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

In this story, there were clearly a ton of issues within their society. Just like in the other stories, global warming had changed the world and led to corrupt leadership and lack of resources. The story did not attempt to cover any of the flaws or make climate change seem like a lesser problem. Throughout the story it was hard to tell whether or not the ending would be positive and it made sure that the story was just as realistic as any of the other texts from class. The thing that really made it stand out to me, other than the fact that it was written like a comic book, was that in the end, things turned out good.

I heard a lot of people in class talking about the ending and not being happy with it. While I agree that the problems in the book were solved fairly easily, this was not what I took away from the story. These stories are all fiction, regardless of what their outcome is. So no matter what, even if people take away general ideas from them, they will not be regarded as fact. If everyone reads “cli-fi” stories and sees a negative outcome, they will see climate change as a hopeless cause and will probably not bother trying to make a difference; however, if they see a positive end to a story and realize that they could make a change and that there is still hope for our planet, they will most likely be more encouraged to try and help. Overall, I found “IDP:2043” to be refreshing in comparison to the other readings thus far, and while I think all of them are useful in trying to get people to help with global warming, I found that this story had a unique quality to it that could help in its own way.