I want to first talk about in this blog entry what Bill McKibben was addressing in the introduction of Im With the Bears. He talked about why it is important to write about climate change. I found it very interesting how he brought up the idea that we need to write about climate change so that people feel more urgent about it. A lot of our people are still unaware about what is happening to our world and what we have to do with it. (To be honest I recently became aware about climate change and how much of an impact we could have on it.) So, by writing these fictional stories people can imagine what our world will be like eventually because of climate change. People are not taking it seriously now because climate change is not affecting them in the present. By reading these stories it brings climate change to reality. They can start to see the long term effects that climate change can have on our world. People can hear facts about climate change all day long but they will actually start to listen when you bring real life situations and emotions that they can understand.
While I agree that our world today is not taking climate change seriously and should be informed on what our future will look like if we do not change; so far with all of the stories we have read, they have all been very pessimistic and scary. I wonder if using these stories as scare tactics is the only way to get people to notice that climate change is important. To be honest, when I read stories like Diary of an Interesting Year by Helen Simpson and see movies like 2012, it makes me terrified of what our future holds. Although this fear is effective in making me think about climate change it gives me no hope and leads me to believe that our world will ends without our control and we will all end up being either miserable, sick, poor, or dead. It seems that we could approach this in a different way. By now we have already caused lasting effects on this world so what if we started to write stories that would uplift the audience and cause them to want to help the world. What if we wrote a story about the effects of climate change and our world getting through it and persevering. In my opinion, when you leave an audience stripped of their hope it does not motivate them to want to change their ways and stop climate change. Even if it does it gives them no place to go afterwards. We need to start writing things that can spark solution. Although I wonder if my thoughts our too naive. Maybe saying that we can inspire the audience through wanting to help our world just by the kindness and hopefulness in our heart will never happen. Do you think that scaring the audience will end up helping the fight against climate change? Or are there other ways to approach this such as providing a solution or giving hope to the audience?
I agree that most of the stories on climate change have been scare tactics and usually end in destruction. If people read them, they are aware but now don’t know how to go about helping. Sometimes people need to have a wakeup call so I agree that the frightening scenarios should be said but at the same time, I also think that there should be at least some fairytale endings to help motivate a change.
I think you bring up a really good point of if the “scare tactic” will work in creating a positive change. I think that usually, it isn’t effective, but in a situation as important and immediate as climate change, it could work. It seems that most people either don’t understand climate change or don’t grasp the severity of it, so maybe a “scare tactic” like you and McKibben suggest will be effective. I know it worked for me. But in addition to a “scare tactic” story, resources for ways to create positive change would be beneficial too. That way, we want to create a positive change and we have ways to go about doing so.
I agree that making more people aware of what is occurring with global warming and climate change through writing would be very affective. The only problem that I could see interfering or maybe reducing how many people see these writings is when people hear about something with a lot of fear attached to it, they avoid it. People in society do not like facing problems head on which is maybe why this issue is continuing on with many people still unaware of the seriousness of global warming. At the same time “scare tactics” can have positive affects on readers which could potentially help better this issue at hand.
I agree with you about the negativity of these stories. They make me upset and they do not motivate me to want to help with the problem. They leave me feeling like there is no hope and that there is nothing we can do to change global warming. I think some more positive stories about the possible future of global warming would really inspire people to want to try and help.
I agree with most of what you are saying in your post. I really liked your point about the stories being scare tactics. I really believe that these stories really are scare tactics and that these authors are trying to use these stories to make people aware about what is happening to our planet. These issues need to be addressed and people need to these stories seriously and realize that what is happening to our planet is because of us. People need to be aware that Global Warming is happening right now.
I think that using a scare tactic could help people realize that global warming is a really big issue. I feel like this might be the most effective way to help people recognize how serious global warming is because these stories will really catch the attention of an audience rather than a boring news segment of just facts. However is these exaggerated stories seem too unrealistic people probably won’t believe that any of these global warming impacts could actually happen.
This is a really interesting discussion about the role of fear in getting people to care, or even motivating people to take positive actions. I’m curious what you all think about the story “The Tamarisk Hunter” in this context. To me at least, it doesn’t seem like a scary story, nor does it seem too exaggerated, especially considering what has been happening to California and the Southwest in recent years in terms of drought and water usage. So perhaps that particular story isn’t about scaring people with doomsday scenarios but rather illuminating the injustices that might occur (like some people /populations being denied water) or are already occurring because of climate change? Maybe the stories that we’re reading aren’t just about fear, but also about empathy. Did any of you find yourselves empathizing with characters from the stories we’ve read?
I agree that more positive stories, or at least stories that include positive sub-plots, could do a lot of good! Maybe that’s something you could consider for your final projects.