Author: abbyk

The Unofficials

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The short story that Brooke Tasker and I wrote takes place in 2028. It is called The Unofficials and is centered on a world where there is a limit on how many children a family can have because of lack of resources. We decided to write a story with this as the main idea because it is unique in comparison to the other stories that we read throughout the quarter. Most of them focused on some sort of disaster and while our story includes issues due to climate change, the main effect global warming has on the story is causing a huge lack of resources resulting in a limit of how many children a family is able to have. This is a very concerning and relatable issue because it will encourage people to think about their own lives in families if they were put in that situation

We decided to write the story in first person and in the format of a journal in order to try and connect to the audience more. In past readings this quarter, many of the people in our class felt that the stories written this way had a much greater emotional impact and that was the effect that we were trying to achieve. Climate change fiction is responsible for getting through to peoples emotions to get them to want to help the cause of climate change and we wanted our story to be an example of this in both the way it was written and the storyline itself.

““The Officials” are what they are called, but in simpler terms they are the executors. These men, these hunters, they lurk at night just like they are creeping up on deer, and at a snap of a finger, take them down. But in this new world we are the helpless deer.”

The quote above is just a small portion of the story that captures the essence of the situation these “Unofficials” are in.

Fact or Fiction

abbyk 4 Comments

The question of whether or not fiction will influence how people react to climate change is one we have discussed often throughout the quarter. People question whether or not a completely fictional story could really change people’s minds about an argument that is solely based on the facts. My personal opinion is that fiction could definitely have an effect on how people react to climate change. There are many things that going into making and effective argument, factual evidence definitely plays a huge part in any argument, it is the foundation and without it, no argument can be properly supported. While logic and facts are very important, a persons emotional connection can also have a large effect on how they respond to an argument. When people are informed about climate change, most of the time it is with information that is all fact. Fact is important, but most people are not able to connect with numbers, facts, and statistics. Contine reading →

A Positive Outlook

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A reoccurring topic that we have discussed in class is the fact that most climate change stories that we read and most facts that come up about climate change are very negative. While the facts may predict a very negative impact on the future, we must realize that if people begin to help now, the damage on the world could be decreased. One of the main issues with getting people to help is the fact that a lot of people here all of these depressing facts about climate change and think that there is no way to prevent it from happening. While there are natural changes on the planet throughout the years, the extremely negative side effects of global warming could be stopped or helped if people begin to help. While the short stories we have read in class do help people connect emotionally with the problem, I do not think that they help in this aspect. Most of them show little hope for the future and instead just show the negative effects and how people cope with them. I think the story of “IDP: 2043” did a good job of showing both the effects and the solutions to climate change. Contine reading →

Effects of Narrative Discourse

abbyk 2 Comments

I find narrative discourse to be very interesting and very important to any story told. While it may seem like it does not have that much effect on the story I think it has more impact than anybody realizes. As we discussed in class, narrative discourse is the manner in which a story is told. This can include style, diction, syntax and vocabulary. Although sometimes we do not realize it as we are reading stories, the narrative discourse of the story completely changes the effect it has on the reader. The stories we have read thus far are a great example of this.

The one that stuck out to me the most as having a unique narrative discourse was the Diary of an Interesting Year. This story was told in a very casual, personal way. Writing the story as a diary made it a lot easier for the audience to connect with the author and the story they were telling. If this story had not been told in the first person or had not been written in short, choppy sentences, it would have seemed a lot less realistic and would not have gotten the point across in the same way. While the actual events in the story have a huge emotional impact on the reader, the manner in which it is told also makes a huge contribution to the story. I know a lot of the kids in our class really connected with this story and it really helped all of us understand the personal effects climate change could have on all of us. The storyline itself cannot get all the credit for this; the narrative discourse combined with the story helped to get the point of the story across.   Contine reading →

An Emotional Impact

abbyk 8 Comments

I think one of the main issues with climate change is that people do not acknowledge it or recognize it as a problem. I think this could be a result of the way people are informed about global warming. As I was able to see, a lot of the information that is presented about climate change is fact and is presented as fact. Our climate change introduction book and the global weirding website are an example of this. While these were both very helpful in finding out information and learning more about the effects of global warming, if I was not taking a class about climate change or if I did not have interest in the topic, I probably would not have been very interested in the factual evidence that both of these sources present. I think this is a problem that a lot of people have when they are told about global warming, they do not connect with the information.

On the other hand, the stories not only tell of what could happen but they introduce a whole new way to learn about climate change, through emotion. As I read the stories from I’m With the Bears, I could not help but begin to be more concerned about the issue of climate change. While the facts have always worried me just like they do most people, I was able to see the problem in a completely new light. Although these stories are just scenarios that could happen, they showed the effects that climate change could have on people and that was what made me truly worry. Reading the Diary of an Interesting Year took the issue to a whole new level. This woman seemed to have lost all hope. She just accepted every bad thing that happened to her without question or emotion. The fact that climate change could bring people to that point is a thought that had never crossed my mind before. This story not only showed what could happen but also allowed the reader to connect emotionally which is something that is hard to do with this topic in some cases. Most people realize the effects that climate change will have on the environment but do not necessarily recognize how much it will affect them on every level. This story was able to get both points across.

Contine reading →