Affection, Attraction and Aversion: Climate and Cultural Crises in “The Ice People” by Maggie Gee

Saggi/Essays32Issue 20–Fall/Winter2022IperstoriaIlenia Vittoria CasmiriAffection, Attraction, and AversionClimate and Cultural Crises in The Ice People by Maggie Gee AbstractThemulti-faceted nature ofthe climate crisis inThe Ice People(1998) by Maggie Gee is examined from an interdisciplinaryperspective aimed at highlightingways in which the joint effort of the humanities and the sciences canachieve effective environmental communication and audience engagement.An ecocritical reading of the novel incorporatesthe “BiophiliaHypothesis” (1993), a set of values through which Edward O. Wilson and Stephen Kellert have articulatedgenetic explanations tohistorical or emergent cultural patterns. Biophilic and biophobic values shed light onhow humans affiliate to the other-than-human. Throughout the fictional apocalypse, biophobic valuessuch as Aversion reveal the fracture between human beings and other specieswhileAttraction, Affection, and other biophilic values are exploited for biophobic reasons.The values supporting our innate affiliation to nature can be identified, decoded, deconstructed, and consciously implemented to foster a novel cultural climate able to avert the climate apocalypse.