I am admittedly worried about this final project. Though it is reassuring that we will not be graded on the quality of our creative work, I am still daunted by the fact that I have never tried to write or produce writing in this capacity. I have a somewhat irrational fear of writer’s block, which could arguably be considered a block in itself. I worry about embarking on a project or assignment and coming to a standstill, forcing me to abandon my previous work and scramble to find a new lens through which to view the assignment. I find myself thinking about an assignment until I can envision the idea fully fleshed out to avoid this problematic fear. This is limiting though, because my brainstorming is often cut short as I fail to allow myself to work through an idea until it is no longer half-baked. In light of these somewhat irrational fears, I have finally settled on an idea that I think I will be able to communicate effectively for the final project.
Month: February 2015
The Power of Video
For the majority of this course, I have only thought about climate change through the eyes of the short stories, graphic novels, and eventual novel that we read. More recently, I have started to discover some of the other mediums that “illuminate” the problem of climate change which don’t have to do with books or short stories. I have begun watching documentaries and short videos about climate change and the dramatic effects that it has had on the world already. One of my favorites is a short video narrated by Morgan Freeman. Contine reading
Pre-Movie Lectures on the Climate
This past weekend I went to the movies with my aunt, uncle, and two younger cousins. We usually get together once a month to catch up and see how everything has been going. They asked me the general questions about how everything was going, how school was, and if anything interesting had taken place and while we are walking into the movies we all notice how sunny it is. My uncle proceeds to say, “Wow, the weather is really nice today and has been really nice all week. Hopefully it stays this way for a while.” We all agree with him, but then suddenly, I remember WHY the weather is so nice right now. WHY the sun could possibly be out at the end of February (which in previous years has not been so “nice”).
The answer, of course, is climate change. I, then decided to share what I have learned from class and their reactions were not very surprising. None of them had heard of climate change prior to my little spiel. I elaborated and told them that climate change is taking place at a more rapid rate due to emissions of greenhouse gases which essentially are produced from burning fossil fuels and all of this is mainly a result of humans and how we overuse and abuse our current resources. I further explained that there are other factors that add to the overall issue of climate change. While I was speaking, I could tell from their wandering eyes, and drifting off to another planet look that I still had not made an impact on them and that they did not take what I was saying seriously so I proceeded to discuss some of the repercussions.
As I said the words “major hurricanes”, “frequent droughts”, “earthquakes”, and “unpredictable weather patterns”, I could tell that I finally sparked a few nerves of interest. I added to this by telling them that these natural disasters may not seem like a big deal right now, but they in fact, can and most likely will turn out to be a very serious issue due to their unpredictability and severity as time goes on. My aunt and uncle were very impressed with what I conveyed to them and went on to say that they could tell I felt very strongly about this issue. I went on to share some of the course readings we did during the duration of the term such as, I’m With The Bears, Odds Against Tomorrow, IDP, and a few other short stories that I thought they might want to check out. By the end of my mini lecture on climate change, not only was my family aware of this issue, but my aunt was even willing to volunteer to help make a change. I added that doing small things like: recycling, conserving energy by unplugging idle power cords, riding a bike or walking instead of driving, can make a big difference. Contine reading
A World Full Of Regulations
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
Hurricane Tammy
In the first take home quiz the first question asked “what do you think is an important or interesting feature to narrative discourse” this allowed me to think about the figurative language. Figurative language was defined in class as language used in an unusual way; usually when language goes beyond the literal meaning or departs from the usual order of words. In the novel Odds Against Tomorrow the author Nathaniel Rich uses an excessive amount of imagery to describe how different tragedies will strike the world. For instance, when Mitchell is talking about the possible situations his audience is often scared by the amount of imagery and detail. Mitchell says,
“Chinese sleeper agents are activated in every major U.S. city. Cyberattacks strain the electrical grid, checkeboarding it. Kidnappings, corruption, political murders begin to occur. Slowly at first, then more frequently. Why? No one knows. Policemen are assassinated by the dozen. Prominent journalists begin to vanish. The managing partner for your firm is going out for his early morning swim at his home on Long Island when a band of Chinese agents stun him with a taser and throw him into the back of an armored truck. Your managing partner wakes up in a dungeon, four levels below Canal Street, his wrists cinched to his ankles, and an apple in his mouth” (Rich 59-60).
Where do you stand?
It is likely that everyone has heard of the flight or fight mechanism, but is the same knowledge known about the incredulity response? What many claim to be the opposite of the fight or flight mechanism, the incredulity response was something that was brought to my attention in the reading. While floating through Grand Central Station, Mitchell encounters one of the most horrific sights in the novel. “The tunnel between the twin marble staircase was like a large greedy mouth drinking the water. But clogging that mouth and against the bottom of the stairs were bodies.” (173). Nathaniel Rich presents a very gruesome image that allows one to easily imagine and put to scale the amount of destruction that took place due to Hurricane Tammy. What really struck me about this passage wasn’t this image however, it is what Mitchell thinks to himself about the groups of people caught up in this catastrophe.
Where did they go?
I have teamed up with three other people from the class for the final project. We are also writing a children’s book but ours has a different approach on how the message of climate change will be portrayed. We came up with the idea that a group of kids are going on a trip to the zoo. They are eager to see the animals but soon realize that majority of the cages are empty and the animals are gone. Each person in our group will focus on one animal to write and illustrate on. The layout with be similar to IDP:2043 where there will be a continuous story line but each page will have its own unique style.
I chose research sea turtles for my portion of the final project. I lived on the beach in Florida for around 10 years so I am familiar with sea turtles and their habitat. I learned that the seven existing species of marine turtles are critically endangered. Sea turtles can produce around 100 eggs but very few survive, mostly due to natural causes. While living in Florida, I learned that when baby sea turtles hatch, they migrate towards light-usually the moon light. Sometimes, the babies take street lamps as the natural light and therefore never make it towards the ocean. “Most marine turtle species spend much of their lives in continental shelf waters. Males do not leave the sea and females only come ashore to lay their eggs on sandy beaches during the appropriate season. During the nesting season, mature males and females migrate from feeding grounds and mate near the nesting beach.” In one of the smaller discussion groups in class, the rising of sea levels was mentioned. If sea turtles are not able to reach the sand to lay eggs, then the entire species will become extinct.
