I loved Margaret Atwood’s article, It’s Not Climate Change – It’s Everything Change, and our class discussion. I’ve already shared the article with many friends as I think it engages with and educates such a broad audience. Let’s start with the graphics. If I were asked, “What makes an article great?”, graphic design would not have come to mind before I read this article; however, I now consider it extraordinary tool. Atwood’s choice to change the background and text colors as she described our three potential fates greatly transformed the reading experience. The images also made it more interesting.
As for the content, I agreed with much of what Atwood said as well as the ways in which she made her points. Some felt she was too extreme in her images of the future; I disagree. I think that society has accepted this idea that climate change is a problem of the future, and we have plenty of time to mend things before we hit that dangerous dystopia of Atwood’s image #2. I really do not believe that the future she paints in image #2 is too unrealistic (and who’s to say what constitutes “realistic” anyway?) with our current trajectory, and the majority of our country needs this wakeup call. I certainly don’t think that that image #1 would be unrealistic if we were to increase our efforts on environmental technology and innovation; we already are using or researching the types of energy technology she lists and I already own clothing made out of hemp and recycled plastic! Image #3 is the one that we accept to be the most “realistic” as it is most inline with the present, which only feeds into the “global warming is a problem of the future” mentality. Atwood has a quote that sums up my beliefs perfectly: “If we don’t start aiming for Picture One, we’ll end up with some version of Picture Two.“
I’m already reaching the word count, and I only covered the beginning of the article! I’ll conclude by saying that through the article, class conversation, and group research, I learned a lot, both about climate change itself and about how to discuss it effectively. Also, the article gave a shout out to algae, and I’m always happy to see that! 🙂
