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

Why I Write Cli-Fi

Check out this recent article, “What is cli-fi? And Why I Write It,” by children’s and young adult (YA) fiction writer Sarah Holding.  In it, Holding explains why she chooses to write in the cli-fi genre, and especially why she writes cli-fi for young people:

“I write cli-fi because it reconnects young readers with their environment, helping them to value it more, especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world. Cli-fi advocates restoring equilibrium to our physical environment, making it not just a setting or backdrop to a story, but a story’s primary purpose and emotional appeal. The characters in my writing are genuinely concerned about the environment and want to make a difference, which I hope is contagious and spreads to my readers too.”

Some of Holding’s ideas might be especially useful for those of you who are thinking of creating a work of cli-fi for the final project that is aimed at a younger audience.   Holding also speaks more generally about the importance of imagining different futures, of engaging in speculative practice (something we experimented with during class last Friday): “Cli-fi has allowed me to participate imaginatively in rewriting our future, a future on which we all depend… cli-fi makes young people realise that they too can rewrite our future.”