In a few articles we have read on adaptation, building sea walls to protect from flooding was one of the top choices to prepare for the future climate. Sea walls “change long-shore drift patterns and can cause erosion or destruction of entire beach sections” therefore making it harder for the sea turtles to rest upon shore. Also, the feeding habitats for turtles such as coral reefs are being destroyed by “sedimentation, insensitive tourist development, destructive fishing techniques and climate change.”
The main influence that climate change has on the life of sea turtles is that “increase in global temperatures could change the proportion of female and male turtle hatchlings and could result in marine turtle populations becoming unstable.” With sea turtles, the outside temperature controls the sex of the egg. For example, the colder temperatures produce male offspring, while females tend to hatch in warmer weather. If the temperatures continue to fluctuate, one sex may possibly overpower the other making it difficult to reproduce.
The book will close with the zookeeper telling the students why most of the animals are gone thus introducing climate change and global warming to the reader.
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/marine_turtles/
Caught In A Vortex
This month, it’s not unusual to wakeup to sunshine creeping through your blinds in Eugene, OR. We have lucked out and had little to no rain (except for today), compared to our usual rainy winters. Therefore, it’s hard for us to remember that just last year, Eugene was covered in snow for a solid week in February. Snow rarely falls in Eugene, so lots of people enjoyed the surprise until the rain came and froze the streets. The Polar Vortex, that Eugene and many other cities were caught in, caused this crazy weather pattern. If you’re pondering whether this is a side affect of global warming, you are correct.
You might be wondering what the Polar Vortex even is, so here is some general information. According to the blog post, What Is This “Polar Vortex” That Is Freezing the U.S.?, the Polar Vortex is “a prevailing wind pattern that circles the Arctic, flowing from west to east all the way around the Earth.” It captures and holds extremely cold air above the North Pole; however, the vortex occasionally weakens, causing this cold air to flood Canada, the U.S., and sometimes Eastern Europe. The blog also states, “In addition to bringing cold, the air mass can push the jet stream—the band of wind that typically flows from the Pacific Ocean across the U.S.—much further south as well.” This moisture from the jet stream can cause heavy snowstorms such as “snowmageddon” that took place in Washington, D.C., February 2010.
This is a picture taken by John Harrison/Cater News of the Polar Vortex clouds hovering Chicago.
Everything you need to know about Polar Bears
For my final project I decided to make a children’s book for kindergarteners, first, and second graders. I decided to make a book about polar bears because I feel like all kids love polar bears and who doesn’t love polar bears? The book is going to be about how climate change is affecting the polar bears in the Artic. I thought I would use my blog post to do my research and enlighten everyone on how climate change is affecting the polar bears.
As we all know the polar bears live in the polar ice caps and the ice caps are currently melting because of climate change. The ice caps are melting because the greenhouse gases are acting like a blanket over our earth which is currently warming our environment. This is causing the polar ice caps to melt which is affecting the polar bears in a plethora of ways. It is affecting their access to food, body condition, lowering their cub survival rates, increase in drowning, and most importantly the decline of their population.
I want this book to not only teach kids about climate change but to teach them what they can do to help our environment and help the polar bears. The kids can tell their parents to switch their light bulbs to LED light bulbs and if they do that every light bulb you change can save enough light to light two million homes in one year. Another thing they can do is to make to sure to unplug something if they are not using it because we are wasting phantom power which is equal to the output from 18 power plant stations. The last thing these kids can do is use public transportation, ride their bike, or tell their parents to carpool because transportation produces 30% of all US global warming emissions. I think it is important for children to know about climate change in a simplistic way. I think it is important for them to know because they are the future and if they learn about it when they are little they are going to grow up doing all the things to save our environment and teach people about it.
This is the link I used to find my information http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/our-work/international-polar-bear-day
Some Thoughts about a Climate Fiction Class
I remember coming into the first day of class not knowing what to expect. All I knew about English 104 was that it was an Intro to Fiction class that would have an assigned topic on which we would focus, and on which our class would be revolved around. To my surprise the topic was Climate Change and I had no idea what to expect.
My initial thought was to get myself out of the class as soon as possible. All of my knowledge about global warming and climate change could be wrapped up in a couple Al Gore videos I had to watch in high school, and even then I couldn’t tell you much other than the fact I remember him saying the words “global” and “warming.” Yes I knew to recycle and to walk as much as possible and leave the lights off when I wasn’t using them and all that jazz.
I knew that global warming was in fact a real thing, and I knew that it was/is happening, but at the same time in my mind, I kept thinking “but nothing is happening.”
But still, I wasn’t sure as to what global warming really was, and to be completely honest I’m still no expert. But this I do know, after reading and being involved in a class that focuses on post-apocalyptic settings having experienced the consequences of something that has happened DUE to climate change, today, I sit up a little straighter and pay attention when I hear the words “global” and “warming.”
Since being introduced to Cli-Fi, I’ve found myself thinking about some serious issues that I’d never thought about before. Not actively thinking in a state of paranoia like protagonist Mitchell Zukor in Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich (the novel we just read in class), but at random times, zoning out in class, drifting in thought in the comfort of my own home, I would think;
“What if I had to hunt, like physically sneakily hunt, for WATER?”
“What if something bad happened, an accident, a fire, a night when I’d had one too many, and I needed to seek medical attention, and there were no hospitals?”
“What if they were unable to create a vaccine for this strain of meningitis that has recently hit our campus and already killed on of our students?”
All very real illustrations of things that have happened and that are happening in these pieces of climate fiction. And the worst part? No one is able to do anything about it except keep on carrying on until they eventually die, or there is some form of resolution.
That is another thing that has ignited some sort of response in me, the lack of a resolution. A lot of theses stories end with a message of hopelessness. It seems in most genres of literature, and in most forms of entertainment, there is an ending where everything falls back into place and for the most part, everything is “how it should be” again.
That is the issue with cli-fi, it makes you feel as though something is missing. But when you think about it, that makes sense because nobody knows how to totally resolve the issues that have arisen from global warming. So when writing about it, it would be untrue and a bit too fictitious to have a “and they all lived happily ever after” ending.
