Chapter Seventeen Summary

Eugene recalls a debate between Jason Wilder and a trustee at the college he once knew named Ed Bergeron. Bergeron challenged Wilder's baseless accusations that global warming and the like were inventions of green-loving scientists and not scientific fact, and Wilder defended his lies and distortions by attacking Bergeron personally. Bergeron later resigned before Eugene is fired, having to face two personal tragedies. One is that a company Bergeron bought after working at the college turned out to be selling toxic floor tiles, which means innocent customers have been dying from them for decades. The other tragedy Bergeron faced was the death of his gay son, who was murdered in a motel room in Iowa while the murderer was never apprehended. A favorite expression Bergeron typically uttered that would be fitting for the Earth's epitaph was, "We Could Have Saved It...