For my final project I decided to write a journal from the perspective of a girl named Hailey. The story is set in the year 2073 and Hailey, along with her family, is dealing with a rapidly rising sea level. The sea has already risen to the point where new enormous buildings had to be created to house all the people on the coastlines. The journals detail her day-to-day life and include many struggles and plot twists. I decided to create a journal because I enjoy this format and really liked the style of writing in Diary of an Interesting Year. Here is a journal entry from my final project: Contine reading
Climate Change
Education is key
After taking this course I have a whole new perspective on how our planet is being polluted; I’ve learned extensive amounts about water pollution and how that, in the long run, is going to defunct a multitude of animal species and eventually destroy our planet’s ability to sustain life. I never thought someone else was as interested in this topic until I talked to a close friend of mine and found out that she grew up in an area that banned water pollution near recreational swimming zones. Of course that didn’t stop her city from dumping the pollutants into the water just further up the coast, but it was a step in the right direction. She spoke about how beautiful and pristine her beaches were; how, even during the rainy season, the water was still clear and fish still swam near the coast. Thats how beaches are supposed to look; however, the unfortunate truth of this story is that this is not a common reality for most coastal areas. Many beaches are polluted to the extent where they are closed off to the public because if someone swam in the contaminated water they could get extremely ill or even die. So why is this still legal? Why is it legal to pollute water to the extent that it may kill people if they swim in it? Why don’t we consider marine animals’ lives when creating these laws? My friend and I asked ourselves these questions and tried to come up with reasonable explanations as to why humans have created laws and norms that put human beings at the top of the pyramid of life. Contine reading
The Polar Bear
I thought that this blog would be a good opportunity to relate a post to my final project for this course. I am doing some research on the polar bear and how human interaction is directly affecting their lives. As the earth gets warmer every year with the increase in our carbon emissions, their habitat is deteriorating. Their typical climate is dependent on sea ice, which allows them to swim freely and hunt for seals, their main source of food. As the world continues to heat, open seas ice is deteriorating and often stranding polar bears on floating ice sheets often leading to them drowning while in search of solid land.
Polar bears are in serious threat of going extinct due to human interaction. They were the first vertebrate species to be put on the endangered species list directly caused by global warming. Since they can only survive in an area that is cold enough to create sea ice, the warmer temperatures are destroying their natural habitat. The future of polar bears in the wild is looking highly unlikely at this point. Sea ice is beginning to be more and more uncommon and there is not enough to keep the polar bears sustained. Many experts believe that we could see wild polar bears extinct as early as the next 10 years.
It does not stop at polar bears. There are countless animals that are on the brink of extinction due to human interaction and climate change. These animals we often can take for granted because they have been in our world our whole lives. But what about the next generation? How do you think they will feel when polar bears, sea turtles, elephants, tigers, and many other species in the wild are a thing of the past? We should not rob the future generations of the opportunity to have the same interests and experiences that we did because we were too lazy to recycle or ride our bikes instead of driving and wasting fossil fuels. The time to start saving the future is now.
Heres some links to check out:
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/mammals/polar-bear.aspx
“Climate Change is Not My Problem”
Before taking this class based on the subject of climate change I never really looked into the weather patterns as factors of global warming so I didn’t expect my sister to either when I asked her input on climate change. I described to her the plot of the novel we read in class, Odds Against Tomorrow, and what Cli-Fi is. Prior to trying to strengthen her knowledge of climate change she claims the only thing she really knew was that major ice caps are melting and polar bears had the possibility of going extinct in the near future.
Thinking about a possible natural disaster that could destroy part of the world is scary. My sister has a prominent fear of the ocean so when she found out the major cities could flood, even our hometown of San Diego, she freaked. She was unaware that so much damage could be done to our planet overall. She only believed that the temperature would probably increase a few degrees and that animals such as polar bears would suffer greatly. My sister seemed worried by all these possible events but not worried enough. Frequently I would hear my sister say, “but this won’t affect me I won’t be alive then” or “if I don’t have to experience it then it’s not my problem”. In reality, it is her problem. I am worried about these type of reactions she had because climate change is affecting all of us right at this moment.
Interpretation of the Future Coast Project
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
Preview: The Real Enemy
This is a short preview of what is to come for everyone.