“I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
Throughout our discussions in class this term we have talked a lot about how many people are aware of climate change and yet they “don’t care” or “don’t do anything about it.” There are many explanations for this problem, some of which I am guilty of as well, that do not simply mean that a person does not care: not having the time, not having the resources, not knowing where to get involved, convenience. For example, though I am aware of the benefits of solar panels, I do not have the resources or ability to incorporate them into my life because I live in an apartment and I am a full-time student with a limited income. There are also the problems of people thinking that individual efforts mean nothing in the scheme of the world as a whole, or that people do not want to inconvenience themselves by make changes to their daily lives even if it would mean a better future: for example, buying a plastic bottle of water because your reusable one is in the dishwasher; instead of washing it, you choose convenience. In doing this, we are also supporting the companies that produce this bottle of water.
Mitchell Zukor & Alan Turing
I recently watched the Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game and found myself comparing it to Odds Against Tomorrow, particularly the two main characters, Mitchell Zukor and Alan Turing.
For those of you not familiar with the movie, it depicts the story of Alan Turing’s time working for the British government during WWII. He was an amazing mathematician and was given the task to break “Enigma,” the German translator that accounted for all the communication on that side of the war zone. Alan’s intelligence comes with common characteristics of not completely understanding social skills, living in one’s own world, etc. While watching the film, I felt like I was seeing Mitchell Zukor on the screen.
The two characters are both obsessed with problems; they both live for finding and fantasizing about all sorts of problems and isolate themselves from others because of this character trait. The correlation between their intelligence and social skills is interesting to think about. What does an IQ number really tell about a person? Can one be either smart or social, not both? What effect does this obsession with problems and disaster have on a person’s social skills?
I think that both stories addresses the last question with the development of the main characters. Mitchell has this obsession with disaster including the odds that an event will occur, the impact of the event, etc. Alan is obsessed with problems – almost any type. His Commander mentions the Enigma and that it “isn’t difficult, it’s impossible.” Alan responds with, “Good. Let me try and we’ll know for sure, won’t we?” Alan eventually does solve the Enigma.
Both the characters seem to be hiding something behind their odd obsessions. In Mitchell’s case, he has an underlying fear of death, which really leads to a fear of living. An example of this is his first apartment. His parents were the driving force in his search for a new apartment, which lets the readers believe that he wouldn’t have moved without that push. Another example, which shows his unwillingness to experience new things, is the Korean food phase. While it is impulsive and unlike him to try a new food, he only ever tries that new food for weeks. He switches restaurants, but still eats the same exact dish, prepared the same exact way. This very specific routine shows that he is scared of change.
In Alan’s case, he uses problems to avoid dealing with his internal issues and he uses his intelligence as an excuse to be rude and arrogant to people. Also, once he solves the problem that he’s working on, he searches for or creates a new one. For example, when he and his team decoded the Enigma, he couldn’t celebrate because he seemed to find something missing from the equation. He came to the conclusion that the Germans would know that the Enigma is solved and that Alan’s hard work would have gone to waste, so he wouldn’t allow his team to tell anyone where the next attacks would be, despite one of his teammates having a family member on the ship that the Germans were planning to attack. It seems as though Alan uses problems to avoid living, just like Mitchell does.
I was able to make new observations about both characters because of my reading and watching the stories at the same time. The correlations between the characters despite the major differences between both plots – the fact that one is set in the future, one is set in the past – shows that this type of character can exist in any environment.
Pollution
There are different types of pollution like, water, air and light. They all contribute to the overall global warming that is affecting the Earth. Pollution damages the environment, making water undrinkable, air unbreathable and damaging the structure and reproduction cycle of plants around us. However, people don’t really focus on how the bright city lights and lights that illuminate our towns affect both the environment and wildlife around us.
Light pollution has taken a great toll on the wildlife and just making a small switch could save so much. The luminous glow given off by cities and suburbs negatively affects the biological rhythms and interferes with the behavior of nocturnal animals. Artificial light has taken the greatest toll on nocturnal birds who use the moon and stars for navigation during migrations. These birds become so disoriented that they sometimes fly in the opposite direction towards bright cities in the distant. Birds such as the Cerulean warbler and Henslow’s sparrow have become endangered because they are at a high risk of colliding with night towers during their migrations. This also affect marine birds as well. Marine birds, like the Tiny Leach’s Storm Petrel, are particularly drawn to light so it becomes very dangerous when bright light houses and fishermen boat lights shine so bright. These birds then travel great distances to get to light that they end up dying from exhaustion. Contine reading
Final Project Idea
For our final project I have teamed up with two other girls in our class to develop a short story using a different approach the authors we have read haven’t used. Our idea is to create a short story using the snowball effect. First, I will write two paragraphs starting off our short story of cli-fi. Next I will send those two paragraphs to the next girl and she will continue to write off of what I have started to plot out. We will continue this snowball affect in hopes of creating a strong cli-fi short story that has many different elements to it. The strong characteristic we have on our side is the element of surprise. It’s challenging enough writing a story, but to write one based off of someone’s previous plot is more challenging. The reason I want to blog about this is because I’m too excited to not share this idea with other people. It’s important that I can get feedback on my idea but also share it to excite others on how creative you can be with this opportunity Stephen has given us for our final project.
When crafting my first part of the short story I have been plotting out my characters and whom I want to introduce given the first opportunity to develop the main character. My idea was to start off with an accident, which leads to a young girl ending up in a coma. Then after 10 years of being in a coma her once present now past has changed and she wakes up in a new world. One where climate change has changed people and the gap between rich and poor has been opened wide. My thought process through this opening idea was for you as a reader to be able to experience alongside the main character what this new world looks like. So yourself and the main character are learning and understanding for the first time what this new world has become.
The best part about being able to write the opening paragraphs is that I get to set the mood, pick which tone I want the story to be written in, and decide what kind of main character I want to have. The problems with writing the first paragraph is also doing all those things because what I think might be a strong idea could be the next person brain fart on what to write next. I want to leave things open ended so my fellow partners have a lot of room to create and be creative themselves.
I believe this story will end up becoming a great success for our class to enjoy and read. It’s empowering being able to create your own story but even more empowering when you are letting other people create it alongside you.
