Kevin Bhimani

Blog #6 – It’s not Climate Change, It’s Everything Change

2/23/17

The article by Margaret Atwood was intriguing in more than one aspect. Simply the artistic format of the piece gives it incredible effectiveness as it is able to marry the notion of visual depictions with the message she is trying to get across. And the message is where it shines. Painting our future world in different scenarios (pictures as she calls them) and then reminding us that we are in total control of which picture ends up coming to fruition solely based on the actions we take is a very powerful concept to think about. Whether it be picture one with everything working out so that we almost live in a utopian society or picture two in which we run out of oil and something out of the likes of Mad Max is a reality or picture three in which some countries and people adapt to the rapid environmental changes we see whereas others don’t—all have the underlying idea that we are in control of them. It is a sobering thought to ponder as by watching Before the Flood and reading other articles about our future, it is all the more apparent that we cannot be apathetic with our actions. It’s countries like the U.S., like Canada, like Germany, and the other leaders of the world that have to start making changes if they want to see the developing nations follow suit. One of the points that stuck with me from the film was hearing that India and China were moving rapidly to increase their solar, wind, and renewable energy foothold in general whereas the U.S. up to this point has not yet made such strides due to the seemingly trivial aspects of Congressional hold-ups and such. Politics cannot get in the way of something that is so much more important like climate change, yet with our incredibly institutionalized society, it does. Ensuring that our structure of government does not impede the progress of that we need to see happen will be instrumental going forward.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601093/china-is-on-an-epic-solar-power-binge/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_(franchise)

Before the Flood (2016) by Fisher Stevens

https://medium.com/matter/it-s-not-climate-change-it-s-everything-change-8fd9aa671804#.2u7pftrle