Check out this cli-fi course blog at Temple University. They are reading a much different set of texts than we are (just goes to show how capacious this new literary genre has become), but I’m sure they are interested in many of the same questions about literature, climate change, ethics, etc. If you have a few minutes, I’d recommend taking a look.
Day: January 30, 2015
Final Project Idea
So, right now, I have a pretty good idea for my final project for this class. I’m gonna propose my story idea by writing the first chapter of a possible cli-fi novel. Hopefully there isn’t too much of a limit to what I can write. I still need to do the close-reading analysis for the actual chapter. However, I could use some help with some details for the plot and how to weave certain elements of the story together. That is why I am asking for help from my fellow classmates.
The Greater Good
“Which is worse: if we all die, or if only some of us die?” – Kish
Many of the stories we have read over the past couple weeks have dealt with humanity living in a post-climate change world and depict how that world changes them. One of the most compelling aspects of these stories is how the characters deal with ethics and morals. I think The Weatherman by Holly Howitt is a perfect depiction of how humanity will be forced to make very tough and seemingly unethical decisions in order to keep the population alive. One of my favorite quotes that deals with this dilemma is said by Kish, the narrator’s boss, when he explains, “You know that we control the weather here because if we didn’t, we would starve…we control the weather because we have to, else we’d have no food, no chance of survival…Which is worse: if we all die, or if only some of us die?
For The Greater Good
After reading Holly Hewitt’s short story The Weatherman, I began thinking more and more about how climate change on Earth will affect third world countries. Living in North America, it is quite obvious that we are responsible for a fair portion of the global warming that our world is experiencing. That being said, I would also argue that a fair number of American’s don’t know the full effects that global warming can have, and therefore aren’t planning on changing their lifestyles anytime soon. Consequently, climate change will get worse, and it will have an immediate effect on third world countries. Contine reading
Climate Change Ethical Issues in “The Weatherman”
The short story “The Weatherman”, caused me to think of the blog we read about climate change ethics. One specific question from the blog that related really well to “The Weatherman” was the question that asked, “Does the adaptation effort privilege the wealthy and powerful, at unjustified cost to the poor and dispossessed?” (Moore 4). This question completely applies to “The Weatherman” because the only people who benefit from the weather being controlled are the Green people. However, the sandtowners do not receive the same benefits from the weather being controlled as the Green people do.
In the story Marly claims, “You should’ve seen them! They were filthy, starving. Half dead. And here we are, us fat Green people, getting everything we want and destroying everyone else” (Howitt 136). This statement relates completely to Moore’s third question on her blog post because the weather being controlled by the Green people is only privileging the Green people, while causing the sandtowners harm. Some of the Green people, like the couple in the story, feel bad for the sandtowners because they know that what they are doing is wrong, but they also know that in order to survive they have to control the weather.
The Not So Great Barrier Reef
After reading An Athabasca Story and viewing the photo essay on the Alberta Tar Sands I was shocked at what I read. An Athabasca Story is an actual reality because up in Canada these tar sands are dug up and cleaned out until it is just bitumen. The production of extracting bitumen from these sands produces 3-4 times more green house gas emissions than regular oil. The smell of this process is horrendous as well, even An Athabasca Story mentions how horrific the smell is, “And the smell! It was worse than his most sulfurous farts, the ones he got when he ate moose guts and antlers. It was like being trapped in a bag with something dead” (Cariou 70). But upon learning about these tar sands I thought, how much is the emission of these carbon and green house gases really affecting the rest of the globe?
One large and important part of the world is being affected by all the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is deteriorating at a surprisingly quick pace. The article Top 10 Places Already Affected By Climate Change discusses how the oceans have absorbed a third of the gases produced by the industrial revolution. Since the oceans have absorbed these gases the water has completely shifted the pH scale and the sea animals are able to feel these affects. Ocean water is becoming warmer and the coral reefs are being bleached and starting to die off. Once the coral starts dying off fish and other sea life will start to as well. And once fish start going a chain reaction will begin to occur. At what point will it be our time to die off?
The Pits of Despair?
In class, we talked about the tar pits in Canada. They are obviously terrible for the environment and they help Canada’s GDP immensely, but we didn’t talk about why they are so awful for the environment.
