Climate Change In Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior

In Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, Kingsolver tackles the issues of climate change with change in migration pattern of monarch butterflies, which leads to these butterflies to land in a small town in rural Tennessee. Dellarobbia Turnbow, a 28-year-old struggling mom-of-2 living in this small town was on a hike to the top of the mountain to have an affair with a telephone repairman. Half way up the mountain she sees a miraculous display of nature in front of her, but little did she realize that there were millions of Monarch butterflies in front of her which would bring out certain people’s perspectives on these Monarch butterflies. One character that gives his perspective on these butterflies is Leighton Atkins, an environmental activist …show more content…
Atkins sustainability pledge was “… a list of things you promise to do to lower your carbon footprint. That means to use less fossil fuel. To relieve the damage of carbon emissions to the planet” (326). Atkins intentions with the sustainability pledge are good because he wants people to respect and help maintain the environment around them and keep it healthy by lowering their carbon footprint. Obviously, he sees a problem within the environment, especially climate change, with the migration of butterflies landing in Tennessee and not in …show more content…
Atkins starts by reading out his first category which is “Food and Drinks” and says ““Number one. Bring your own Tupperware to a restaurant for leftovers, as often as possible”. Dellarobbia says,” I’ve not eaten at a restaurant in over two years” (327). This begins to become a common theme with most of Atkins pledges. So many of his pledges for trying to reduce carbon emissions were just inapplicable to Dellarobia’s life due to the fact that she lack disposable income, like flying less and using Craigslist because she didn’t have a computer. This showed that even though she wanted to help with this problem of climate change and global warming, it brought out a bigger problem due to her and others not having the money to help. This also showed that there is much more to just raising awareness and making people sign a pledge to help the environment. This conveyed how such a huge issue on a global scale can become too big for an individual to deal with and how all the stresses of living – paying the mortgage, raising children, keeping a marriage from falling apart – can push these issues to the back of your mind until they land on your very