Dyuce Woodson: James
Casey Leach: Kate
Zach Bigley: Narrator
GET PUMPED ENG 104
https://soundcloud.com/bigleyzach/eng-104-final-project-preview
Humans: The Most Dangerous Species on the Planet
One of my favorite weeks of the year is in the summer when The Discovery Channel dedicates a whole week to just sharks. I am fascinated by sharks so I wondered, are sharks being affected by this increase in climate? Not only is global warming affecting the lives living on land but also those that live in the oceans.
The article Sharks and Climate Change discusses how sharks are currently being impacted by global warming. The oceans around the world are warming. Sharks have the possibility to go extinct in the next hundred years because the increase in water temperature confuses and stresses out these sharks which make them unable to mate. Even though sharks are at the top of the food chain they are still being majorly affected since their food supply is starting to slowly disappear. Since these smaller fish are vanishing the food chain is most likely going to be upset. But overall sharks will most likely relocate to waters containing food sources, and that may include shallow waters off the coasts of many populated beaches. Contine reading
The Media’s Roll in Climate Change
In recent years, the world has suffered a dramatic increase in temperature which in turn has melted the polar ice caps raising the sea level slowly but surely. These are facts. However, some news sources such as Fox News don’t like to acknowledge these facts as true occurring events; rather they enjoy calling them “theories” and “ideas,” thus contributing to the distrust of scientists. When scientists who have focused their entire research on climate change and the global distribution of heat throughout the recent years are questioned for validity on news broadcasts, viewers sometimes find the need to reconsider their respect and appreciation for these proven facts. When scientists who are experts in the area of climate change aren’t believed, then who are the people believing? Contine reading
We Survive Together, We Die Together
They way we act in times of stress can show us who we are. The way we act in times of distress define us as a society and species. In the book Odds Against Tomorrow, after the flood, the author Nathaniel Rich described some of the people in New York as if they had lost all of their societal common sense. They were expressed as if they were creatures that did not belong in the bodies that encased their inner beast. It was like they had forgotten that as a people, we need to band together in times of sorrow and pain, not hurt each other.
Our Planet: Before and After Climate Change
The reality of climate change is getting to the point where it is impossible to ignore. A large percentage of Earth’s population is in a state of denial about the effects that our race is having on the planet. No matter what evidence and numbers and statistics of the past weather are placed in front of them, many find ways to deny it. A common response is that the Earth is just going through another cycle like it has done for the last billions of years. Although the fact that the Earth has gone through phases of global temperature is true, the rate at which the temperature is increasing has never been seen before.
Most of these past climate changes took millions of years to change, and even then, the Earth’s global temperature has never been higher. I found an article on Business Insider written by Dina Spector titled, “Before and After Pictures Show how Climate Change is Destroying Earth“. The article states that since now almost all scientists agree that global warming is happening, the White House has invested $1 billion towards climate change and preparing for our near future’s inevitable storms and natural disasters. “Rising global temperatures, largely due to man-made greenhouse gases, are the source of widely-discussed observable changes to the Earth like melting glaciers, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and floods” (Spector).
Along with the article there are numerous before and after pictures taken different locations around the world. The devastation that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution has completely transformed our planet. The Great Barrier Reef was once filled with color and life, and now the coral, which is crucial to the survival in sea life, is white and on the brim of death. It doesn’t stop at sea life. The Muir Glacier in Alaska in now completely gone and has transformed from icebergs to a body of water. These pictures are a powerful tool to stop the nonsense that our current climate change is just another part of the Earth’s natural weather cycle. The facts are in. Humans are the cause.
We Need to Inform People About Climate Change!
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
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.
As the Salmon Swim By, Stare, Take Good Care; One Day, They May Not Be There.
Salmon are very important to Native American tribes all over the country. The salmon populations in the Northwest are depleting because of human activity and it is a huge issue for not only the tribes, but citizens who are used to fishing for and consuming salmon. Climate change is directly correlated to this shift in population.
Salmon are very sensitive to environmental changes in their habitat. They must migrate from the ocean back upstream to lay their eggs and a change in water temperature or surroundings could cause a change in their path home. The salmon species is in grave danger of extinction because of human activities and the EPA said, “Many salmon species are already considered threatened or endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Studies show that by 2100, one third of current habitat for Northwest salmon and other coldwater fish would be unsuitable. This is because warming temperatures are projected to pass key temperature thresholds.”
