Northumberland Library Vestibule Display

During the month of April, a display of climate change literature was on view in the vestibule of the Northumberland Public Library. A picture of part of the display is shown to the right.

The display consisted of seven categories of books with a page description of each display. The seven categories were as follows:

1. Classic Environmental including Silent Spring (1962) and The Lorax (1971);

2. Climate Change Science, Impacts, Solutions including the International Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, reports and reports from the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation and the Royal Academy of Science, among others; this category was included in the display case across the vestibule from the display pictured;

3. Climate Change and Global Warming Explanations including examples of the many books written based on the scientific documents in category 2 above; included is An Inconvenient Truth (2006);

4. Impact and Solutions include the Pope’s Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home (2015) and Steven Nash’s Virginia Climate Fever (2014); these and others in this category describe the impact of “business as usual” emissions on the earth and actions we should be taking;

5. Doubt and Deniers category of books addresses the 40 years of deliberate disinformation by the fossil fuel industries and their captive think tanks and media outlets. Their purpose is to spread “doubt” and press Congress to not take any actions.

6. Likely Future Scenarios address the dangers of continuing “business as usual”; a leader is James Hansen’s Storm of my Grandchildren (2009); and Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction; (2014); and

7. Fiction: Cli-Sci_Fi a growing new category is Climate Science Fiction that either sets the story in a future that is or was impacted by climate change or us undergoing the severe effects of climate change.

Some of the books are from the Library collection, but most belong to me.

The display, although it contained only books that were based on the acknowledged science of climate change received a complaint that it was overtly political and not suitable for the Library. The Library response was to quote the first amendment to the Constitution and offer the complainant the opportunity to create an alternate display.