Ian McEwan is working on a new novel "about climate change". Does literary fiction find it hard to get to grips with "our pressing problem".

Ian McEwan's next major piece of work will be about climate change. He's talked about it a few times in interviews - how difficult it is for a novelist to encounter a "virtuous" subject, but the work is, apparently, well on the way now. The subject is obviously on his mind. In this week's Guardian G2 McEwan wrote a major piece about the scale of the task President Elect Obama faces, after Bush's post-Kyoto head-in-sand years. It resonates with quiet fury at the wasted years:

In 2006, and even more in 2007, the shrinking of the summer ice in the Arctic exceeded the gloomiest predictions. Data from the past year, during an economic downturn, show CO2 levels rising as fast as ever. It is doubtful whether there is yet a single recorded instance of a carbon-producing power station being taken out of commission to make way for a clean energy installation.

Much of the credit for McEwan's stance must go to David Buckland of the Cape Farewell Project, who took McEwan out to the Arctic in 2005 to let him see for himself what was happening at the pointy end of climate change, and who introduced him to some of the climate scientists working on Arctic projects [Buckland and McEwan pictured right]. Ian McEwan has since joined the board of Cape Farewell. It has been a fine example of what the synergy of arts, science and activism can achieve.

But McEwan's desire to tackle what is undoubtedly a difficult topic begs the question. How come there is so little fiction published about what McEwan rightly identifies as "our pressing problem, underpinning all others"?