IN THE spirit of Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane鈥檚 book of vanishing terms for natural phenomena, in our Christmas and New Year Special we asked you to help shape the direction of nature writing. The best three entries would win a copy of the book.
Roy Smith went straight for the jugular with guardians of the countryside, which he reserves for all those 鈥渨ho have managed the massive and sustained destruction of habitats and biodiversity in Britain over the last 70 years鈥�. Claire McMillan redefined regression to the mean as 鈥渟omeone reverting to selfish behaviours after a burst of recycling鈥�.
Other favourites include Tim Metcalf, who divides extinction events into phases (including a particularly creepy-sounding verminal phase); Martin Sahl茅n, who ends the climate-change blame game with his notion of cosponsibility; David Bassett for chesticles (don鈥檛 ask); and James Parr for the elegiac Great Vanishing.
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Our three winners are Christina Jenke, for saltscape (the land exposed by a shrinking inner sea), Giles Watson for ghostroost (a seabird nesting-area after a die-off) and Phoebe Beedell for langing, which refers to leaves that haven鈥檛 dropped as normal during the winter. 鈥淭he magnolia is langing on,鈥� Phoebe writes. 鈥淚鈥檓 worried it will be exhausted by springtime.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎n Anthropocene glossary鈥�
