FOMITE

Industrial Oz explores CEOs' and politicians' Titanic arrogance in the face of human-caused climate destruction.This book focuses on the ways of the Tao instead of the Dow. Other themes include human-caused extinction, rising seas, social collapse and reinvention, a Hopi elder's prophecy, loss of rainforest, oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, historical perspective, disappearing sea stars, public apathy, wilderness preservation, challenge of nuclear waste and bombs, mentoring, lack of parenting, melting glaciers, Deepwater Horizon lies, indigenous wisdom, Federal Reserve and banking charades, Greek and Wisconsin austerity, modern wars, Enron deregulation, immigration, PTSD, inherited entitlement, "cell towers as brain forks," being rooted in place, GMO "Octomato Nightmare," drone menace -- in short, what the corporate 24/7 distraction machine isn't "counting on you waking up [to,] ever."

 

About the Author

Scott T. Starbuck was a Friends of William Stafford Scholar at the "Speak Truth to Power" Fellowship of Reconciliation Seabeck Conference in 2014, a 2013 Artsmith Fellow on Orcas Island, and writer-in-residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. His poetry focuses on the clash between ancient sustaining forces like wild salmon rivers and modern industry and industrial livelihood. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, where he teaches creative writing, world literature, and English. He hikes Oregon and Washington coasts documenting pristine aspects of wilderness as well as our culture’s desecration of ecological communities. 

 

30% of the author's royalty will be donated to 350.org.

 

Praise

We’ve started to see poetry and music and art emerge that challenge this deepest question. It’s crucial because we don’t just need the side of the human brain that understands pie charts and bar graphs engaged in this fight — we need the whole brain and the whole heart. Industrial Oz is a rousing, needling, haunting case in point. 

— Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

 

Review in The Quarterly Conversation (archive site, no active links)

Review in Plumwood Mountain