Climate relativist challenges the new orthodoxy
The gigantic egg-shaped auditorium of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing reminded Salomon Kroonenberg of the Finnish folk epic Kalevala, about the genesis of the Earth. Just as watching sulfur spewing out of the ground in coal mining districts in Northwest China almost 16 years ago, reminded him of etchings illustrating Dante's vision of hell in the classic 14th-century Italian epic Divina Commedia.
"Dante was the first writer to imagine hell in 24 layers," says Kroonenberg, the only geologist and book-fair virgin in a team of 25-odd Dutch writers at Beijing International Book Fair 2011.
"Similarly, my book Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur (2011) is laid out in 24 chapters, each corresponding to Dante's theme in the original. For instance, one of the circles in Dante's hell is about greed. In my book, the chapter headlined Greed is about digging the earth for gold."