Poor Planet
Over the weekend my dad and I did a mini road trip to Florence, Oregon. On the way there we saw a lot of trees that were being cut down. There were many trees in one area and then a gap of no trees. It made me sad because I saw right in front of my eyes our planet getting destroyed. When I went to the beach, I thought about if a flood happened and all the places that would be destroyed. This class really makes you think more about climate change. Especially, the weather in Eugene has been so nice and it is not like last year. Last year during this month we got snow and that was really cool to experience.
The book we have been reading in class Odds Against Tomorrow has made an impact on me. You hear about Seattle getting destroyed and I think about if that was my hometown. That’s were I grew up and I can’t even imagine it gone. This book talks about how the corporation called Future World is preparing for disasters. This book also talks about situations that could happen such as poverty and dead bodies. I can just picture the people in the novel terrified and desperate. The books cover can say a lot because you can tell its New York. The city looks like it is flooded and just does not look in order.
In this article it talks about New York and climate change and I thought it related a lot to our book. Contine reading
What I Have Learned So Far, And Why I Enjoy This Class
For this blog post I decided to write and reflect about what I have learned throughout the term. When I initially signed up for this class, I figured it was just going to be another ordinary boring English class. Mr. Siperstein really opened my eyes to how English can be not only interesting, but can also inform you about something that is not just English. I have learned so much more about climate change within the past 8 weeks than I think I have learned throughout my whole life.
Climate change is something that I never thought was a huge deal until this class. Throughout the readings I have learned about climate change in a fictional way, which I never thought about. These readings include, “Diary of an Interesting year”, “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet” and many more. These two stories impacted me by the style that they were written. The “Diary of an Interesting Year” was written, obviously like a diary which showed me the emotion that the protagonist was feeling and helped me see what it could be like if the climate were to change the way that it did in that story. Also, in the story “Time Capsule Found on Dead Planet” had an interesting style in the way it was written by having different ages in each paragraph. For example the first age was about Gods, the second was about money, etc. This lead into how our world once was and how our deserts are created to show that all deserts are in different forms now. These two stories were the opening stories to the class and I already learned so much about how everyone needs to start being aware about climate change because these twostories are both taken place in the futures are what could possibly happen to humans during climate change.
Why I Write Cli-Fi
Check out this recent article, “What is cli-fi? And Why I Write It,” by children’s and young adult (YA) fiction writer Sarah Holding. In it, Holding explains why she chooses to write in the cli-fi genre, and especially why she writes cli-fi for young people:
“I write cli-fi because it reconnects young readers with their environment, helping them to value it more, especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world. Cli-fi advocates restoring equilibrium to our physical environment, making it not just a setting or backdrop to a story, but a story’s primary purpose and emotional appeal. The characters in my writing are genuinely concerned about the environment and want to make a difference, which I hope is contagious and spreads to my readers too.”
Some of Holding’s ideas might be especially useful for those of you who are thinking of creating a work of cli-fi for the final project that is aimed at a younger audience. Holding also speaks more generally about the importance of imagining different futures, of engaging in speculative practice (something we experimented with during class last Friday): “Cli-fi has allowed me to participate imaginatively in rewriting our future, a future on which we all depend… cli-fi makes young people realise that they too can rewrite our future.”
Weather and Climate: Knowing the Difference
I am so glad that we had the discussion in class yesterday about weather and climate. I have seen lots of articles, including on this site, about strange and random weather occurrences going on all the time, and how they were all linked to the changing climate. That’s the thing, though; weather is random. Weather fluctuates often due to multiple factors, and events change all the time. Climate, however, is a constant trend of weather events that gives detailed explanations of what happens in different regions. this is what should be taken into account when talking about climate change.
I hear about freak weather occurring often around where I live. Last winter, Eugene got minus-zero temperatures and inches of snow. Everyone freaked out about climate change. A balmy 50 degrees in February? Climate change. Tulips sprouting up earlier than they’re supposed to? Climate change. It gets kind of annoying after a while. These, however, are just random events.
Climate is different. Climate is the pattern of prevailing conditions in an area over a long period of time. Eugene usually gets more rainfall per year than Bend, Oregon. That is climate. The beaches of Newport tend to be colder year-round than the ones in Southern California. That is climate.
I am aware of the changing climate, though. The rise in the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The increasing temperatures in our oceans. I’m not trying to deny the existence of climate change. I’m just saying that people shouldn’t be fussing about it when just one big storm hits one of our cities.
My Final Project Proposal
Professor Siperstein said we could write about our idea for the Final Project and ask for feedback from you guys. It took me a while to figure out what aspects of climate change I wanted to tackle, but over the course of the last few days, I kept coming back to the question: Why does no one seem to care about climate change?
Over the course of the term, I’ve noticed that the biggest reason for “not caring” is linked to the fact that people do not understand how climate change will affect their lives–even though climate change has already started to. The Global Weirding website definitely struck a chord with me because it transformed the information in the IPCC Climate Report into something tangible and easy to understand. So my question is: What is the most effective way to get people to start caring about climate change? Should we play on people’s fears like Mitchell does? Or is it better to just stick to the facts and let people interpret them for themselves?
I pose those questions because I want to create a video that helps educate people on climate change and ultimately acts as a call-to-action for people to write their congressman about increasing federal funding towards climate change solution research. The video will be a catalyst for a larger climate change public service announcement-esque campaign. I want to touch on the information within IPCC Report, but frame it in a way that resonates with every day people. People need to understand that impacts that our generation will have on future generations. And with that understanding and awareness in mind, I truly believe people will start to act.
That being said, I haven’t figured out the fictional narrative element of the project. I could somehow incorporate a fictional family or person who is living in a “climate changed” world. It would help build empathy for the cause because people will see themselves as that fictional character or family.
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on which approach would work best with getting people to care about climate change. Is it simply that they do not understand the facts and how the effects will change their lives? Or is there something else I’m missing that is more important?
Thanks!
