Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre that Celebrates Our Relationships with Nature

 

Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre                   that Celebrates Nature's Relationships 

 

“As environmental crisis grows ever clearer, the best eco-fiction can help 

                           realign our conception of nature…”

It was a special discovery that finally answered my question what kind of e-books talk about water and trees as real characters with plots, problems and resolutions.

Eco-fiction is defined as nature literature based on the relationship between natural settings and human communities. It is a voice drawn from ecological principles that calls attention to act responsibly to be good ethical stewards of the Earth. There may be warnings of dangers to ignore it.

This special author's genre can help answer two questions:

1. Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as an emotional, interactive first-person experience?
2. Can the unique power in figurative language known as personification give human characteristics to non-living things or ideas to make better associations to better relate with a sense of empathy that it matters?

I can now proudly say that I wrote 2 e-books that can be classified as eco-fiction by combining 2 parts: the science of ecology with the art of story writing.

Part 1: Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment including both nonliving and living factors

Part 2:  A story composition includes basic elements of believable memorable characters, immersive settings, suspenseful plot lines, goals and challenges with resolutions at the end.

The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots has the scientific basis of  the water cycle that describes the continuous movement of water as it makes a circuit from the oceans to the atmosphere to the Earth and back again.

The main character is a water sprite with roots who has natural affinity as a water resource and as a plant at the primary level in the ecosystem. He is a complex character existing in three states with a range of abilities, but the mystery is his mission to discover other Cyclical Truths as he returns to the ocean. Indeed, along the way, the suspense and amazement grow as to how many he will find and how they fit into interdependent ecosystems.

Indeed, he develops affection for a micro-organism, shares her pond’s education and experiences pollution at the micro level where it begins. A sub plot develops when he discovers a hydrocarbon molecule and is surprised at their mutual organic bonds for affecting climate change because they share carbon as well as hydrogen molecules. At the end, floating over the ocean he finds peace with his internal conflict  that in order to survive people need to balance and protect their ecosystems.  

Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch introduces a sensitive birch tree who undervalues his existence until a tree dryad inhabits him and her wisdom explains his functions and connections to his community. He lives through the value of seasons, why nature doesn’t produce garbage through the humus cycle, the interdependent food web, the variation of adaptations and seeds, and how a spider web can help to explain morality versus consumerism. He sees the ecological succession that happens after a forest fire and plays his own integral part in supporting his community as his legacy.

Ecological principles were the basis of both stories with a common theme that flourished about diversity and cooperation. The hostile antagonists were people who in short-sighted selfishness attacked or abused these principles. They didn’t understand that DNA starts in the nucleus of the smallest life-form and cycles through natural bio-systems, including the Earth's biosphere.    

In the end, the main question or challenge is how an eco-fiction story can help to change societal norms and beliefs about ecology, environment, and sustainability?

There are lessons to be learned from Nature's elements as real personalities. They can show  how to make the less visible more visible because the greatest law of Nature is we are all connected…if one part is missing, we all suffer.

How else can the water cycle come alive with surprise and mystery by a unique personality that deeply cares about his survival committed to common goals?

How else can a birch tree come alive with his curiosities, fears, flaws, strengths and affinity for his family home and community?

What’s more important than fresh water and a clean water cycle?

What’s more important than a tree to clean the air and combat climate change?

What amazing friends and true superheroes for children to know!

In fact, perhaps, the more we can understand the natural world from real participants, the more we can apply common experiences relative to both nature’s and people’s communities. In fact, don't we all need to adapt to changes in the environment and face common issues of how to manage connections, maintain diversity, broaden participation, and foster adaptive thinking…all ecological principles that require tolerance and patience?

 In the end, science and imagination synchronize and weave fascinating stories that only a water sprite with roots and a living tree can tell; that in order to survive, we need to balance our Earth’s ‘Cyclical Truths’  and protect its ecological ecosystems. 

Most importantly, the hope is for children of all ages to accompany and respect them in our natural environment even more around every chapter and care deeply for Nature's manners, fears and hopes.

Check out the e-books here.

Have you read this unique genre called eco-fiction? The question has been asked why more books aren't written to help explain Nature's point of view when in crisis. 

Comments are always appreciated.

Please note the series of podcast questions in these blogs... 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 (leave a time to talk)

Who can better describe the microscopic food chain than a microorganism called Stentor as part of the Great Ecological Cycle?  He teaches the Water Sprite and his class, 

Excerpt: “This is one of the great Cyclical Truths … if one part lives, then the other part lives; if one part is destroyed then the other part will be destroyed in time? Isn't co-operation wonderful, a true democracy through diversity?"