There have been many measures in place and being brought up for the future to combat this change and slow the process of habitat being unsuitable. In the talk tonight, they discussed many solutions. They ranged from restoration of the areas with increased shading or slowed flow of the rivers to using hatcheries to basically “manufacture” salmon in a controlled environment.
There was a discussion about the ethics of using hatcheries and releasing the fish into the wild because not only does it set them up for failure, but it is a short term solution for a long term problem. This meant that the fish that were released from the hatcheries would affect the natural fish because they do not know how to repopulate naturally, so they create a new environment.
The speakers highlighted that the most important thing that we can do to help the salmon is to vote. They need all the money they can get to save these sacred and good-tasting fish. Another thing we can all do is go out and help to plant trees along the sides of rivers. This creates shade, which helps to keep the water temperature cool for the salmon.
Save the salmon! They are so very important to Oregon and all the tribes as a whole. They need to stay alive.
A Positive Outlook
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. Contine reading
Hot Planet/ Cool Athletes
While researching information for my blog post, I came across a program created by The North Face called “Hot Planet / Cool Athletes”. They also paired up with sponsors Cliff Bar and MEC to educate middle and high schools about the truth of climate change. They use the influence of pro athletes to energize the youth about the future of our planet if we continue at the same rate we are at. These athletes, many of whom are professional snowboarders and skiers, provide a different perspective of the reality of climate change that they have experienced first hand.
I think this is a great idea to connect with the youth. For many students hearing from a teacher about the effect the human race is having on the world is often not enough to influence and fully educate them. This program brings in professionals who have first hand experience with the changing of snow levels in mountains all across the world in just the last decade. The Hot Planet Cool Athletes program has reached over 27,000 students since it was founded in 2011 by speaking and inspiring the youth in classes and assemblies.
I think that the education of climate change needs to go farther than the classroom. The youth of today is the generation that really needs to step up and change the way that humans live and pollute. With an increasing focus on climate change in schools, the information may become repetitive or still not have a personal impact with students, especially those who live in an urban environment. Field trips should be mandatory that physically display the effects that humans have on the environment. Once the evidence is displayed to students first hand, then maybe the next generation will be motivated and eager to change the world.
Final Project Idea
So, right now, I have a pretty good idea for my final project for this class. I’m gonna propose my story idea by writing the first chapter of a possible cli-fi novel. Hopefully there isn’t too much of a limit to what I can write. I still need to do the close-reading analysis for the actual chapter. However, I could use some help with some details for the plot and how to weave certain elements of the story together. That is why I am asking for help from my fellow classmates.
Climate Change Ethical Issues in “The Weatherman”
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.
The Pits of Despair?
In class, we talked about the tar pits in Canada. They are obviously terrible for the environment and they help Canada’s GDP immensely, but we didn’t talk about why they are so awful for the environment.
The tar pits excrete oil sands and create a barren wasteland of ugly earth that can be seen from space. The miners not only clear the areas of all life and green, but they destroy the water supply in the surrounding areas. A report about water usage in the mines said, “To produce one cubic metre (m3) of synthetic crude oil (SCO) (upgraded bitumen) in a mining operation requires about 2–4.5 m3 of water (net figures).” The oil sands mining company is currently allowed to divert 359 million m3 of water, more than two times the amount needed for the local city. This is a problem that changes not only the environment in a negative way, but it is hurting the locals in many ways.
The locals are not only unable to fish and hunt, as was mentioned in lecture, but their lively hoods are completely changed by the oil sand pits as well. They are forced to assimilate into the culture that the sands bring with it. That means that they get jobs mining the sand and in production. My question is; is it worth it? Is it worth the jobs? Their lives are completely changed by this monster that comes charging in and seems to destroy everything in its path.
While I might not agree with the politics necessarily, I thought that this was a very interesting video on the tar pits.
It made me think about all the things that they go through up there and how the big companies get away with a lot. It is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
A Moral Obligation to Act(?)
