My Review: First things first: Those title words aren't synonyms, exactly, so much as a family tree of naturally occurring wet places on Earth. In addition to the science, history, politics and increasing global environmental devastation, wait till you see her reports about Bog Bodies! People have been sinking bodies into these vast, dark, mysterious areas for centuries, thinking they are gone forever. Annie Proulx has written an interesting book on the subject Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis and I was excited to read it.

A fierce declaration of peat’s importance to climate stability and human survival. Proulx does not imagine she can plug the holes in the peatlands, but she is determined to plug the peatland-size hole in our histories.” — The New York Review of Books This little book is dedicated to the people of Ecuador who made their land the first country in the world to include legal rights for natural ecosystems in its constitution. The recent ruling against mining companies to protect the Andean cloud forest Los Cedros is a significant event for the world. Why fens, bogs and swamps? If there is a fault to be found with Fen, Bog & Swamp, it is that at times Proulx’s richly descriptive passages dissolve into slightly purple, overly lyrical prose. The writing is always impassioned, however, and this is equally a symptom of her drive to reverse the damage that’s been done. She describes how there were 53,000 square miles of essential mangrove forests left in 2010: within six years, these were reduced to 51,700. If care and sense are applied, Proulx explains, these mangrove areas can be restored and can protect our coasts, just as the revitalisation of the wetlands promises to protect the whole world. I followed William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink, Wetlands, 2015, 5th ed. (Wiley), for definitions and explanations of wetland processes. 1. Discursive Thoughts on Wetlands That is, to know what the difference is between fen, bog and swamp. To be able to go into a wetland and look around at it and say, "Aha, I know this is a swamp, it's full of trees. Or, this is a bog, full of quaking sphagnum moss." It's more didactic than a call to arms. That's just not my thing.An enchanting history of our wetlands... Imbued with the same reverence for nature as Proulx’s fiction, Fen, Bog, and Swamp is both an enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing call to action." —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire This book narrowly avoided earning my first 1-star rating by actually containing interesting factual information. The tone throughout is that of a satirist trying to parody a passionate conservationist, except that as far as I can tell, this author is taken seriously as a conservationist by some people, including herself. Not necessarily so during the prehistorical past (20,000 years ago) when Britain wasn't an island, but the fringe of the Europe/Asia landmass. Rolling plains extended where the North Sea is today, all the way to the Netherlands. It was Doggerland. Such riches from the land: fish, fowl, vegetable. People didn't want to leave, even after the water had been gradually moving in. Peat-preserved remains of long-ago living situations get fished up accidentally in the North Sea.

This information is important to fully understanding the scale and cost of wetland losses we've inflicted on the planet. Author Proulx (whose use of "yclept" in this book I note here with a big smile, as it's a favorite underused word of mine) is an experienced campaigner when it comes to putting English through its paces to evoke a sense of place and a perception of mood: ESQ: Most people who are aware of and concerned about climate change feel powerless in the face of it. Do you have any guidance for people looking to contribute to the fight? and after presenting basic arithmetic about microorganisms that resulted in a number with lots of zeros at the end, “If you are an earth-moving machine operator planning to drain bog land, think on this [number] and resist.” She does go off in some interesting tangents which I was happy to read about. I also was glad to be informed about the impacts of draining the wetlands and restoration projects.Proulx’s substantial talents and experience and her modest stated goals should make for a freewheeling and compelling narrative … but unfortunately it is more freewheeling than compelling. The ‘personal essay’ basic research results in a digressive rather than propulsive collection of explanations, references, and anecdotes, and the book does not achieve its potential. In the section on fens for example, Proulx mines her research and reading to demonstrate the long connection between people and fen, but the references are overused. The effect is similar to a researcher trying to strengthen a paper by the volume rather than quality of citations. The effect is dilutive. ESQ: When discussing the draining of wetlands, you make several tongue-in-cheek references to the resulting “most productive soil in the world.” I think you’d agree that our society tends to have a rather toxic concept of “productive.” Where do you think this mania for productivity comes from? Poetic, wide-ranging, and a display of erudition seldom offered. Whatever opinion or attitude the reader brings to this presentation, it is worth reading for its word art alone!” —David Sutton, San Francisco Book Review

She honestly believes emotions are a good basis for understanding facts, reality, morality, etc and doesn't care if its contradictory.

Table of Contents

A recent TV ad features three guys lost in the woods, debating whether they should’ve taken a turn at a pond, which one guy argues is a marsh. “Let’s not pretend you know what a marsh is,” the other snaps. “Could be a bog,” offers the third. Proulx's] astute and impassioned examinations of all kinds of wetlands [...] show a new side of the novelist we thought we knew" She goes into a lot of detail, with examples around the world, of the various types of wetlands, but I’ll quote her simple definitions from the endnotes. This is a short book, an easy and instructive read. Not a polemic, except for just a little bit of blaming capitalism in an early chapter. In the book, Proulx reveals the extensive harm that civilization has inflicted upon wetlands, but also highlights those who are taking action to mitigate the damage. While pragmatic about the severity of the situation, as she explained to Esquire, Proulx also finds reasons for hope and even joy in the wide-ranging efforts to adapt in the face of an increasingly inhospitable climate. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment—by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth’s survival, and in four illuminating parts, Proulx documents their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit.In this latest effort Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Proulx stylizes herself as basic researcher of sorts. Her short book “started out as a personal essay to help [her] understand the wetlands that are so intimately tied to the climate crisis … [but] the literature is massive and [she] had to narrow down the focus to those special wetlands that form the peat that holds in the greenhouse gases CO2 and methane – the fens, bogs and swamps and how humans have interacted with them over the centuries.” An accomplished storyteller, she strives to convey to readers the application – the importance – of her research efforts. The entire city was once swampland, as was much of Southeast Michigan. The glaciers that carved the land and melted to make the Great Lakes and the thousands of lakes in Michigan left behind waterlogged land. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of intellectual laziness at work here too. For example: "a global economy that seeks to convert CO2 into money as fast as possible" should say "hydrocarbons," not CO2. Niggling? Perhaps, but this is central to her argument and this is a really short book, so should be better edited. I came away from that wetland sharing my mother’s pleasure in it as a place of value but spent years learning that if your delight is in contemplating landscapes and wild places the sweetness will be laced with ever-sharpening pain.”