Author: Casey Leach

Interpretation of the Future Coast Project

Casey Leach 3 Comments

I have to admit that when I first found out that we were making voicemails from the future for this Future Coast game, I thought it was a little weird because I didn’t understand the point of it and how it would be beneficial to the players of the game. When I went outside to make my voicemail, I didn’t want anyone that wasn’t in our class to hear me because I knew they would wonder what it was that I was doing since I was talking about how we ran out of water. So I tried to go where there was the fewest number of students possible.

Although after I listened to some of the voicemails I realized that it actually was a fun, entertaining idea. Once I started listening to other people’s voicemails I felt so embarrassed because other people got really creative with their voicemails, whereas I wasn’t very creative with mine. After listening to some of the voicemails, I started to realize what the actual point of the game was. The game is about getting people to think of the future and what it will look like with climate change. So in my case, I picked the first thing that I could think of would happen in the future due to climate change and that was running out of water. I noticed that a few other people used a similar idea of being short on water, but some people chose ideas that I would have never thought of either, which was really interesting.

One other example of Cli-Fi that we talked about in class this term that I thought related very similarly to Future Coast was the Global Weirding website. I found a connection between these two because Global Weirding gets people thinking about how we will be affected by climate change in the future except rather than people coming up with their own ideas, the ideas are provided to them. They are both also interactive versions of Cli-Fi. Future Coast is a little bit more interactive than the Global Weirding website since people actually make up their own ideas of the future effects of climate change rather than having those ideas provided to them. However, I think that both versions of Cli-Fi are very beneficial to not only students, but everyone. Future Coast and Global Weirding can both be used in schools to help get students engaged with talking about climate change and the possible effects it will have on our futures, which is extremely important.  Contine reading →

We Need to Inform People About Climate Change!

Casey Leach 5 Comments

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.

Salmon Are Literally Swimming Out of Our Lives

Casey Leach 2 Comments

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.

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Climate Change Ethical Issues in “The Weatherman”

Casey Leach 5 Comments

The short story “The Weatherman”, caused me to think of the blog we read about climate change ethics. One specific question from the blog that related really well to “The Weatherman” was the question that asked, “Does the adaptation effort privilege the wealthy and powerful, at unjustified cost to the poor and dispossessed?” (Moore 4). This question completely applies to “The Weatherman” because the only people who benefit from the weather being controlled are the Green people. However, the sandtowners do not receive the same benefits from the weather being controlled as the Green people do.

In the story Marly claims, “You should’ve seen them! They were filthy, starving. Half dead. And here we are, us fat Green people, getting everything we want and destroying everyone else” (Howitt 136). This statement relates completely to Moore’s third question on her blog post because the weather being controlled by the Green people is only privileging the Green people, while causing the sandtowners harm. Some of the Green people, like the couple in the story, feel bad for the sandtowners because they know that what they are doing is wrong, but they also know that in order to survive they have to control the weather.

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Is it Too Late to Fix Our Planet?

Casey Leach 5 Comments

I grew up being aware of what climate change was, but it was never a topic that my parents talked with me in depth about. Understanding what climate change is and how it is affecting our planet is actually quite scary. Everyday I feel like there is a new way in which climate change is affecting our world, slowly, but gradually at a constant rate.

While reading A Fable for Tomorrow and Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet, I realized that there are many people in our world that understand how large and serious of an issue climate change is. A Fable for Tomorrow is a fictional short story about a town that does not exist and has a sequence of events occur, but most the events that happen in the story do exist today. Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet is a fictional story as well that discusses the different things we have created over time on our planet and how those various things have affected our planet. Both of these stories are very powerful because they are both relatable to our everyday lives even though they are fictional.

After reading both of these short stories, I was shocked by how many of the events they referred to related to events that I have heard about worldwide. In Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet the author explains, “Towers of glass rose are its name, were destroyed and rose again. It began to eat things. It ate whole forests, croplands, and the lives of children” (Atwood 192). This quote made me instantly think of industrialization because that has been one of the main causes for climate change. It is really scary topic to think about because if people would have realized it was an issue sooner, then there may have been a way that we could fix it and prevent it from happening any longer.

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