this subject will not go away

Kellie Gutman writes:

In an interview on the National Public Radio program "Living on Earth" (see transcript or download audio link), novelist Ian McEwan talks about his new comic novel, Solar. He compared the situation in the 'boot room' (blogged here) on board the Noorderlicht, during the 2005 Cape Farewell expedition, with the problems of climate change worldwide. This was the room where the artists took off their gear when returning to the ship, in order to keep ice and water out of their quarters:

... that boot room throughout the week was becoming more and more chaotic. I thought there's a huge discrepancy between the size of the boot room and the size of the earth, and the earth we want to organize when we can't even keep this boot room straight!

When asked if he thought climate change was a good field to explore in future novels, he said:

Well, I think so. I mean the problem is too extensive and I think the human ramifications are so extensive. This is one of those literally global issues that penetrates private lives. So I mean either it will come from me or it'll come from—there are plenty of us novelists around. But one way or another it will force its way into the novel. This subject will not go away, it will shape human destinies and novels are bound to reflect that.