If nature gets really ticked off at humanity as a result of the damage to the Gulf Coast from the oil spill, in addition to other instances of environmental destruction, I wonder if the Green Man as a symbol of nature will rise in the form depicted in this illustration. Typically the Green Man is depicted in more benign ways in architecture, but this illustration may be closer to the mark in terms of the symbol interacting with contemporary issues.
This illustration is by John Picacio from the cover of Age of Misrule. See my interview with Gary Varner for more information on the Green Man.
This sounds like an interesting topic (I myself have been wondering what the ultimate fallout of environmental degradation might be), but I’m not clear about the concept of the ‘green man’. Is this some sort of nature deity or a concept like the Gaia hypothesis or what?
The Green Man is a symbolic representation of nature found in many cultures and produced through drawing, sculpture, and architecture. See my previous interview with Gary Varner on gargoyles, grotesques and Green Men for a little more information on it. I found the representation of the Green Man that accompanied this post of interest because it is very different from the more benign figures and shows a more robust and threatening image of nature that I think figures into our debates over the environment.