Climate Change Lingo
When reading the article So Hot Right Now: Has Climate Change Created A New Literary Genre?, I admired Nathaniel Rich’s emphasis of the role of a novelist. Unlike a scientist’s point of view of climate change, the novelist doesn’t obtain the responsibility to just write about climate change to get people’s attention. However they have the creative advantage to see what climate change/ global warming do to people in the modern world; what they do to the human heart. He also mentions to read the entire book of Odds Against Tomorrow, and you will not find one climate change phrase. “Climate change as a phrase, is cliché. Global warming is a cliché”(Rich). Contine reading
Humans: The Most Dangerous Species on the Planet
One of my favorite weeks of the year is in the summer when The Discovery Channel dedicates a whole week to just sharks. I am fascinated by sharks so I wondered, are sharks being affected by this increase in climate? Not only is global warming affecting the lives living on land but also those that live in the oceans.
The article Sharks and Climate Change discusses how sharks are currently being impacted by global warming. The oceans around the world are warming. Sharks have the possibility to go extinct in the next hundred years because the increase in water temperature confuses and stresses out these sharks which make them unable to mate. Even though sharks are at the top of the food chain they are still being majorly affected since their food supply is starting to slowly disappear. Since these smaller fish are vanishing the food chain is most likely going to be upset. But overall sharks will most likely relocate to waters containing food sources, and that may include shallow waters off the coasts of many populated beaches. Contine reading
The Difference in Weather
There’s no chance people can’t attribute at least a tiny percent of the weather this past winter to climate change. It’s a very unusual winter across the country and it has been slowly building over the years as we continue to increase the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. New England’s massive snowstorm, Oregon’s unusually dry and sunny months. Climate change has to be some sort of answer somewhere along the line.
When the groundhog sees his shadow, it’s six more weeks of winter. New England is going on it’s fifth straight week of snow and rain storms. Yes, they are calming down, but the snow is still pilled up, accumulating an astonishing 60.7 inches over the five weeks in Boston, Massachusetts. Snowstorms Juno and Marcus rank 6 and 7 respectively in Boston’s top 10 snowstorms of all-time. And it is still going. Contine reading
Preparing for Flooding
In class this week we have been reading the novel “Odds Against Tomorrow” by Nathaniel Rich which has brought to my mind what would happen if different areas were to flood. In the novel a class three hurricane hits New York City, and then the two main characters wonder around the city in a canoe viewing different parts of the city and the devastation that the storm has brought. We see that the subway system is completely submerged, many buildings destroyed, and much of life has been destroyed, including that of people.
I grew up on a small town that was built originally next to a lake, which has been since drained and turned into farm land. Mitchell, the main character in this novel discussed how New York City was built on top of what used to be many water ways, which is what made me think of my home town. Every winter what used to be the lake bottom floods again, and in its way also floods some homes. This happens just about every year, and so the people in the area are prepared for when the rains come, and nature reclaims its land. However cities such as New York City that was also build on water ways does not expect this water to come and devastate all that exists. This brings to mind, how do other areas react to flooding and if they are prepared for the floods or not.
When looking at large storms a real storm that took place that many of us are familiar with is that of Hurricane Katrina. After Hurricane Katrina there was large areas of New Orleans that was flooded, and knowing that this area—being near the Gulf Coast is a possible area for large storms or hurricanes one would thing that they would have a plan against flooding, and after viewing what occurred it is hard to think that there was a plan in place. Experts say though that “The flood protection system in New Orleans was flawed from the start because the model storm it was designed to stop was simplistic, and led to an inadequate network of levees, flood walls, storm gates and pumps”1. Here we see that the city did have a plan in place but that it was flawed. The system if not having been flawed may have helped after the hurricane to decrease the damage done, but this does show that other cities are thinking of what might occur and are preparing for flooding.
Flooding is a topic often brought up when discussing climate change which is why it is important for at least coastal cities to have a plan in place for flooding. Flooding is brought up with climate change because of the discussion of the ice caps melting causing the ocean levels to raise, causing flooding. Although we cannot predict what will cause the next flood in the world, flooding will occur again and again and so cities need to have a plan in place. Do many in the class live in coastal cities and know what their plan is for flooding or if they have a plan?
The Media’s Roll in Climate Change
In recent years, the world has suffered a dramatic increase in temperature which in turn has melted the polar ice caps raising the sea level slowly but surely. These are facts. However, some news sources such as Fox News don’t like to acknowledge these facts as true occurring events; rather they enjoy calling them “theories” and “ideas,” thus contributing to the distrust of scientists. When scientists who have focused their entire research on climate change and the global distribution of heat throughout the recent years are questioned for validity on news broadcasts, viewers sometimes find the need to reconsider their respect and appreciation for these proven facts. When scientists who are experts in the area of climate change aren’t believed, then who are the people believing? Contine reading
We Survive Together, We Die Together
They way we act in times of stress can show us who we are. The way we act in times of distress define us as a society and species. In the book Odds Against Tomorrow, after the flood, the author Nathaniel Rich described some of the people in New York as if they had lost all of their societal common sense. They were expressed as if they were creatures that did not belong in the bodies that encased their inner beast. It was like they had forgotten that as a people, we need to band together in times of sorrow and pain, not hurt each other.
Only YOU Can Prevent Climate Change
We all have been constantly blogging and talking about why people should care about climate change, why it is hard to get people to care about climate change and wondering why people have not done anything to stop it. Yet we have not focused on what exactly we can do to help prevent climate change. It is easy to tell people that we need to care about it but the hard part is individually doing something to prevent it. I think that not only do we need people to notice climate change and that it is a problem in our world today but to give them action plans to prevent it. Because without giving people specific examples of what they can to do help, let’s be honest nothing is going to change. Contine reading
Disaster for the Future?
Things appear to be finally progressing in terms of the recognition of climate change. I think this is due to the noticeable differences in temperature, as was pointed out in class, it’s sunny and sixty degrees in the middle of February. I myself was quite surprised at the speed symptoms of climate change are beginning to appear. Flowers are already beginning to bloom, it seems like it didn’t rain nearly half as much as it usually does for Oregon during the winter. Another alarming revelation to appear in the news was a prediction by climate scientists of future “mega-droughts” manifesting in the United States around the year 2050. These mega-droughts would specifically hit the southwest and great plains regions. A typical drought lasts around 7-10 years. One of the most famous droughts that occurred in the United States was the “Great Dust Bowl” which lasted around a decade. The “Great Dust Bowl” caused widespread crop failure and initiated mass migration to cities due to the lack of farming jobs. A mega-drought would hold similar conditions to a normal drought, but could last as long as 35 years.
