst began an eight-year odyssey to hold regulators and government accountable. It is an inspirational tale about the importance of fighting back and it documents how one woman, concerned about the fate of a public resource, groundwater, can shake the corrupt foundations of modern industry.
Q How can storytelling help us to build a better future? In your experience, how does narrative help to inform the public about key issues facing society — and our environment?
A Good storytelling can’t make a better future but it can meet immediate moral needs. Like a light in the darkness, a well told story can guide us to the truth, and in the end, we may find comfort in that.
Q Tell us about your book.
A This is a book the powerful don’t want you to read. This is a book the people who dream of social change must read. It starts with the collapse of Occupy Wall Street — a global movement that I helped instigate — and the realization that we’ve been having the largest, and most frequent, global protests in human history and yet these mass mobilizations are not achieving social change. Protest is broken. Now we must fix it. I call for the end of protest as we know it so that a new wave of planetary social movements can rise up.
Q In your experience, how does narrative help to inform the public about key issues facing society — and our environment?
A At the heart of contemporary protest is a familiar storyline about how to achieve social change. It typically goes like this: get people into the streets, rally around a unified demand and peacefully resist police repression, then our elected representatives will be forced to listen and lasting social change will happen. The recent experience of Occupy Wall Street, Idle No More and Black Lives Matter demonstrates that this story is hindering the efectiveness of our movements. Social change actually happens when activists break the predictable script. In the new storyline, the people will never protest the same way twice.
Q Tell us about your book.
A In The Big Swim, familiar events — family illness, community escapades, wilderness adventures, a mother’s death — unfold alongside a heartfelt response to climate change. Stories that can make a reader laugh, cry and think new thoughts work together to develop the book’s theme: that engaging with nature and acting in support of biodiversity expands the richness and meaning of life.
Q In your experience, how does narrative help to inform the public about key issues facing society — and our environment?
A Emotional commitment arises from stories that give meaning to facts. For example, in Mountain in the Clouds, Bruce Brown told the tale of gigantic salmon blocked from a protected watershed by two illegally built dams. It inspired many people, including me and my friends at law school, to lobby for removal of the dams. The dams came down a few years ago and the salmon immediately returned. The entire watershed is roaring back to life.