For this project our goal was to create a short story that appeals to every emotion ranging from sad, intense, exciting, and leave readers with hope since the topic of global warming can be incredibly pessimistic. The outline of our story, “The Officials”, is based in the year 2028 from the perspective of a twenty year old girl who is traveling across the country with her two younger brothers. Since we know that global warming issues will start effecting us in our near future and we tend to believe that it won’t happen in our lifetime we made the story have conflicts occur sooner. We have severe weather changes occur along with lack of basic resources like water disappear earlier than the near future.

One aspect of global warming that stuck out to me specifically was the idea of regulations being made that restrict individuals basic rights. So the title of our story is the name of the people who are going around making families smaller (leaving the readers wondering where they take the people they take) so that they can “rebuild” the nation. With the limited resources left they have to choose who is worth surviving which creates emotional scenes throughout the story.

“These men, these hunters, they lurk at night just like they are creeping up on deer, and at a snap of a finger, shoot them down. But in this new world we are the helpless deer. We can run and hide for only so long.”

This is part of the story where our main goal is to appeal to the readers on a more emotional level where they can try really imagine what is going on. We want our story to be different than the typical running from a natural disaster and more about running from a corrupt government plan.

Throughout this term we have read many short stories and talked about how over time our world is going to run out of resources to support everyone. That there will be changes needed to be made whether that is changing our main source of energy from oil to water or other alternatives. What really has been sticking out to me is the idea of how regulations could potentially become tighter when it comes to how many children a women can have. Child regulation is already put into place in areas around the world that is condensed and over crowding, but is it necessarily a morally correct restriction? In “The Siphoners”, we see the elderly group being affected and targeted so that there are less people to have to support. It is clearly wrong to kill another human being based on how old they are, so is it okay to limit a woman from having a family because as a world we have encouraged global warming?

Now there are many perspectives to this that could be argued and I think the idea of having restrictions does help in efforts to save resources, but in my opinion, shouldn’t we be doing our best right now to change our ways so that we do not have to resort to restricting individuals rights?  Contine reading →

      We talk a lot in class about how global warming and climate change can affect our resources, our living styles, and the future of our planet. We lack in the area of what political actions are being taken towards this issue. What I mean by that is how our republicans react to global warming, along with democrats, and so on. Or if they are even reacting. Our nation relies on our people for decision making mostly, but at the end of the day our government are the ones who we need to put plans into action. We rely on them for change because of the power they have. In retrospect this can be seen as a negative and a positive aspect in our countries government. It brings the question to mind of how do we know we are in good hands and can trust they are putting our nations best interest at the top of the priority list. For example, we discussed the Keystone Pipeline that our government has had a lot of controversy over, when in my opinion, I feel like it is obvious we should not follow through with that plan. Why would we risk the chance of ruining water sources for states along with their untouched land? While also, adding more fossil fuels in our atmosphere. The main purpose to this pipeline is to transfer 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. When is enough, enough? I see this plan as almost selfish in the way that money is involved along with more damage to our land. That is one perspective to this plan, which protesters throughout our nation are trying to make clear to our government officials. The reason why I believe that this example strongly shows how our government has the power to make or break our nation is because the fact that there were mixed votes on the Keystone Pipeline from our government officials, makes me think we might not be in good hands. Contine reading →

Throughout this course we have been reading short fiction stories about how global warming and climate change can/has impacted, in many negative ways, the world we live in. These stories have created a picture in all our minds, or at least in mine, of what our society could turn into with how global warming can affect the way we live day by day. Not only has it created an image in mind, but also, has influenced questions like how would our world react to such change? How would we sustain life? How would people treat eachother in such a world of panic and fear?

In the short story, “Diary of an Interesting Year” by Helen Simpson, we got the chance to experience what it could be like in a women’s position through world apocalyptic type situations.  “If we run out of beans I think he might kill me for food,” the main character states(112). In the story people were being abused, fighting or bartering over little amounts of food, and worrying if their children were going to be in safe hands if something were to happened. Scientists and researches have already made the analysis that over time our worlds water supply, food supply, electrical systems, and so on, will be affected meaning our civilization will have to be able to adapt or start preventing. As we all have seen in movies where the world is coming to an end and people are setting stores on fire and rioting like all sense of humanity is all of a sudden gone, makes me wonder if this will actually be a reality. When people are afraid and feel the need to protect themselves and the ones they care about it is natural to worry about yourself before anyone else. Which is a scary thought because if global warming and climate change does impact us in ways that creates starvation, homelessness, sickness, and so on, do you think morals and values will still be amicable to our society?  Contine reading →