If someone were to ask me what the Tar Sands were prior to the class readings, I would have told them that I have no idea what they were. Unbeknownst to me, the Canadian Tar Sands are a 54,000 square mile area of what used to be lush Alberta Forrest, but is now the home of some of the dirtiest oil mining operations in the world. These lo mines are largely contributing to greenhouse gas emissions as well as the world’s climate change. Reading the articles and viewing the pictures on the Tar Sands were shocking to say the least. What was more shocking, however, was the fact that I, nor anyone I asked, knew anything about the Tar Sands or even knew what they were.
Can Children Handle the Topic of Climate Change?
After the past few weeks of talking about climate change, I have realized how important it is to write about it so that the world can see that this is a real thing and it is affecting us right now. This led me to think how we can educate the world better about climate change because the more people know about it, the easier it will be to change it. I started thinking about how it seems like most of the people that know about climate change are adults. This led me to think about whether or not we should educate young children about climate change. Contine reading
Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest
It seems lately that a lot of focus on Climate Change right now is adaptation instead of mitigation. I think this because people don’t fully realize the effects Climate Change might have on their respective environments, so they assume that even if there is a change in the weather in their area, it won’t cause anything too drastic. This prompted me to see how Climate Change would effect the region we currently reside in right now, the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in a town about an hour south of here, and I had noticed some strange weather patterns over the last few years. It turns out, Climate Change is going to affect the region significantly within the next few decades. During the last century, the temperature here rose by nearly 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit on average, and in some places rose nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit. This really surprised me, as I never really heard about it on the news, or from anyone else really, as it seems like this would be a big deal.
From my own observation, it seems that summers around here to have lasted longer and warmer with every passing year, and that the weather in the winter is more unpredictable and doesn’t last quite as long. I also read that climate change is significantly affecting snowpacks, as well as the flow of streams and forest top covers in our area. The average annual temperature in our region is expected to increase by 3-10 degrees Fahrenheit within the next 100 years, which is truly frightening, as this would be a very changed climate from the one I grew up in. The amount of winter precipitation is expected to increase, which seemed odd to me, as I thought the climate would become more arid with increase heat, but then I read that the summer precipitation is expected to decrease by a large amount, which sort of fits in with the trend I’ve been noticing the last few summers. Contine reading
Will Technology Take Over Our Weather?
Learning about the Canadian oil sands really opened my eyes. It showed me how people are the reason for this climate change that is happening to our planet. I thought it was interesting how in the photo essay the photographer got to capture every moment and makes the reader feel like they are there in the airplane with the photographer. One picture that really grabbed my attention was the picture with the caption, “The ponds are vast and some look more like lakes” [(Johnson) I tried to insert the photo from the blog onto this post, but it was not working]. This was an unbelievable picture to me because I cannot believe that those ponds are oil, sand and water mixtures. This makes me question why people on our planet are doing this? I understand that we need oil in our lives to be functioning humans, but why do we have to take up this much territory? Why can’t we just keep it more contained in a smaller area? I also thought the photo of the memorial of the family that passed away was extremely sad. I notice how dangerous this type of oil mining factory is. I believe that if it is as harmful where there is a death something needs to be changed, but I feel like nothing is going to be changed.
Don’t Panic, We’re Safe. Right?
There’s always talk of climate change, of what is going to be left of the world. Sea levels rise, cities become submerged. Is there any hope? According to this article from Business Insider, the United States as a whole is, for the most part, safe. So no need to worry, right? Nope.
Though the infographic deems the U.S. safe from climate change, it is misleading. The map is a zoomed out effect. It doesn’t focus on smaller state, region, or city specific information. So on paper, the U.S. looks safe. But what happens to the cities at current sea levels? The coastal towns we love on the East and West coast? What happens to those? Contine reading
The consequences of our actions are here…
Global warming has always been a topic that I have felt passionately about. Ever since I was able to recognize that the environment was changing, and not for the better, I have felt strongly about the changing climate, as well as the reasons behind it. In recent years, I would say that I have stayed fairly “in the loop” with climate change topics, including the preventative measures on both the small and large scale. In addition to this, I have also followed some scientists predictions on what could and will happen if we as human beings stay on the same course we are on now with regards to CO2 emissions and air pollution. However, it wasn’t until viewing the Global Weirding is Here website that I truly understood the massive, global, and near future effects that climate change will have on the environment, animals, and even humans.