PS:  Much more information about the evolution of Eco-fiction and examples of literary works can be found on dragonfly.org

Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

"Ecological succession is the process of gradual change in a community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. In some ways, nothing can remain the same except adapting to change itself." 

Excerpt: Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Anybody who works side by side with nature understands that Ecological Succession is a force of nature.

Anybody who tills a piece of ground and plans to grow a garden will understand this force of nature very well. So, you plant your seeds and soon enough the young bean plants emerge with their bright open leaves eager for nutrients, water and open dirt to grow toward their bountiful vegetable. 

Now, within the same short time, other plants called weeds will start to compete for nutrients and space. In fact, these weeds are such avid competitors, if left unattended, may easily take over the seedling beets. In fact, the garden will quickly turn into a robust productive weed patch overcoming the weaker yet-to-be established beets. A  gardener's only course of action is to spend a great deal of time and energy weeding the garden to try and tame this inherent energy or force of ecological succession.

There seems to be an inherent law in nature that open soil will not stay bare for too long. Nature will take her hand and seed it prolifically but always within a predictable  organization that allows for primary growth to support secondary development.

Succession is nature’s process to adapt to whatever conditions befall it … to continue to live, grow and gradually change the habitat to adapt to these new conditions. The species that adapt better will exist longer. 

Again, with Nature’s infinite organization, a forest fire can best show how a disaster is followed by gradual change based on predictable development.

First, different grasses and weeds appear starting the microbial communities and nutrient      capture. 

Soon, the spectacular fireweed or great willow herb arrives with amazing adaptations to      survive as a pioneer in disturbed areas.

• Its seeds can lie dormant for many years, awaiting the warmth necessary for germination. 
• It can rapidly spread its rhizomes or creeping roots that grow a few inches horizontally underground from buds that produce new shoots growing upwards. 
• It can grow 1 to 6 feet, even as tall as 9 feet with tapers of flowers. 
• Pink colored flowers produce seeds as fine wispy tufts for easy wind dispersal. 
• Soon enough, roots and seeds proliferate everywhere accumulating more humus. 
• As it grows, it is a supermarket for insects, birds and animals.  Young shoots are especially tasty to rabbits, sheep and deer.  Muskrats, chipmunks and even marmots, moose, elk make a diet. 
• It is especially beneficial to butterflies who feed from its nectar and pollen during the day, and the moths at night. 
• A variety of bees drink the early spring nectar to make honey and help to pollinate the plant further. It can also attract hummingbirds and other birds to feed on the bugs.

A few years later they are replaced by bushes and trees like the aspen, white birch, and jack pine. More nutrients are released into the soil, competing species are overgrown and eliminated as the amount of sunlight varies.

 

            In other words, a fully functioning ecosystem is alive and well. 

In summary, ecological succession is the process of change in the species of an ecological community over time. It begins with a  few pioneering plants and animals and develops into a stable or self-perpetuating community. 

  

Several key words emerge when considering how to change in nature’s way … adaptations, whole society, diversity, balance, maturity and survival. The consequence of change or adaptation is how organisms impact their own environment, often as a symbiotic relationship. Change is never black and white for immediate gratification. Between any two extremes, there is gradual change with function as purpose and more tolerance. 

Two other interesting facts can apply to forest fires and ecological succession:

1. Climate change can play a major role in which kind of plants or trees will return to the landscape. Even years later, higher temperatures and decreased precipitation can compromise a forest’s chances of full recovery.
2. Forest fires can be considered a natural and necessary part of the ecosystem. It is an opportunity to remove clutter like dead trees, old logs, dense undergrowth, and hardened decayed plant matter to return as ashes and add more nutrients to make more fertile soil for new plants.

Back on the farm, I remember my father, doing controlled burns on the hay fields as a way to remove old decayed grass to increase soil fertility. 

In fact, I am so impressed by nature's ecological succession and what it can teach humanity's social succession, I wrote an e-book called 

The Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch ... a love story for all ages who care about family, community and environment.

Questions and comments are always welcome and important.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please note a time for a call-back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

"Succession involves the whole community. You have seen it in slow action with plants in the destruction of the forest fire. The first plants appear along with humus, micro-organisms, and fungi followed by insects and birds. As plants change, different animals will appear to feed;  first the plant eaters, then the meat eaters.  Trees start to grow, changing the physical and nutrient environment again for more variety of species." 

excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birchum 

Also available as Kindle edition.

