Refugees, Longing for Shade: The Soothing, Unsettling Power of Trees

As our warming planet heats and burns, shade—that refuge from the sun—becomes increasingly precious, and rare. The refuge we find below the canopy of trees is soothing, essential, and yet also threatened. We find ourselves facing a world that is more difficult for arboreal survival, and so for our own. In conversation with trees—perhaps the paradigmatic shade provider—this paper explores the unsettling, but also soothing, powers of shade (and of the trees who provide it). In conversation with anthropologists, and philosophers like Michael Marder, this paper invokes the chthonic dimensions of shade that provides refuge for those who’ve been forced to migrate too far from their world of plants.