My final project involves a short story involving cli-fi events that I titled “A New Dawn”. The story is told from a first person point of view, and involves the central character, named John, dealing with a decision that could very well lead to his execution. In debating over the decision, he contemplates the events that lead him to his current plight, as well as how they defined him, and what he should do for the future. Born in Eugene, OR in 1995, John describes the events that transpired around him as he aged, with him first noticing climate changes effects while he attended college at the University of Oregon. As the effects of climate change being to accelerate, he witnesses the country go through vast changes due to intense hurricanes ravaging the east coast, well as extreme drought plaguing the Southwest. The U.S. government eventually closes the border with Mexico due to the influx of refugees, and martial law is declared as protests are rampant, and the water crisis continues to accelerate.

Conflicts between nations become more amplified as shortages of food and water cause nations to become more aggressive. The U.S. government, in an effort to deflect public attention away from itself and give the people something to focus their frustration at, begins a propaganda campaign in order to go to war, with the help of corporations and defense contractors. The Third World War begins, and military scientists secretly initiate a program known as Project Helios, which involves genetically modifying soldiers with plant DNA in order to have energy come from Photosynthesis, instead of food, which is currently in extreme shortage. John is selected as a candidate for the initiative, and with the change, loses part of his humanity in the process. The serum also gives enhanced strength, speed, and extremely hardened skin, to plant exteriors. The project is successful, and the new soldiers are enormously effective in waging war, however, numerous war crimes and atrocities are committed during the conflict, with John taking part in a great deal of them. Contine reading →

The meeting our class attended on Friday was really quite eye opening. I actually did not know that Bill McKibben had been arrested several times during his climate activism, and it was very interesting hearing his thoughts and perspectives on the issue in person. He brought up a lot of points that have me worried about the future in mitigating climate change, and the obstacles that those who wish to mitigate climate change face. Money and lobbying play a huge role in the U.S. political system, and a lot of policy directives that Congress enacts come from corporate and lobbying interests. He brought up specific pair of brothers that seem to be playing a bigger and bigger role in our legislative process. The Koch brothers, who made their fortune and have amassed a huge amount of wealth in the fossil fuel industry, have been active in the U.S. political lobbying system for a long time, but with the recent supreme court decisions like Citizens United vs. FEC and McCutcheon vs FEC, the flow of money in the form of campaign contributions and political donations has skyrocketed. The Koch brothers have poured massive amounts of money in to organizations and politicians who oppose or deny climate change as well as climate scientists in general, and have pledged to use nearly a billion dollars in campaign contributions in the next election cycle.

With the new Republican congress, things seem to be headed in an even worse direction in climate progress. The Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, James Inhofe, who is a Republican from Oklahoma, recently made a speech in congress denying climate change by using a snowball as his personal proof that climate change couldn’t be happening because it was cold and snowy in the District of Columbia. He also used the bible to prove that climate change could not possibly be man made, as he considered it arrogant that man could change what God had already created. He went on to say that, as long as God was active, there would always be cold seasons and hot seasons. The reason this frightens me so much is the fact that Senator Inhofe has control of the committee that sets resolutions pertaining to the environment, which means that nothing will be done in the Senate to produce legislation that could curb the effects of climate change, or try to set limits on carbon emissions.

It almost seems like we might be doomed, yet the speech made by Gary Paul Nabhan gave me a sense of hope for the future, as well as seeing the huge amount of concerned citizens who attended the climate meeting as well. If we all work together as a community, in forms of activism and protests, as well as doing what we can to mitigate climate change, I believe we can make a difference in the future, and pursue a change of policy in our own government so that we as a society can make real progress towards saving the planet.

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.

I never really grasped the total effects of climate change. I knew it was happening, and I knew that it wasn’t good, but I never really thought of it as something that would directly affect me. In fact, I didn’t realize that the more sever effects would take place in my lifetime. While examining Global Weirding (http://globalweirding.is/here), I began to have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was surprised to observe that Climate Change was already beginning to have significant effects on the world right now, and even back in 2013-14. We have had the three warmest decades in a row in recorded history, which shocked me in a way, as there is quite a bit of recorded history.

Another aspect of climate change that I wasn’t aware of was that there could be intense flooding as a result of more precipitation from the evaporation of water. In fact, in North America, there could me more extreme weather events like storms or flooding due to this phenomenon. I think the some of the reasons the website might be called Global Weirding is due to the more strange and obscure events that many of us didn’t expect, like the increased spread of aquatic pathogens or that power plants could have problems with excess jellyfish due to increased reproduction because of higher acidity of the oceans due to carbon absorption.

Contine reading →