..FIREWEED: magnificent all-purpose plant pioneer

Podcast Interview Answer # One: What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber?

Podcast Interview Answer # One:  What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber? 

How could she show her respect for a little birch tree that true self mattered as the essence of Nature’s power to share family, community and environment? Why couldn’t they understand that any being, or anybody is more than just about a brain and genes, but a whole ecosystem of connections surrounding oneself?

 Excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Have you really stopped and looked at a tree? Have you checked beneath the dirt to see what makes it stand so strong? Have you used an X-ray to show how the inside organization works with both up-and-down flow of nutrients? Have you connected each leave to the sun’s energy and the inside layer of chloroplasts cells containing chlorophyll that combines the sun’s energy with carbon dioxide and water to make a carbohydrate compound, the primary source of food on Earth?

There is so much more to know about a single tree beyond beautifying our surroundings and adding cool shade and reducing wind. There is a far greater relationship to its natural environment as it provides shelter and food to a diverse collection of living things. 

Imagine what a forest of trees can provide. Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land surface, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The main advantages are:

• 80% of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests
• monitors climate change
• prevents fertile land from erosion or becoming too arid
• produces a carbohydrate compound called cellulose used to make clothes and paper (via  photosynthesis)
• supplies three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater from its watersheds
• manufactures precious oxygen back to the air to breathe
• absorbs carbon dioxide thus helping to mitigate greenhouse gases produced by human activity
• plays an important role in carbon sequestration, or the capture and storage of excess carbon dioxide including the soil  

(Note: As a tree matures, it can consume 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and releases enough oxygen for you to breathe for two years!)

It's impossible to imagine a world without forests. But you don’t need to imagine a world where deforestation is increasing several dire consequences for our planet Earth and Nature’s sustainability.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees to make room for something else such as more agricultural land, ranching, or using the timber for construction and manufacturing.

Deforestation is seen as the second-leading cause of climate change because less carbon dioxide is removed from the air, as well as producing nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning fossil fuels is the first. (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 

Of major concern is that jungle habitats and their animals are becoming decimated. Tropical trees are being cut down for four reasons: to make wood products, raise beef cattle, plant soy crops and grow palm oil plantations. Palm oil is cheap, versatile and commonly found in nearly half of supermarket products from crackers to lipsticks and shampoo. Even though this production is profitable for companies, it has also resulted in land grabs, social conflict, and violation of human rights.

But the restorative power of Nature will return if given a chance.  

The trees of the forest can be replanted in cleared areas or simply allow the forest ecosystem to regenerate over time as natural plant succession. In time, through the power of ecological succession plant life will reestablish, wildlife will return, water systems will reemerge, carbon will continue to be sequestered, and soils will be replenished.  

In some ways, people can do their part to limit their support for deforestation. You can buy  certified wood products, use less paper, and not consume products that use palm oil.

Of course, plant a tree when possible. If not, find a pet tree and delight in its being.

Check out  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Kindle edition 

Questions and comments are always appreciated,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please leave a message for best time to call back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

For other podcast questions check blog....

Excerpt: "Your lesson is to show others that even as a single tree you can share the spirit from a forest of trees where people can renew a sense of wonderment of peaceful co-existence.  

There is nothing to consume, nothing that money can buy, except to enjoy the splendor of trees and vibrancy of nature where everything lives, and everything dies and is taken into the soil, from fossils on up. There is order in chaos, prediction in patterns, trust in renewal, no illusion within honesty without fault or foolishness. Trees fall to the forest floor along with dead insects, animal droppings, twigs from an old squirrel’s nest, the bones of the old squirrel, all rot their way into the soil to give life again. Still you feel fascination, a place to love with a belonging that lasts beyond any generations that ensures rebirth with belonging to all.”  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch 

...my local baby birch tree pet

How Climate Change Disrupts the Water Cycle via the Hydro-logical System Express Cause and Effect

How Climate Change Disrupts the Water Cycle via the Hydro-logical System Express Cause and Effect

  “It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living….You realize you are not immortal; you are not a god; you are part of the natural world and you come to accept that.”

  Sir David Attenborough

As the huge cumulonimbus clouds rise along the horizon, there is also rising concern about rising climate temperatures, but have you thought that the primary disruption is happening with the water cycle? This complex integrated system has many parts and functions linked interdependently;  if one part is un-linked, then all the other parts can be derailed.