The reasons these mega-droughts could occur in the near future would be due to the excess evaporation of water vapor from the soil due to changes in temperature and precipitation from climate change in the future. The south-west is currently going through a drought right now, but there is a 12% risk with current carbon composition of the atmosphere that a mega-drought could occur somewhere in the near future. If the atmospheric composition of carbon continues to rise at its current rate, which predicted to hit 1370 parts per million by 2100, the risk of mega-drought could rise to as high as 80%. Even if great efforts were made to curb carbon output, the risk of mega-drought is still expected to be nearly 60% in the future.
With all these risks, one would think that people would be immediately motivated to take action, especially in the regions where these climactic events would occur, yet it seems other issue continue to take the forefront on the news. Even though it finally seems like most people generally now accept that Climate Change is both real and directly correlated with the release of fossil fuels in the atmosphere, it seems to be continually downplayed, with more focus being put on adapting to the changing conditions instead of actively changing them. The future of the planet seems very obscure. No matter what is done now, things have been permanently altered by carbon emissions. With all the disaster related fiction we’ve been reading in class, I am very curious as how humanity will adapt in the future to the new conditions. I hope that no group or class of society will be damaged or discriminated against in adapting, but judging by human nature, I know that this is simply not the case. Dramatic action must be taken to address these climatological threats, otherwise the disaster fiction we read about could become reality.
Aesthetically pleasing Hurricanes?!
While looking at the various articles on Hurricane Sandy, I had flashbacks of turning on the television and constantly seeing the news coverage of the storm and the devastating toll it was having on the people of New York. Although I was watching this coverage from the comfort of my own home in sunny California, I thought of those individuals in New York that had to handle this treacherous storm. I can only imagine the panic and complete frenzy I would be enduring.
Yet while I read Nathaniel Rich’s novel, Odds Against Tomorrow I did not feel the same way. Although Rich discusses the immaculate hurricane that the people of New York are enduring he does it in a way that is extremely aesthetically pleasing. Which is odd because usually even the thought of a hurricane brings nothing but horrid and saddening images to mind. However through Rich’s vivid figurative language he does a great job at erasing the images seen in the articles regarding Hurricane Sandy and shines a light on bright colors and images. For example, “Out of this murkiness the larger shapes emerged first: the curved seat of a wicker chair; a strip of rubber insulation curled like an octopus’s tentacle; an inflated red yoga ball, like a candy apple; and the smooth black hull of a plasma television, bubbles coalescing and darting on its screen as it rocked in the current”(Rich 166.) As Rich explains the scenery while he is canoeing down the street flooded with water, he chooses to describe mundane everyday items such as a wicker chair, or a television and highlights the beauty and delicacy of them. Which makes me wonder if he does this to romanticize the tragedy of this storm.
Although he is making this storm sound and seem much more pleasing than it is, it makes me question that he points out these everyday items to make a point of the intensity of the storm and its effect on things that we see everyday, and take advantage of. I personally think that Rich does a wonderful job at displaying the effects of this Hurricane, because it allows us to be put in Mitchell’s shoes. And rather than being absolutely terrified as we are on a tiny little canoe roaming to safety, we are engaged in the scenery and the emerging objects all around.
Overall I think that Rich’s novel does its job as a climate fiction novel, it highlights the effects of climate change on natural occurrences such as hurricanes. Hurricanes are inevitable because of the unpredictability of our weather, yet things like higher sea levels, and extremely warm temperature can escalate these hurricanes, which is very scary. But Rich makes a point that these storms can effect and overtake a whole city, and I would certainly be nowhere near as prepared as he is. Which is even more frightening.
Acting On It
As the interest of climate change fills my brain I have been conducting more research not on the future affects, or causes of the change, but what people are doing today to help prevent it. My blog post will harp on different communities protesting, fighting, and rallying on the ideas of climate change. Contine reading
Our Planet: Before and After Climate Change
The reality of climate change is getting to the point where it is impossible to ignore. A large percentage of Earth’s population is in a state of denial about the effects that our race is having on the planet. No matter what evidence and numbers and statistics of the past weather are placed in front of them, many find ways to deny it. A common response is that the Earth is just going through another cycle like it has done for the last billions of years. Although the fact that the Earth has gone through phases of global temperature is true, the rate at which the temperature is increasing has never been seen before.
Most of these past climate changes took millions of years to change, and even then, the Earth’s global temperature has never been higher. I found an article on Business Insider written by Dina Spector titled, “Before and After Pictures Show how Climate Change is Destroying Earth“. The article states that since now almost all scientists agree that global warming is happening, the White House has invested $1 billion towards climate change and preparing for our near future’s inevitable storms and natural disasters. “Rising global temperatures, largely due to man-made greenhouse gases, are the source of widely-discussed observable changes to the Earth like melting glaciers, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and floods” (Spector).
Along with the article there are numerous before and after pictures taken different locations around the world. The devastation that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution has completely transformed our planet. The Great Barrier Reef was once filled with color and life, and now the coral, which is crucial to the survival in sea life, is white and on the brim of death. It doesn’t stop at sea life. The Muir Glacier in Alaska in now completely gone and has transformed from icebergs to a body of water. These pictures are a powerful tool to stop the nonsense that our current climate change is just another part of the Earth’s natural weather cycle. The facts are in. Humans are the cause.
We Need to Inform People About Climate Change!
After getting further into the novel, Odds Against Tomorrow I kept thinking about how I wouldn’t know how to survive if an extreme natural disaster destroyed the city I was living in. For instance, in the novel when the category three hurricane came through and flooded New York City, Mitchell handled the situation pretty well and used his overly expensive canoe to get him and Jane to somewhere safe. This part of the novel reminded me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow because it is literally the same concept, except everything ends up freezing over.
This specific part of the novel made me a little nervous just because an extreme natural disaster like that could happen at any given point and nobody would be prepared for it. Many people would not know how to survive in that type of situation, which is really scary. However, if people were informed of climate change and the natural disasters that can arise due to climate change then people would be able to prepare themselves for extreme natural disasters such as the category three hurricane in the novel. Also, if people knew more about climate change and the effects it can cause then people could try to change their daily habits to try to decrease the negative effects happening due to climate change.
