Three Portrayals of Climate Change
“You are what you eat.” We’ve all heard the old saying, reminding us that what we take in, we can’t help but manifest. A similar axiom might apply to other things we take in, like information. Granted, “you are what you read, hear, and/or watch” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, but it’s operating along the same lines.
But, in yet another difference between humans and food, (P1) creative artists use a variety of techniques to influence how we take in what they are telling us. By creative artists I mean writers, directors, and performers, and more specifically I refer to those involved in the works The Day After Tomorrow (DAT), An Inconvenient Truth (AIT), and Field Notes from a Catastrophe.
Some go for the most sensational images and the loudest sounds. Others go for the slideshow presentation. Josh Schoolmeyer – in his article “Lights, Camera, Armageddon” notes, “[E]xperts get it right; Hollywood delivers the crowds…[various media portrayals] linger in the collective conscious of the public,” (Schollmeyer p. 259). (P2) Such different techniques demonstrate an intent to pursue different audiences, or at the very least, to pursue different roles in the same audience. For example, a particular series of nightshow jokes on current events may not be meant to serve as people’s primary news source, although it uses politics and news as its substrate, and could very well bring up a story or issue that the viewer was unaware of.
(X) By comparing and contrasting Field Notes, DAT, and AIT
(Y) this paper will evaluate their respective techniques, goals, and intended audiences,
(Z) in order to examine how media sources specifically present the issue of climate change.
The Day ...
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...mate change, a balance of media is crucial for illustrating both the importance and methodology of this immense challenge to our future.
Works Cited:
An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore. Paramount Classics
2006
Box Office Mojo. 2007. Box Office Mojo Movie Review. 18 Oct. 2007
http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=documentary.htm
Guardian Unlimited. 14 May 2004. The Guardian Newspaper. 19 Oct. 2007
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1215824,00.html
Kolbert Elizabeth. Field Notes from a Catastrophe. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006.
The Day After Tomorrow. Dir. Roland Emmerich. Perf. Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal,
Emmy Rossum. 20th Century Fox 2004
Washingtonpost.com. 27 Jun 2006. The Washington Post Newspaper. 18 Oct. 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/06/27/.html
Ever since the advent of weather observation and prediction technology in the past 150 years, science has created a consensus that the earth is getting warmer, and that human influence is to blame. Some even blame this change, known as global warming, for bouts of extreme weather including cyclonic storms, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves. These scientists (and much of the public) believe that our influence is the problem, as our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, the product of the usage of our fuels, are polluting the atmosphere and trapping energy from the sun within. However, a minority group, scientists and public skeptics alike, believe this warming trend is merely a coincidence with the earth’s naturally cyclical climate, and that the activists are overstating something they know little about. Many even agree that if the prospect of our influence were to be true, the effects are not at all that bad, unlike what it is hyped to be. Thus, global warming has become a debatable theory. Much like legislation that prevents schools from teaching evolution as anything more than a theory, now there are also laws that mandate that global warming be considered debatable, and to argue both sides of it (Jonas).
... and feed grains (Nyong, 2008). Higher temperatures can the physiological development of crops such as causing increased respirations, shorter periods of seed formation and reduced biomass production which all result in hastened maturation and reduced crop yields (Adejuwon, 2004). Global warming and drought have affected the change in the incidence and distribution of pests and pathogens which presents challenges for crop management and animal rearing. Moisture and temperature are important elements of climate which determine the occurrence and localization of pests and diseases (Adejuwon, 2004). This is because pests and diseases vectors thrive well in optimum conditions of high temperature and abundant water supply. In this way climate change and global warming has extended the range of distribution of some pests and diseases worsening the plight of farmers.
For a majority of people, it isn’t new news that the Earth’s climate is changing and increasingly getting warmer. For quite some time now, people have been arguing about what the actual causes are and what role humans have played in the current condition of the earth. A good bit of people seem to be in agreement that due to the actions of humans, the earth’s climate is increasingly getting worse and that if things don’t change, than everyone living on earth will be facing the consequences. However, this is not entirely true. The fault of climate change does not fall solely on the shoulders of mankind, but on the earth as well.
Some people, some great people deserve to live forever, or at least die in a worthy or in a fulfilling way. I just got the short end of the bargain, I just got one of the worst things on this earth, cancer. Anyone can get the disease, but the way I see it, it seems unfair and unruly that pure souls could end up with a painful and undeserving demise. Unfortunately, I was one of those pure souls.
It was extraordinary, indescribable, breathtaking. I looked out of the window next to me, and before my eyes was the view of a clear, blue sky, covered in sheets of snowy, white clouds. Slowly we began descending through them, revealing the expanse of blue water, stretching in every direction of the horizon. In the far right I could see a glimpse of main land, but not just any land, India. It was there and then, that I knew my life would be changed forever.
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