Essay #1 prompts(WRITE)
Essay #1: Global Emergency! Note: the finished essay is due by Friday night, May 3rd, 2024. The submission portal is now open.
PURPOSE: The world has been plunged into turmoil since 2020, with the social and health impacts of the coronavirus and, more recently, the economic and political fallout from the wars in Gaza and the Ukraine. Here in the USA, unrest continues over police brutality, entrenched racism, and socio-economic inequality, while random crime surges, from shootings to shoplifting. These are all important concerns to address, but if you go back to before 2020 (lockdown), the number one issue attracting new followers (Greta Thunberg et al) was the impact of global warming on our environment. It’s coming back into the public eye with the crazy weather and superheated oceans we’ve experienced in the past year.
Admittedly, there are still Flat-Earthers who reject all science and logic, and a good number of people who sees their livelihoods threatened so prefer not to believe the severity of the problem. Nonetheless, we’ve seen a series of tornadoes, fires, and, most recently, mega-storms and floods that demonstrate clearly how the climate problem continues to worsen. Despite whatever complaints and concerns that exist within society, society itself cannot exist except within the habitable world. In other words, no livable ecosystem, no civilization within which to work out our discontents.
You may well have reached similar conclusions having watched and read the assigned “Global Emergency” materials from James Howard Kunstler, Chief Seattle, Alphonso Cuaron (and his interviewees), the reports on “Ghost Trees” and the Adirondack (more hopeful, that one), and Al Gore in Davis Guggenheim’s’ documentary. Here’s an opportunity to demonstrate that by considering the arguments they’ve made.
TASK: Following the same method we’ve developed over the discussion boards, discuss one film and two essays, stating the overall argument and summarizing the ideas about the problems approaching from the near future:
Films (choose one): The Possibility of Hope (dir. Alfonso Cuaron, 2007); An Inconvenient Truth (dir. Davis Guggenheim, 2006), A Wild Idea-The Birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (by Brad Edmondson & Paul Frederick, 2021).
Essays (1 from Kunstler required + 1 other author): James Howard Kunstler, “The Long Emergency;” Kunstler’s follow-up lecture, “Remarks in Hudson, NY January 8, 2005;” Frank Kaminski’s reflection on Kunstler’s ideas ten years after their publication; Chief Seattle, “Letter to President Pierce, 1855;” Nancy Chen & Analisa Novak, “Ghost Trees.”
Chief Seattle is in the textbook; the other pieces are in Module 6. You can review the films through the links in the module. Cuaron’s The Possibility of Hope is quite short, at least in comparison to An Inconvenient Truth, but be aware that over its three episodes, it contains several separate interviews to be considered. In turn, An Inconvenient Truth cinematizes the Al Gore essay “The Climate Emergency,” which was included in the textbook but, annoyingly, has been dropped from the latest edition. If your copy has it, feel free to refer to it as well.
CRITERIA:
Format: 1200 word count min., 1” margins, double-spaced, 10/12 pt. type. On a cover page or in the top left-hand corner, be sure to put your name, my name, our class, and the date. Use an effective structure that carefully guides your reader from one idea to the next, and edit thoroughly so that sentences are readable and appropriate for an academic audience.
For each element (film, essay), you must choose at least three issues that are addressed in that source. These could be distinct to each or considered by all (i.e., global warming, over-population, fuel shortages). What position does each author/speaker take overall (optimistic, pessimistic, fatalistic, etc.)?
Then find one proof for each of these positions, at least (quoted statements, examples/scenes from the films) by which that position is demonstrated.
Finally, draw a conclusion from the points and proofs that reflect what the author, director, or interviewee means, as you see it.
In summary, this means identifying and considering nine issues and nine supporting details in total — though you’re welcome to add more!
For The Possibility of Hope, you must also answer the following questions, to keep your discussion on track with the film’s various episodes. If you wish, you can structure these answers to fulfil part of the “Proofs” requirement, if you can do so successfully:
What does Slavoj Zizek mean by his metaphor of the world being a boat?
What does Naomi Klein means by the “global green zone,” as she call it?
What did the late James Lovelock ultimately predict for our planet’s future?
All major points must be supported by references to the source materials (films, essays), and such references must be cited using MLA format. See Keys For Writers as needed for citation help. All elements (each film, each essay) should generate at least a good paragraph apiece (7-8 sentences), and your essay should contain a solid introduction with a clear thesis statement (a guiding opinion about the overall content you’re discussing), and a final paragraph (or two) in which you state your conclusions about the issue. Good luck!