Also, lately the weather has been extremely nice in Eugene and many students realize that this is happening because of climate change, but it is concerning because we have having 60 degree weather in Eugene in the middle of February. Flowers are already starting to bloom! THAT IS A PROBLEM! Many people are happy about the weather being nice and I can’t blame them because I have been very happy with it too. However, after I sat down and really thought about it, I got a little concerned because that is not normal winter weather. It makes me wonder if we are having weather like this now then what will happen next year and the year after that and five years later?
The main problem is that we have damaged our climate so much that even if people did change their daily habits, it wouldn’t be enough to stop climate change or help decrease the effects we are having to deal with because of it. This is what is really scary. I honestly never used to think about climate change a lot before because I wasn’t as informed about it as I am now and I still barely know anything, which is even scarier! Now, I notice the little things about climate change such as having mid 60 degree weather in the middle of February. While talking to my dad on the phone today, he asked about the weather and I told him how it was really nice, but that was because of climate change and he replied with, “Oh no, that’s not the reason at all”. So that just shows me that adults aren’t even fully aware of this and don’t find it concerning. Therefore, I decided that I am going to make it my goal to talk to my family about different issues involving climate change over spring break to see what they have to say about it because I want to hear other people’s thoughts on the issue and see if they find climate change to be a huge issue or not. I recommend other people do the same thing because you will be surprised to hear what some people have to say about the issue.
Decrease in Salmon and Divestment Rally
Last week I attended both the Columbia River Fish Commission meeting and the divestment rally. I never truly realized how many people actually cared about these problems. Not only were there many students at these events but also active community members. And not only did these community members sit in on these of events but also participated such as asking questions or protesting.
Currently the salmon of Oregon are being affected greatly by global warming. These fish are cold water fish and the river waters are starting to warm rapidly. Since the climate is also warming there will be more flooding in the fall rather than the spring or summer. This also means that there will be decreased river flow in the summer and spring. The population of Portland is also expected to increase by half a million in the next few years thus, causing an increase in water demand. At this meeting people were also able to voice their opinions on possible solutions to this problem. One presented idea was to breed salmon and a release them into the rivers of Oregon. However this idea was quickly shot down since these fish would not be native to Oregon and would most likely be treated with possible chemicals that could affect the rivers. These salmon would most likely die off quickly anyways cause they wouldn’t be use to the warmed conditions. Also, not only are these salmon being affected but the tribes with possession of this land would lose their identity once a large population of salmon is lost.
Who is Mitchell Zukor?
So… who is Mitchell Zukor, and what does our answers to that question say about how Nathaniel Rich chose to develop the protagonist in his novel Odds Against Tomorrow? Based on the group activity we completed in class today, I put together a word cloud that tracks our class’s answers to the question, who is Mitchell Zukor? The larger the size of the word, the more often it appeared across different groups’ answers.
(Click on the image for a larger version)
I find it interesting to see Mitchell’s character visualized like this as it makes salient some of the patterns in who he is, as well as some of the contradictions in who he is (like his being both socially awkward and persuasive, both introverted and caring).
When thinking about your final projects and creating your own works of cli-fi, you might want to consider the complexities of your own story’s characters and how different kinds of characterization might allow you to investigate different aspects of climate change. For instance, in Odds Against Tomorrow, Nathaniel Rich seems to have created a protagonist who is obsessed with disaster in part as a way to explore our own culture’s obsession with apocalypse, and yet he makes Mitchell likable enough that we as readers seem to really care about what happens to him.
Rally 2/13/15
At the Divestment Rally on Friday I realized that so many people are so passionate about this subject. It really opened my eyes into how fossil fuels are really impacting our planet. When I first walked up to the rally I was a little intimidated and did not really know what to expect. I thought it was actually a little intimidating. But, once I walked under the tent a lady came up to me very friendly and asked me to sign their petition. I happily did so, and immediately felt more welcomed.
Once the rally started the chants I though were very compelling. They created a message not only by what they were saying but how they were saying it. It was the strength in what they all believed in made me take a step back and look at this through there eyes and how much strength it takes to stand up for what they believe in.
This strike reminded me a lot of the GTF strike that happened at the end of fall term. Although there was not as many of them, and no one really knew about this rally, I think that these people that were yelling the chants were so much more into what they were saying and you could hear how much they care in their voices. They also had quite a few speakers during this rally that shows people what their thoughts and outlooks are on this subject. They are trying to get their voices heard so that more people are aware about climate change and the use of fossil fuels.
I really enjoyed this rally. I thought it gave me a new perspective on how fossil fuels are detrimental to our lives.
Rally for Global Divestment
This past Friday I went to the Global Divestment Rally. The rally is supporting the University of Oregon Foundation to sell its investments in fossil fuel extraction companies. Right now the University of Oregon is selling their stock to make more money and people would like them to use that money to invest in fossil fuels instead of stock.
The rally consisted of a few speakers including the mayor of Eugene and student at the University of Oregon. The student really caught my attention because she was speaking on behalf of the students here and was representing the undergraduate school. She claims they took a survey last year and 73% of University of Oregon’s students approve and support the investment into fossil fuels. I think the percentage is really high and could make a difference in changing this part of our school. I thought her speech was empowering because she made it in a students perspective that we need to stand our ground and not let them take our money to invest in stock. The money should be put into use by investing fossil fuels to save our environment.
Before coming to the rally I did not really know what to expect or even know what it was. Luckily Stephen was there to explain to us what the rally was about and what they are trying to do. I was surprised to see so many people their from the community supporting this and how involved they really are in the school. I am glad I went to the rally because I got learn about something new and something I will now support at this school. Before coming to this event I did not know this existed or what the school was doing with our money and I am really happy I came and saw first hand what is happening.
Where do the salmon go now?
