Speculative Fiction on Sustainability

[Feegle]

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster.  I need some quick advice.

I teach, and some colleagues of mine are about to begin an integrated unit on Environmental Sustainability with their grade ten students (15-16 year olds).  They're looking for some Speculative Fiction that they might be able to use to introduce some of the themes.  I suspect they may be looking for something vaguely dystopian, but that's not necessarily the case.  I've identified quite a few EP episodes that might be interesting for them to try and use, but I've only been listening for about a year, and haven't had time to go through the back catalogue all the way to the first episode.  I also tend to periodically miss a few episodes, which means there might be some that I didn't get to. 

Can anyone suggest stories that might fit this theme that I can pass on to them?  Alternatively, is there anything in Podcastle that might work?  (I can't recall environmental themes in any of the PC stories I've listened to... but perhaps I missed those episodes.)

Thanks!

~F

[stePH]

Nature's End by Whitley Strieber, maybe?  It's a novel though, and a fairly long one if I remember correctly (haven't read it, but saw it on a bookshelf once).

[edit: corrected spelling of name]

[Feegle]

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll look into it.  But I was a bit unclear before too - really, what I'm looking for are any Escape Artists episodes.  The English teachers at my school are trying to get the kids interested in audio fiction, and this theme is relevant to their science class, so they're trying to kill two birds with one stone.

[scifiguy7]

James Patrick Kelly's Burn might be a good novella for you. It is available in MS Word, PDF, and podcast audio (read by the author). Read more on his site here: http://www.jimkelly.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=45

It is based on / inspired by Henry David Thoreau's Walden, as explained in more detail at the link above.

[stePH]

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll look into it.  But I was a bit unclear before too - really, what I'm looking for are any Escape Artists episodes.  The English teachers at my school are trying to get the kids interested in audio fiction, and this theme is relevant to their science class, so they're trying to kill two birds with one stone.

No Escape Pod episodes with a theme of conservation or environmental collapse come to mind.  But even running down the list of episodes and reading the sample, I still can't remember what some stories were about, so it's possible that there is one and I've forgotten it.

[Sandikal]

What about EP210: The Hastillan Weed?   http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=2753.0
It's about an environmental issue that people rarely think about:  invasive non-native plants.

[stePH]

What about EP210: The Hastillan Weed?   http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=2753.0
It's about an environmental issue that people rarely think about:  invasive non-native plants.

Good call!