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.
Day: February 27, 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