Below, the cracked, brown earth, Like ancient earthen-ware, Spreads out its dusty, worn Old surface, baked and bare.
Above, the polished blue Of a burnished August sky Is an inverted bowl Of every drop drained dry (Converse, 1927).
In these few lines and sparse verse are contained a vivid description of the Great Plains landscape and the experience of drought. Literature has had a long relationship with climate as the human species attempts to capture its home environment and convey a sense of it to others, develop an understanding of why landscapes vary from one place to another, and communicate as well as preserve our environmental knowledge. Literature can be any writings of universal interest, carefully crafted in form and expression. Literature can be in the form of fiction, writing from the imagination, as in novels, short stories, drama, or poetry. Or it can be non-fiction, writing from “reallife” situations, such as essays, histories, or scholarly works. The term literature can...
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Dando, C. (2005). Literature and Climate. In: Oliver, J.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3266-8_126
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