Author: Maya McEwen

A Conversation about Climate Change

Maya McEwen 1 Comment

I decided to call my dad to talk about his thoughts on the issue of Climate Change. I started out with a simple question, I asked him, “What is Climate Change?”

His answer : when you have things happening that don’t make sense. He talked about the ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland melting. The winters in America have been scary, with the severity of the cold and the snow. My dad lives in Orlando, Florida and when I asked him about what this past winter was like he said: It was 29 degrees one day, it’s not supposed to be that cold in Orlando. he thought something was wrong, It’s normal for it to be 29 in Buffalo, it’s normal for it to be 29 in Pittsburgh, however it’s NOT normal for it to be 29 in Orlando.

I have 11 year old twin brothers and they also live in Orlando with my dad. When I asked my dad if they knew about climate change and global warming he said well… they’re 11. As if they’re too young to know and understand what exactly is happening. You wouldn’t expect an 11 year old to know much about global warming but maybe thats something that needs to change. He said they vaguely knew about what it was, and have inquired about it as kids do, (we all know kids love asking questions) but he said that they learn about it at school.

Because of climate change, they went from a Jeep Commander (a gas guzzler if I’ve ever seen one) to a Kia optima, less gas and more efficient. America is all about the bigger the better. You could go into any parking lot and  you’d mostly see SUVs, trucks and minivans. But we are entering a time now that you see more and more cars like the prius and other smaller cars around. America’s car crazy culture coincide with the rest of the world, Europe has been making smaller cars for a long time. America’s mantra is “the bigger the better” our cars were bigger, our houses were bigger, our desire to be the “best” has maybe been one of our gravest mistakes seeing as now we are the leading country in greenhouse gas emission.

I asked him what he thought the world might look like 50 years from now.  He thinks that if the world is still in the throws of denying climate change then the world is going to be a mess. He believes it is our duty to change the world for a better future for our kids and their kids and so on and so forth. You don’t want to put the world in a state that you wouldn’t be okay with your most loved ones living in.

When I asked what he thought he could do to make a difference, his answer entailed many of the things that we have talked about and already know to do to make a change: smaller cars and being more conscientious of conserving energy where we can.

When coming across a person who denies that climate change is real, what would you say to them to convince them otherwise?

He said to take a look at our seasons. The seasons aren’t what they used to be, the droughts, the blizzards, polar vortex (cold air coming down from canada) and various natural disasters are things we’re slowly becoming desensitized to because of how frequently we here about them on the news.

It’s hard to believe that people don’t believe the scientists that dedicate their lives studying and proving that this issue exists. He thinks, that the evidence proving global warming to be real, greatly outweighs any evidence to the contrary.

Some Thoughts about a Climate Fiction Class

Maya McEwen 7 Comments

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.

 

What is Global Warming?

Maya McEwen 4 Comments

By definition global warming is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. What does all of that mean?  Those that are unaware of global warming and the fact that it is a real thing, and it’s happening to the very planet that we all live on need to know that it’s important we start to pay attention. Because it is due to our lack of attention that this is happening in the first place. I think that the lack of knowledge and publicity about global warming can be attributed to a lack of understanding. So, to put it in simpler terms, air pollution is collecting in the earth’s atmosphere and thus trapping in the suns heat causing the entire planet to gradually warm up. How is it affecting us? This is a question that is difficult to answer and is a reason why there are so many people that don’t believe that global warming is real. Because there is no direct effect on our daily lives, apparently that constitutes non-belief, which in turn results in lack of action to work toward any kind of resolution. Because the effects of global warming are hard to predict, I feel as though that is all the more reason to care. As humans, we possess this fear of the unknown. We fear our futures because none of us know what it entails. But in most cases that is in reference to things like careers, relationships, and our individual person in general. But not knowing anything about global warming isn’t cause for concern? Apparently the fact that the world is essentially dying doesn’t strike as much fear in people as potentially having to work at McDonalds for the rest of their lives, or potentially ending up alone. Some very real and recent effects of global warming to name a few, are various droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels, animal extinction and in some cases human death due to heat stroke. What can we do to be proactive about global warming and what preventative steps can we take in our daily lives now before global warming actually affects us on a day-to-day basis? It’s simple! Conserve energy. Use florescent light bulbs, be conscious of how much water you’re using, walk more drive less, or, bike more drive less. If walking or biking isn’t a suitable option for you then look into hybrid vehicles and just smaller vehicles in general. Another great way to help is just to talk about global warming, raise awareness and create a sense of urgency, I can understand that we don’t want people in constant panic mode because that would result in chaos but it is something that we should be scared of and that warrants a fire to be lit under all of our feet because not enough people are doing anything about it when everybody should be.