One of the most shocking initial facts that struck me upon viewing the Global Weirding is Here timeline was that climate change has already affected people across the world on a very large scale. Issues such as increased heavy rainfall in the United States and a rising sea level across the world have already been occurring right in-front of our eyes. Although those issues alone seem fairly large in scale, that is nothing compared to what will come if we don’t do anything. Based on the “Do Nothing” scenario where we as humans continue what we are currently doing we should expect to see rising water and surface temperatures, an increased risk of wildfires, severe drought across the world and mass extinctions of species; all in our lifetimes. The last part, “all in our lifetime” is something that is truly shocking and eye-opening. It is something that should be a wake-up call for all people, regardless of age, regardless of whether this will occur in your lifetime, your children’s lifetime, or even your grandchildren’s lifetime. This stuff is happening and it’s happening fast. It should be our responsibility as humans being to make a difference on this Earth that will benefit people for many years to come.
It’s shocking to think that something such as global warming, which is usually talked about in the future tense (“if we don’t do this, then this will happen”), is already occurring. Contine reading
Why Global Warming Scares Me
Up until this point in my life, when people have talked about “climate change” or “global warming”, I haven’t thought much of it. It’s always seemed like a distant problem, one I won’t have to deal with in my lifetime. It seems abstract, much like a Jackson Pollock painting. There a
re so many different things going on that all contribute to one greater outcome, but thinking about (or in the case of the painting, looking at) it for too long begins to give me a bit of a jumbled mind and a headache. I can’t tell where it ends and I can’t figure out where it begins. I can’t seem to grasp the entire concept long enough to understand it. That scares me.
Though it’s only been two weeks into this course, I’ve learned far more about climate change and global warming than I’ve learned in my last 20 years of life. And quite frankly, it terrifies me. It’s a force of nature that, regardless of what we do to try and stop it, cannot be stopped. It’s going to happen anyway. We as a human race can work together to take precautionary and preventative measures to prolong the inevitable, but that’s it. It’s inevitable. Whether what we do prolongs it for 10 years, 50 years, or 100 years, I can’t say. But the thought that I may experience the harsh effects of climate change in my lifetime is a real possibility. That scares me.
The stories we’ve read so far have described a desolate, ruined planet. A planet that has harsh climates and abandoned cities. A planet that can’t maintain a human race. A planet that is far from what we know our planet to be. That scares me.
There have been so many studies done about global warming and the ways in which we can contribute to prolonging it. Those facts and statistics are some of the few that I actually find comfort in. Yes, it will still happen, and yes, it’s still difficult to grasp the entire concept, but knowing that there is at least something I can do to contribute is somewhat reassuring. Having been born and raised in Oregon, I’ve had the privilege of growing up in an area full of trees, rivers, oceans, beaches, mountains, and just about every other type of natural beauty one could think of. I’ve recycled my entire life, and I learned what a carbon footprint was long before I actually understood what it meant. I’ve spent much of my life trying to give back to this planet all that it has given to me, and I will continue to do so. My actions may be small, microscopic even, in the attempts to save our planet, but could you imagine the impact we would all have if everyone tried a little more? If everyone recycled a bit more? Or walked or biked a few days more than they drove? Or bought more food from local areas rather than food that has been shipped in from around the globe? It would make an astounding difference. That gives me reassurance that, although global warming scares me, there is hope that we can make a difference. That doesn’t scare me.
The Water is Going, Going… Gone?
The short story that we read, The Tamarisk Hunter, gave the possibility of the future with global warming effects. It describes a land controlled by the government, where water is the scarce liquid gold that everyone needed to survive. In the story, Lolo, the main character, is making a living, in some respects, by saving the water.
The water is fought over and through that, two economic classes are formed in California: those with a surplus of water and those who have to work very hard to get water to live. The ones with the water control everything. The author, Paolo Bacigalupi, writes, “The problem was that 4.4 million acre-feet of water was supposed to go down the river to California. There was water; they just couldn’t touch it,” (Bacigalupi 174). The people who own the water are the upper class of people and that left everyone else to toil in the heat. It seemed as though this theme felt like one from 1984 by George Orwell. It agrees with the idea in that book that a large part of the population has an idea that they are being mistreated, but they have no true idea how badly they have it. In both stories, the lower class has no way of moving up to the higher class either. It gives a sense of jealousy, as well as a need to understand more. Lolo is unable to figure out how to get more water without stealing and he thought it would be his end.