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authorJoe Carstairs <me@joeac.net>2026-07-18 15:19:26 +0100
committerJoe Carstairs <me@joeac.net>2026-07-18 15:19:26 +0100
commite180de4e44e5cdd28701fdd2d327bdbb0b4663c8 (patch)
tree602ff6d7d8e0f5ae1183454fd3a5365804184077
parent2cbe298c9013abdcbb723e4f9638d47b3af51bff (diff)
chp2: fix para linking apoc -> catastrophe
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@@ -61,10 +61,20 @@ facing with courage her grief and her own inevitable death. Even a talented
writer such as Foster, intentionally seeking to break new imaginative ground for
conceptualising green crises, seems unable to escape the motif of catastrophe.
-Famously, the Apocalypse of St John prominently features cataclysmic events,
-beginning with the opening of the first of the seven seals in chapter 6,
-unleashing the notorious 'Four Horsemen.' Catastrophe can be considered an
-apocalyptic literary feature. \[NEEDS MORE WORK\]
+The word 'apocalypse' is sometimes used as if to stand for 'catastrophe.'
+Of course, the Apocalypse of St John has a great deal in common with the concept
+of a geological catastrophe. Cosmos-scale world-changing events destroy much of
+the existing world order and its life-sustaining powers: the heavens are
+rolled up like a scroll, the sun and moon are darkened, water turns to blood,
+fire rains down from above. In its place, a new world order is established,
+which enables different forms of life. Al Gore, in his influential global
+warming campaign film, _An Inconvenient Truth_, was (and remains) typical in the
+way he describes the consequences of certain floods and wildfires as 'like a
+nature hike through the Book of Revelations' [@inconvenient-truth]. In the next
+chapter, I will argue that reducing apocalypse to mere catastrophe misses out
+important features of apocalyptic language as exemplified by St John, but for
+now it is worth noting that some rhetors use allusions to the Apocalypse in order
+to function as a catastrophic symbol.
Recently, academics examining green rhetoric have raised concerns with this
catastrophism.