Therefore, let’s use a concrete metaphor to show the cause and effect of climate change on the water cycle in the form of a large train with linked boxcars and call it the Hydro-logical System Express.  It moves through the Earth’s Ecosystems where all moving parts are connected for Nature’s essential synergy within the Earth’s Biosphere.  As you can quickly see, this road map is much more than a friendly springtime shower.

Water moves around the Earth in a water cycle with immemorial, basic mechanics: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off. Along the way, it affects water supplies, food webs, health, sanitation, and energy production.

Imagine, this natural process is now steaming through a time of Climate Change with huge possible interference by affecting the amount, distribution and quality of available water.  In turn, communities, industries and ecosystems can also be impacted, directly or indirectly.

Here is the Nature's scientific engineering fact: hotter climate causes more water to evaporate from land and ocean water. This also means greater plant transpiration which results in water loss in soil and plants.

Imagine there are five boxcars linked to the water cycle that show cause and effect:

ONE:  A warmer atmosphere can hold more water moisture; roughly four percent more water for every 1 degree rise in temperature.  One result is increased precipitation and runoff, leading to flooding. Another result, depending on geography, is less precipitation and longer drought periods.

TWO:  Mountain melt water and runoff provide more than 50 percent of the world’s freshwater. Therefore, as global temperatures rise, mountain glaciers and snow packs are melting at an unprecedented rate creating greater water stress in the habitats. Just think, glaciers can’t be replaced once they’re gone.

THREE: Valuable groundwater levels will be affected along with accelerated water competition and stress at the surface about its proper use without overusing this limited resource. Water quality will decline within the ecosystems as well. For example, higher water temperatures in lakes, streams and reservoirs result in lower levels of dissolved oxygen which adds more stress on the fish, insects, microorganisms and other aquatic animals that rely on oxygen.

FOUR: More precipitation will cause a greater pollution load to be washed into our waterways, such as nitrogen from agriculture, pesticides, herbicides and even disease pathogens. It’s simply another engineering cycle that all water will return eventually to the coastal ocean waters. This can create blooms of harmful algae and bacteria such as blue-green algae or red tide which, in turn, can damage aquatic life and  produce dangerous toxins for humans and other animals to touch or drink; thereby, hurting the fisheries, shellfish and tourism economies. A new reality called ocean acidification will need further study.

FIVE: As oceans become warmer along with an increased melt from ice  caps and glaciers, the sea levels will rise. This will drive saltwater into freshwater aquifers affecting the drinking supply as well as irrigation. These threats to fragile coastal communities are alarming as infrastructure and  economies try to cope for a roughly estimated more than 200 million people worldwide who live along coastlines less than 5 meters above sea level; a number that could reach 400 to 500 million by the end of the 21^st century.

Of course, the picture of a Hydro-logical System Express throttling through our land is a caricature oversimplification. There are far greater dimensions and confluences to the survival of the planet itself based on the variable living Ecosystems which aggregate to make the Earth’s Biosphere.

Each ecosystem has its own energy cycle which contains all of the living species and all non-living elements in any particular environment, whether as a single tree, a forest or even a puddle. This energy flows from the sun through plants, food producers, consumers,  microorganisms, and animals which ends with decomposition in order to recycle the process again.  Climate change may force habitat relocation and upset the food chain or contribute to species extinction. It will affect human land development, agriculture, erosion, flooding, droughts, or greater wildfires.

Still larger, the all-embracing and cohesive mother of all, is the Biosphere based on water, air and minerals found on land where all life exists below ground, above ground and at least 200 meters of the ocean and seas. Energy flow is essential to maintain the structure of organisms by the splitting of phosphate bonds. As levels of greenhouse gases increase, including more water vapor, the Earth responds with higher temperatures. As the Biosphere’s temperature increases, it becomes global warming versus climate change which is more localized long-term pattern changes in weather conditions.

There are arguments as to which degree human activity is responsible for climate change affecting the causes and effects of the water cycle. But there is no argument that such a wide range of human activities depend, directly or indirectly, on water and that future climate-driven changes in water resources will affect many aspects of our lives.

So next time you look up at some lazy cloud passing by on a warmer day than usual, or a tumult of clouds building along the horizon, please visualize the all-powerful water cycle connecting all possible links to precipitation, run-offs, surface water, pollution, ocean levels, ecosystems, communities and so much more within the vastness of this blue planet’s Biosphere.

Then, see yourself as one individual who needs to do your part which is morally right and responsible to keep your water in your space to be as pure and fresh as possible to make all life possible.

Questions and comments are always welcome and appreciated to further this discussion. What are some of your questions or experiences with water or lack of?

