How much have we spurned our wetlands? For an answer, in the U.S., you needn’t look much beyond idiom. Here, we get “swamped” and “bogged down” at work, then rise from our chairs with nasty cases of “swamp ass.” A candidate can run for president claiming to “drain the swamp.” And he can win, then attempt to do so not metaphorically, but rather literally.
Thus Annie Proulx’s new book—Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, out September 27—should land as an acute corrective. Proulx lived in peaty Port Townsend until recently, and she understands the American
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