OFNC Book Club Reads: The End of Eden by Adam Welz

Instead of ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming,’ South African naturalist and writer Adam Welz prefers the term ‘global weirding’. The ecological disaster of our times is both unprecedented and strange, a maddening demonstration of ‘the butterfly effect’ where snow melt in the Arctic changes the shorelines of West Africa.

In the OFNC Book Club Pick for February and March — The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown (Bloomsbury, 2023) — Welz is a reporter on the front lines of a terrible war. In his beautiful and devastating account of disappearing global biodiversity, he focusses on the perspectives of the non-human animal lives that are being disrupted and threatened.

In an interview from December 2023, Welz told NPR reporter Brian Mann, “Writing the book was extremely difficult … My curiosity is what’s pulled me through a lot of dark times.”

The End of Eden, while maybe not a feel-good read, is certainly a critical one. There is power in bearing witness. You’re familiar with the question of the tree falling in the forest and whether it makes a sound when no one is there to hear it. But what about the entire forest on the brink of collapse? If we don’t see it happening, how can we make a sound? And the specific sound I’m thinking of is that of a screaming, cacophonous multitude that absolutely insists on being heard…

The End of Eden will be the focus of the book club’s next meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 7 p.m. on Zoom. All OFNC members are welcome, whether you’ve finished the book or not (though please note that you must have an OFNC membership to join).

If you’d like to attend the meeting, please register in advance by following this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0BOQIIxDQ4ihrifNwySlDA

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We read nature-focussed non-fiction titles and meet roughly every two months online (via Zoom).