Nature is neither just, nor logical, nor reasonable. It is what it is. And it does what it does. When my consumption of nature subverts the ecosystem that sustains me, it is, from the ecosystem’s point of view, neither wrong nor right. If the ecosystem breaks down because of my behaviour, it will transform and find a new identity, which may or may not include my species.

The Ecology of Silence consists of seven essays, which in different ways adress the great question of our time: How shall we think and act confronted with the climate threat? Erland Kiøsterud writes about the necessity of seeing ourselves from without and recognizing that the ecological threat we have created is a part of ourselves – our own bodies, our patterns of thought and our stories. The writing in The Ecology of Silence is partly analytic, partly personal, and in an elegant, attentive way, Kiøsterud connects ethical and existential questions about the relationship between humans and nature to his own childhood and literary works.