The tar pits excrete oil sands and create a barren wasteland of ugly earth that can be seen from space. The miners not only clear the areas of all life and green, but they destroy the water supply in the surrounding areas. A report about water usage in the mines said, “To produce one cubic metre (m3) of synthetic crude oil (SCO) (upgraded bitumen) in a mining operation requires about 2–4.5 m3 of water (net figures).” The oil sands mining company is currently allowed to divert 359 million m3 of water, more than two times the amount needed for the local city. This is a problem that changes not only the environment in a negative way, but it is hurting the locals in many ways.
The locals are not only unable to fish and hunt, as was mentioned in lecture, but their lively hoods are completely changed by the oil sand pits as well. They are forced to assimilate into the culture that the sands bring with it. That means that they get jobs mining the sand and in production. My question is; is it worth it? Is it worth the jobs? Their lives are completely changed by this monster that comes charging in and seems to destroy everything in its path.
While I might not agree with the politics necessarily, I thought that this was a very interesting video on the tar pits.
It made me think about all the things that they go through up there and how the big companies get away with a lot. It is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
A Moral Obligation to Act(?)
If someone were to ask me what the Tar Sands were prior to the class readings, I would have told them that I have no idea what they were. Unbeknownst to me, the Canadian Tar Sands are a 54,000 square mile area of what used to be lush Alberta Forrest, but is now the home of some of the dirtiest oil mining operations in the world. These lo mines are largely contributing to greenhouse gas emissions as well as the world’s climate change. Reading the articles and viewing the pictures on the Tar Sands were shocking to say the least. What was more shocking, however, was the fact that I, nor anyone I asked, knew anything about the Tar Sands or even knew what they were.
Can Children Handle the Topic of Climate Change?
After the past few weeks of talking about climate change, I have realized how important it is to write about it so that the world can see that this is a real thing and it is affecting us right now. This led me to think how we can educate the world better about climate change because the more people know about it, the easier it will be to change it. I started thinking about how it seems like most of the people that know about climate change are adults. This led me to think about whether or not we should educate young children about climate change. Contine reading
Questions we need to ask ourselves
As climate change persists, and we begin to understand more about the adaptation plans that have been developed we can see how individuals react to these plans and implement them into their daily routine. Yet there are so many questions still left unanswered, and so many minor holes in the details of these developed plans. Kathleen Dean Moore shines light to some of these questions that should concern us all. She firstly asks us what the Earth is asking of us, and although these adaptation plans seem to be directed solely to the well being of our planet earth and the bettering of it, there is still questioning left to be done.
The ethical questions she proses particularly interested me because it makes me think about the effects of climate change on not just myself but on the people that don’t have a say and aren’t able to speak for themselves. We are essentially making these elaborate and extremely costly plans that will further help us live in denial and alter the course climate change already has in store for us. But in doing so, we are turning a blind eye to the people in countries that have already been heavily affected by climate change but don’t have the resources and funds to slow down the course. We are making these plans because we see the damage our toll is taking on other countries, and we do not want such occurrences to happen to us. Therefore we are implementing million dollar plans, to further benefit ourselves but leave the unable to fend for themselves.
This problematic theme of natural selection is apparent in many of the readings we have also discussed. Although the readings are based in the future and have the setting of a world that has been drastically affected by climate change, it still is an overwhelming problem. For example, in The Weatherman the main character struggles with a dilemma of whether or not he should control the weather. In doing so he can help himself and his family or help the sandtowners who have no say in the weather and furthermore are helpless to their own fate. This brings along the moral question of: Is my life more valuable than someone else’s?
Although we have grown up in a world where we are taught to protect ourselves and our own, when does enough become enough? These stories are futuristic and one could argue that they are a stretch of the reality we could face, although this is true, it still shares a common theme that Moore questions. In order to help ourselves against preventing climate change, we are only thinking of ourselves. Yet I think we should make a plan that is effective for all, one that takes into consideration people who may not have many assets but those who have the willingness to make a change in a small way. In doing so all of these small efforts, could turn into a large-scale change in our universe.
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Spending a great deal on morality and ethics in class discussions recently, I wanted to look at the challenges we face with being green. Holly Howitt’s story The Weatherman, showed drastic measures of being green people. Within the story there was a strict class system along with strict orders for the green people to maintain perfection within the world (after previous generations ruined the climate.) The weather station was built to control everything from sunshine to rain by the press of a button. Even though this was beneficial to the greens, it was not to others. In the end the main character sacrifices himself to destroy the weather station and give everyone an equal chance. Was that really the moral thing to do? Was his decision going to help his family? Would it even help the world? Some of these questions got me to think deeply into ethics and morality within today’s climate change. Contine reading