Ecological Destruction

As the subtitle indicates, Fen, Bog, and Swamp is a “short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis.” The central theme of the book is the ecological destruction of wetland ecosystems that has serious implications for the modern climate crisis. Each chapter focuses on a different wetland ecosystem, and each is thoroughly punctuated with passages that detail how these essential biomes were irreparably damaged. Proulx employs excerpts from the writings of historical figures to more dramatically represent this destruction. “Vermont statesman-farmer George P. Marsh” wrote that “‘man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords. The proportions and accommodations which insured the stability of existing arrangements are overthrown. Indigenous animal and vegetable species are extirpated, and supplanted by others of foreign origin” (136). By including passages that demonstrate the historical context of environmentalism, the...