This past Thursday I went to the climate change and Oregon salmon talk. There were two tribe members there talking about climate change and how it is affecting the salmon and their tribes. They told us there are four tribes that include, the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce. Each of these tribes have fishing and hunting rights on the lands. Currently climate change has been affecting the salmon and steelhead by winter flooding and it is affecting their eggs and overwinter juveniles. During the summer their has been low flows which leads into migrating or spawning adults. Than throughout the year there has been increased water temperatures which will stress on migrating. During the meeting the audience came up with a climate change improvement for the salmon by growing more trees. We also talked about how the dams are affecting the salmon because it is hard for them to go through and the warm water and climate change on top of it is making it worse. Some people in the audience brought up creating passages for the fishes which would be hard to do. I think the ideas the audience brought up during the speech were great ideas which I hope will happen in the future to save the salmon. One of the tribe members brought up towards the end of the speech that salmon is in an ingredient in a lot of things we don’t know about and if they are in danger than we are in danger. After he said that it made me realize if our food is diminishing and the necessary products we need in our body are diminishing than what is going to happen to us.
Before coming to this talk I did not really know what it was about it or what to expect. But I really enjoyed coming and learning something new. It made me more aware of some of the other things climate change is doing to our environment that we do not necessarily talk about in class. I thought this talk had a really great turn out, more people than I thought would come but I think they really liked seeing the students there supporting this.
Divestment Rally
“Hey hey, ho ho
Keystone Pipeline’s got to go
No more gas, no more oil
Keep that carbon in the soil”
On Friday at 3:00 PM, a rally was organized to protest the University of Oregon’s investment in fossil fuels. With petitions to sign and posters to hold, the group got together to make their grievances clear to the administration of the university. As I approached the tent, I was handed a pen to sign the prepared petitions and a sheet with lyrics to the chants and songs that were to be sung. The chants contain lines like “every time you pump a barrel, you increase our climate peril” and “corporate greed- we’ve got to fight, polluting Earth is not a right” to convey their displeasure with where the university invests millions of dollars. The aim of divestment is to re-budget the university’s priorities from dangerous fossil fuels to other places more in line with students’ interest.
Salmon Are Literally Swimming Out of Our Lives
Due to climate change, salmon populations are decreasing because the dams are affecting upstream and downstream migrants. While attending the discussion on climate change’s impact on salmon, I found it to be really interesting because I didn’t realize how climate change and the dams were negatively impacting the salmon populations. The dams make it impossible for the fish to repopulate because they are unable to reach their unique original spawning grounds further upstream. Climate change is impacting the salmon by the warming temperatures because salmon are used to living in a cold-water habitat.
Since the temperatures are increasing, mid-watershed elevations will switch from snow dominated to rain dominated. Higher climate temperatures lead to less snow and more rain, which is a major cause for the rivers’ temperatures to be rising. The increased water temperatures will stress migrating adults, may disrupt growth and downstream migration timing of juveniles. As of right now, they are unsure of how much warming will wipe out the salmon population, but there have already been fish die offs from the rising water temperatures.
As the Salmon Swim By, Stare, Take Good Care; One Day, They May Not Be There.
Salmon are very important to Native American tribes all over the country. The salmon populations in the Northwest are depleting because of human activity and it is a huge issue for not only the tribes, but citizens who are used to fishing for and consuming salmon. Climate change is directly correlated to this shift in population.
Salmon are very sensitive to environmental changes in their habitat. They must migrate from the ocean back upstream to lay their eggs and a change in water temperature or surroundings could cause a change in their path home. The salmon species is in grave danger of extinction because of human activities and the EPA said, “Many salmon species are already considered threatened or endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Studies show that by 2100, one third of current habitat for Northwest salmon and other coldwater fish would be unsuitable. This is because warming temperatures are projected to pass key temperature thresholds.”
There have been many measures in place and being brought up for the future to combat this change and slow the process of habitat being unsuitable. In the talk tonight, they discussed many solutions. They ranged from restoration of the areas with increased shading or slowed flow of the rivers to using hatcheries to basically “manufacture” salmon in a controlled environment.
There was a discussion about the ethics of using hatcheries and releasing the fish into the wild because not only does it set them up for failure, but it is a short term solution for a long term problem. This meant that the fish that were released from the hatcheries would affect the natural fish because they do not know how to repopulate naturally, so they create a new environment.
The speakers highlighted that the most important thing that we can do to help the salmon is to vote. They need all the money they can get to save these sacred and good-tasting fish. Another thing we can all do is go out and help to plant trees along the sides of rivers. This creates shade, which helps to keep the water temperature cool for the salmon.
Save the salmon! They are so very important to Oregon and all the tribes as a whole. They need to stay alive.
Extra Credit: Poor Fish
On Thursday, I attended the meeting about how climate change has affected salmon. This was a great experience because it brought a lot of the community together to talk about the issue. The speakers were Ryan Bransetter and David Graves and they work for the organization Columbia River Inter- Fish Commission, in Portland. They focus on the how to improve the salmon industry with climate change. I learned there are four different tribes and they have fishing rights here in Oregon. This made me remember when I was in the lake with my brother and wanted to fish. He told me I couldn’t because I needed to have a fishing license or I could get in a lot of trouble. I am not a seafood lover at all, but it was still interesting to hear other people’s perspective on salmon. In the Northwest the temperature is increasing and our climate depends on the snow to keep the water cold. Tributary effects on the salmon and steelhead because the temperature is increasing. Overall, the population in Oregon has increased and with that the demand for water goes up. When summer comes along it is harder to fish for salmon because so many people are using the water. In the meeting people were very passionate about salmon because it is used for medicine. Salmon is a fish that has a lot of health benefits and a lot of people depend on it. Climate change has made the water temperature in rivers, oceans, and lakes warmer. This issue makes everything difficult because a lot of people work in the salmon industry and could lose their job. To fix the issue there needs to be more snow fall to help cool down the temperatures. There was been arguments between the tribes and the United States government. Both of them want control over the tribes and want the money. Money is always the reason because that’s what our world has come down to. The speakers talked about a new technology and it is a plane that flies over the ocean. When it flies over the ocean it can determine where cold water is. I really liked when one of the speakers said to fix climate change our society needs to change their values. He made an example about how a lot of people are greedy. The more people want the more climate change is going to be an issue. The government will always be fighting for power over land and want the benefits of the salmon industry. This meeting answered a lot of my questions and was nice to hear from experts. I learned something new about how climate change is a huge issue and not many people care.