Have you ever noticed that we humans have a thing for shortening words?
Alexander becomes Alex, facsimile machine became a fax and a cellular telephone became a cell.
A genre of literature that deals with climate change has not been spared this treatment. Often called climate fiction, in many circles the genre’s name has simply been shortened to cli-fi.
I read one of the books in this genre last year: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was a fascinating imagining of what might happen in the next 50 years as the planet struggles with climate change.
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The novel is full of big, thought-provoking ideas, but I must admit I didn’t know what to think about one part of the book.
There’s a chapter where the author’s fictional humans decide to turn large swaths of the planet back to wildlife. Deer don’t get a lot of respect in this part of the book, being treated very much like rats with antlers.
Here’s an excerpt: “Those supposedly terrible wolves would now mostly be eating tick-infested crop-eating deer; it was the deer who were the pests, deer who devastate crop.”
At the time that I read this novel, it all seemed very unfair to the deer, but I’m wondering now how many prairie farmers would be in agreement.
It’s been quite a winter for the prairie deer population.
We had been hearing stories at The Western Producer of large herds causing problems on prairie farms, and when reporter Brian Cross decided to take a look, he found farmers beside themselves as they dealt with what can best be described as farm invasions.
They talked to Brian about dozens of deer congregating in their yards, destroying trees, damaging property and stinking up the place with their feces and urine.
One farmer told Brian he estimates that there are 500 deer within 1.5 kilometres of his place.
In case you missed Brian’s story, you can find it here.
I recently witnessed the situation first-hand during a drive to Regina from Saskatoon, when I encountered the largest herd of deer that I have ever seen.
It might not yet be time to unleash the wolves, but it could be getting close.
