Summary: SUMMARY: UK "eco-horror" novelist Joseph D'Lacey living after the Apocalypse. Stanford's Dr. Mary Kang: oil & gas pipes leak methane after shutdown. Scientist Michael Mann's take on "The Newsroom" climate doom. Radio Ecoshock 141210 http://tinyurl.com/lu7hmx5 Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi Or listen on Soundcloud right now! ECO-HORROR WITH JOSEPH D'LACEY Not long ago, I took up writing music as a hobby. I was surprised to find a skill at writing horror music. Could that be an expression of my fears for the future, driven by interviews for Radio Ecoshock? During the last ten years, the first ten of a new century, I've watched horror creep into all kinds of art. Just consider the multi-million dollar market for horror films, or the ghoulish video games full of slaughter and chaos. Humans have had a fascination for the dark side for centuries, but is that growing? And if it is, is that a response to imbalances and wrongs in the real world? Now there is a whole genre of literature to go along with the coming apocalypse, if it ever comes. We've told you about "cli-fi' - climate-based science fiction. Now meet "eco-horror". One leader in that field is British novelist Joseph D'Lacey. His new two-book series "The Black Dawn" describe life after the ecological and social breakdown on planet Earth. In the vimeo trailer for his book "Blackfeathers" D'Lacey writes: "I do not want to recount it. I do not want to recall the casting out of so much goodness, nor the reaping of so much pain." As a radio journalist covering the edge of disaster, I can empathize with that. Are we unwilling witnesses, - and why do we go ahead and say what we see? We start off talking about Joseph's breakthrough book "Meat". To research the book, he spent many awful hours watching videos of animals in slaughterhouses. It was enough to turn D'Lacey into a vegetarian, and many people still buy or download this book to help change their diet. The premise in the book, which returns often in D'Lacey's work, is that after some sort of collapse, the world is ruled by a small group of corporate and religious leaders. Corporations have entirely taken over the political system (which sounds rathers familiar). Of course the Italian leader Benito Mussilini had a word for the combination of corporations and government: fascism. In all Joseph's books, this "corpocracy" is toxic, even to itself. The book "Meat" was a hit, translated into 5 other languages. The after-the-apocalypse theme returned with his later novel "Garbageman". There the focus is on our mountains of waste, as well as our ability to hide things from ourselves, just as we hide the garbage. His newest work is a "duology" - a two book series called "The Black Dawn." The first book is "Blackfeathers" and the second "The Book of the Crowman". The "crow man" is a mysterious figure, and the inspiration for a band of rebels called "the Green Men". The reference is to the mythological figure "the green man" sometimes known in Medieval England as "John Barleycorn". The Crowman would be seen as evil by some, as he is present as things fall apart or destroyed. On the other hand, he may be the seed of a new order, which D'Lacey's characters call "the bright day". The coming apocalypse imagined by D'Lacey is perhaps more horrible because it isn't a mass die-off for humans, but instead we must continue living (badly) in a wrecked world. Climate change, pollution, and all the ills of this present world add up to a giant crash. Then the novelist draws out the world after... Eco-horror? Are you ready? Maybe you already have these fears within, waiting to find expression. Try the Black Dawn books from our Radio Ecoshock guest, Joseph D'Lacey. My thanks to presenter Bernie Keith of BBC Northhampton for recording the readings by Joseph D'Lacey. OIL AND GAS WELLS LEAK METHANE FOR DECADES Oil and gas wells can leak methane for years after they are supposedly sealed up. That's the news f
