Beacons
Stories for our not so distant future
Never before have we been so uncertain about what the following years, decades and centuries might bring. From Joanne Harris' powerful vision of a near future where venturing outside becomes a dangerous habit, to Nick Haye’s beautifully illustrated tale of the bond between man and nature. Here, our authors have created provocative, funny, sometimes satirical, and at times deeply moving stories that bring an immediate reality to the problems at hand.
Royalties from this book will go to the charity Stop Climate Chaos, the UK's largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest communities.
Table of Contents
Introduction – Gregory Norminton
Part One: Looking In The Mirror
A is for Acid Rain, B is for Bee – Joanne Harris
Mother Moon's Job – Liz Jensen
Goodbye Jimmy – Alasdair Gray
Like Canute – Clare Dudman
We’re All Gonna Have the Blues – Rodge Glass
Meat – A .L. Kennedy
The Great Consumer – Adam Marek
Part Two: A Strand in the Web
What is Left to See? – James Miller
Visitation – Jem Poster
The Gloop – Toby Litt
Fittest – Janice Galloway
The Red Waste – Tom Bullough
The Weatherman – Holly Howitt
Take Notice – Adam Thorpe
Part Three: Go Light
Leaving Frideswide – David Constantine
Holiday in Iceland – Maria McCann
The Possession of Lachlan Lubanach – Nick Hayes
Almost Visible Cities – Gregory Norminton
Hospital Field – Siân Melangell Dafydd
Earthship – Lawrence Norfolk
The Spiral Staircase – Jay Griffiths
About Stop Climate Chaos
Stop Climate Chaos is the UK's largest group of people dedicated to taking action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest communities. Their combined supporter base of more than eleven million people spans over a hundred organizations, from environment and development charities to unions, faith, community, and women's groups. Together they demand practical action by the UK to keep global warming as far as possible below the 2 degrees C danger threshold.
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is the largest coalition ever formed in the country, representing all the main faith groups, humanitarian agencies, and environment charities, along with unions, student and community groups and a host of other partners. It was central in lobbying for the Scottish Climate Change Act, the best in the world today (with a forty-two per cent reduction target by 2020), and went on to produce a forty-two per cent proof whisky called 'twenty, twenty', which was distributed to the G20 finance ministers, world leaders, and contacts at Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban, and continues to be used to promote the example that we all hope other countries will adopt. John Swinney MSP, cabinet secretary for infrastructure, said on the day the Climate Change Act was passed:
"Many of the non-governmental organizations with whom we have been familiar over the ten short years of this parliament have worked together under the Stop Climate Chaos banner to send to parliament and the people of this country a coherent and co-ordinated message that we should consider and, frankly, be inspired by."
