Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril

by Char Miller, Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, Pomona College

​

Publication Date: 9/20/2022

Drought and fires, floods and rising tides: These and other climate-driven forces are compelling us to examine our role as inhabitants of our imperiled planet. In over forty vitally important essays and vignettes, Natural Consequences is Char Miller’s literary tour de force that illuminates the historical background of how we got here, what we need to do now, and how we can thrive into the future. 
     Char Miller’s narratives are not only expansive in scope, but also intimate and personal. Living in Southern California, he walks us through the environmental touchstones of his backyard, through his neighborhood, into the widely varied ecospheres of California, and then the world beyond. 
     The essays encourage readers to look for themselves at the meaning behind environmental disasters and injustices, but also examine the tiniest details that can be encountered simply by taking a walk.

​

Cover illustration and interior drawings by Sophie Wood Brinker

Endorsements of Char Miller's Natural Consequences

​

Equal parts charming and unsettling, these are illuminating accounts of the world we inhabit now. And the essays come with lots of good advice, above all: go for a walk. But maybe stick this volume in your back pocket.

Bill McKibben, author of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon

-------------------------------------

​

Char Miller's Natural Consequences is a marvelous journey across sublime Southern California landscapes with a noble outdoor guide from the Aldo Leopold tradition. With his keen knowledge of Western water policy, forest management, weather patterns, desert ethics, mountain lore and fish hatcheries, Miller educates readers about the conservation challenges his home state faces in the 21st century.

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University and author of Silent Spring Revolution:  John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the Great Environmental Awakening.

Summer 2023

Our second book will be a Young Adult graphic novel — working title, Tales of the Urban Wild — that follows the life of a young male mountain lion as he struggles to establish his own territory. Navigating urban regions and wildlands, he confronts many challenging obstacles. The story will bring awareness to the impact of humans and climate change — impingement on territory, water shortage, fires — that mountain lions have to face. Particularly important is the story’s recognition of the need for co-existence between wildlife and humans.

​

Written by Tiffany Yap

Illustrated by Meital Smith

​

Image courtesy of the National Park Service

Future title — Summer 2024

Reverberations Books is in the beginning stages of developing its third book which addresses the application of Big Data in the study and potential management of climate change.