Sincerely,

Annemarie Berukoff

amarie10@gmail.com

 PS: It gives me great pride to be the author of a special e-book for children of all ages called The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on his Mission to Discover Cyclical Truths …

Read more about the introduction of how and why this story was written:  

Read more about the Most Common Question Asked about the Incredible Journey of The Water Sprite with Plant Roots with a Table of Contents   

It can be downloaded here:

Excerpt: My thoughts wander about the kind of ecology that humankinds believe in, as I have witnessed. Do they get it that natural life begins with DNA in a nucleus, one celled animals and plants, then species and then an ecosystem? Do they know that every small ecosystem is part of the total large biosphere on Earth that connects them all; water, air, food, resources, and shelter? Do they realize that perpetual growth, industry or destruction of any habitat is not sustainable on a limited planet?

Introducing The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day

INTRODUCING: The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day, April 22, 2019

"Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they're going to grow up in, that they're going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it's more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless.” Sir David Attenborough

There are many reasons for writing this Water Sprite with Roots story on his journey to find Cyclical Truths especially on Earth Day in honor of this "blue speck" in the universe.

In the nebulous world where the difference between the real and the imagined is only a matter of perception and preference and in what direction the sun's beams are slanting and in what direction the shadows are falling, there is cast into the atmosphere a young water sprite to begin his cyclical journey in one of the Earth's most essential cycles. He takes this undertaking very seriously and calls it his mission of Cyclical Truths. His accounts and feelings set a purpose and demand for morality for all generations in preservation of a finite planet.

His short name is Corddo-mont, and he personifies the most valuable, but limited resource, known as pure, fresh water.  He is unique because he is also part plant with retractable roots and cellular chloroplasts with which to make his own food from the sun's energy.  This gives him a unique perspective on the symbiotic interdependence among plants, animals and even micro-organisms at the four important levels of healthy ecosystems..

He is young, ebullient and curious with an attendant sense of humor and freshness of experience.  Along the way, he encounters various experiences that impress him with a number of cycles that describe the cooperative natural world where everything has a purpose and a right to exist to maintain potential.  In fact, he won't admit it, but he has formed a close bond with a special micro-organism known as a rotifer.

He becomes more aware of his vitality as he learns about the difficulties that threaten and exploit his nature; even to become an agent of pollution to gravely affect the myriads of life-forms that rely on his solubility factor and all-embracing sustenance.  A unique encounter impresses him with the most abundant carbon element found in all organic matter including the hydrocarbons in fossil fuels.

It is only with his encounters with humankinds that he feels a loss of self; and learns consciously,sometimes painfully, the truth of the need for conservation and preservation of balance in nature.

This story combines imagination, fantasy with scientific reality. The figurative language personifies the water sprite as a friend we should all care about his manners, fears and hopes.  Because he shares an affinity with any organic life form derived from carbon and hydrogen, he can communicate with other beings and express their stories from their realities. Most importantly, they help explain the cyclical truths that are very real and essential to ecology and the Earth's bio-systems.    

   

It is important to introduce this valuable superhero water sprite with roots on

 Earth Day, April 22, 2019.

By relating to his journey, you will also relate to Cyclical Truths and understand the confluences of Climate Change speeding out of control:

....The highest reliably recorded temperatures on Earth have happened in the last couple of years. Temperatures have reached 129 degrees (oven temperature) plus humidity. How can people work? What if “no-go zones” continue for weeks on end? How will humans survive before forced migration? 

...Climate change will have major and unpredictable effects on the world's water systems, including an increase in floods and droughts, powerful storms, and causing in turn, an impact on food supply, displacement and conflict.

...Polar ice is melting, coastlines are receding, rising sea levels threaten entire nations on low-lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, increasing ocean salinity, degrading the iconic Great Barrier Reef.

...Climate change is shifting the seasons with extreme weather conditions such as precipitation patterns which will impact farming and agriculture, a source of food and livelihood for more than half of the global population.

It is time to treat our Blue Planet with respect and spirit of Ecology where every community has a purpose, right to exist and maintain potential. 

Check out this valuable story for all ages today.

Your comments are always welcome.

Sincerely, Annemarie 

Excerpt: My thoughts wander about the kind of ecology that humankinds believe in, as I have witnessed. Do they get it that natural life begins with DNA in a nucleus, one celled animals and plants, then species and then an ecosystem? Do they know that every small ecosystem is part of the total large biosphere on Earth that connects them all; water, air, food, resources, and shelter? Do they realize that perpetual growth, industry or destruction of any habitat is not sustainable on a limited planet?