Environment

• Atwood is the daughter of an entomologist and spent much of her childhood in the Canadian backwoods, making her keen on protecting the environment and an active member of the green party of Canada.
• Her 2009 novel The Year of the Flood is a dystopian vision of the end of the world.
• The novel depicts a frustrated group of 'green believes' with dedicated hopes to preserve plants and bee and live in an ecologically sustainable way.
• The novel explores the damage brought to the environment by humans, describing the drastic effects of pollution.
• In chapter 19 of the novel, Atwood describes the possible reasons for birth defects involving 'chemicals, rays, radiations' and 'toxic molecules'.
• Professor Peixoto reminds his audience in the novel that still-births, miscarriages, and genetic deformities were widespread and, on the increase, and this trend has been linked to the various nuclear-plant accidents and leakages from chemical and biological warfare stockpiles.
• Offred, the protagonist of the novel, goes shopping in chapter 27 and describes other issues brought about by human interference.
• Offred suggests that all types of fish may be extinct, like the whales.
• While whales are currently not extinct, they are under threat.
• There is an international moratorium on commercial whaling, but some countries, Norway, Iceland, Japan, refuse to implement it.
• Many species of animal have already become extinct in recent times, with scientists continuing to debate how much of this is due to human activity and climate change.