In October 2014, Western Norway was hit by flood. Espen Stueland was on his way home from football practice with his youngest daughter, when the water swallowed her bike. Three days later, meteorologists estimated that Norway was in the midst of a 700 year flood. The TV news reported that the amount of rain was equivalent to a pallet of milk cartons up to the height of the chest on every square meter of the county of Hordaland.

What language do we use when we talk about the state of the earth? What kind of relationship to nature do our children get when we teach them that they need protection and padding to climb trees?

What are the consequences of global temperature increase of 2 degrees, or as much as 4 degrees?

What would be the consequences for a similar increase in the human body?

Why is nature considered an outdated motive in Swedish poetry, what is the the new wave of ecological critique in Danish poetry, and what is a Norwegian toxic poem?

What do politicians mean when they claim to be “climate optimists”?

In this book Espen Stueland poses burning questions and passionately discusses climate change, our relationship to nature as expressed in both poetry and in the language of politicians. To move about in nature is a source of unsurpassed joy, and nature is the heritage we pass on to our descendants.