ESRM / COMM 496 Blog Post #7: Class Wrap-up

https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/news-1.jpg

To wrap up our class for the semester, share the URL of a recent story in the news (anywhere from CBS news to NPR) that touches on an adaptation or mitigation situation, strategy or policy. Provide the URL, a short 1-2 sentence summary and an explanation of how it relates to our class this semester. Please respond to this post to share your news story.

ESRM / COMM 496 Blog Post #6: Ice on Fire Wrap-Up

Please watch the last 15 minutes of Ice on Fire (we already watched most of it in class!) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFx_geNL5s

After, please make an argument (as a reply to this post) based on the documentary's modo: Game Over or Game On? Write 1-2 paragraphs (4-5 sentences each). State which side of the argument you see the world at and give an example from the documentary to support your argument. 

And the winner is...

Snowpiercer! 

Thanks to the ranked voting method of "single transferable votes" and thanks, especially, to your participation in this democratic process, we've collectively chosen to watch what Entertainment Weekly called "the coolest coldest most ingenious outrageous mind-blowing unpredictable audacious dangerous daring politically charged provocative thrill ride of the summer."   

Based on the graphic novel "Le Transperceneige" by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, Bong Joon-ho's film adaptation should help us discuss the representational challenges of climate change.  So please watch with climate change in mind.  As EW notes, it's a thriller, and in Hollywood parlance, that means violence, so be warned there are some fairly graphic scenes.   

The expectation is that you watch this on your own time prior to Wednesday's class session (it's available via Netflix streaming).  As you watch, I encourage you to take notes and come ready to discuss this as a particular  instance of a characteristically Hollywood vision of climate futures.  As a broad question, then, be prepared to talk about how fiction might influence our understanding of climate realities. Looking forward to our discussion, Kevin   

Climate Imagination: Joint CSUCI/UAS class

Next week we will stage an inter-state discussion of a feature length film that deals with climate change in a speculative and imaginative manner.

To insure we have the most engagement in this discussion, I'd like you to help choose the film we use to frame our discussion.  But don't cast a single vote; instead rank your choices, posting in the comments here your top choice as number 1 and your last choice as number 4.

Here are the contenders, with links to the trailers for each:

1) The 2004 Hollywood classic The Day After Tomorrow 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku_IseK3xTc

2) The 2008 sci-fi drama Sleep Dealer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8oSRSzS7M

3) 2014's dystopian thriller Snowpiercer (not to be confused with the forthcoming TV series):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX5PwfEMBM0

4) And the much more optimistic 2012 narrative/fantasy film Beasts of the Southern Wild
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvqZzSMIZa0

Our goal will be to think critically about the ways that climate change presents narrative challenges, analyzing the ways American cinema is contending with the predicted outcomes and issues.  All of these films are viable texts in that regard, so choose the one you most want to watch (or re-watch!).

Our resident political scientist Dr. Glenn Wright will tally the votes--using an intricate and cutting-edge voting system--at dinner time Friday November 1.

ESRM / COMM Blog Post #5

Please read about the Paris Agreement and make a reply to this post with a piece of information about it here (who, what, where, when, how). Do read other's posts so that you can add new information!

Click here for  a good place to start.

ESRM / COMM 496 Blog Post#4

Please read about 'climate geoengineering' generally online and then post any example that interests you as a reply below. Use 2-3 sentences to describe the geoengineering technique you identify.

We will review the Moore et al. 2018 reading tomorrow in class!

ESRM / COMM 496 Blog Post #3

Lookup and revisit information on California's GHG Cap and Trade Program.
Focus on the current state of the program (cost, success, amount of GHG reductions, etc).
Summarize your information in a reply to this post and include a URL to an article or webpage with more information on California's GHG Cap and Trade Program.

UAS Geography 350: IPCC Blog Post 2

As part of their argument that the anthropocence demands we rethink the split between nature and society, Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz suggest we need to study both “natures pervaded by the social” and “societies pervaded by nature” (36).  One of the core conclusions of their book The Shock of the Anthropocene is indeed that these “two former supposed ‘compartments’ must thus be studied by combining approaches of the so-called social and so-called natural sciences, rather than by an interdisciplinarity of adjacency in which each would reign over its own compartment” (37). In this way, they echo a point made in Ted Toadvine’s short “Six Myths of Interdisciplinarity.”  Indeed, Toadvine posits that a “broad interdisciplinarity” is important for environmental studies--“broad” serving to mark what he calls “a conversation between the disciplines that range across the spectrum from the natural sciences to the humanities.”  

In this short writing assignment, we’d like you to meditate on interdisciplinarity and  climate change . You might start by considering the insights on climate change offered by your own discipline. Can you identify moments of incommensurability with other disciplinary ways of knowing in these climate insights?  What might be some barriers to the “broad interdisciplinarity” Toadvine outlines?    Can you identify places where “nature” and the “social” are compartmentalized? Is it necessary to overcome this compartmentalization?

Think about your answer for a few minutes, then try to quickly compose a reasoned response that represents no more than 20 minutes of writing and editing.   Post this writing in the comments below. If you encounter interface or technical troubles, or just have general questions about the assignment, shoot me an e-mail at kkmaier@alaska.edu and I’ll post the comments for you.     

Alaska to California: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change

ESRM/COM Blog Post#1

GEOL S350 Blog Post

We want students in California and Alaska to introduce themselves!!

Please comment on this Blog Post including the following information AND any other comments you would like to share with each other.

--> Name

--> Major

--> coldest temperature experienced in hometown

************

--> upload any pictures you have of coastal or lakeside beaches in your state

Email the picture and description on Canvas or Blackboard and the instructor will post them on the main blog post. Pictures can 't be uploaded in comments.

Oxnard State Beach at sunset, and I that you can see the curvature of the coast and the "fog finger" that settles regularly in West Ventura. -Jen Bays [CSUCI]

Point Sal State Beach, which is a hike-in beach near the Vandenberg Air Force Base. Jen Bays [CSUCI].

Sunrise at Malibu Beach. Bri Occhino [CSUCI]

Loco Canyon Hike, Santa Rosa Island (of the Channel Islands).  Bri Occhino [CSUCI]

This picture is really cool. It i the "beach front" (made up of pulverized bones from millions of dead fish and barnacles) of the Sultan Sea. A really fascinating place on the San Andreas Fault, in Riverside County, California (about 30 miles from Coachella). It has an amazing history and poses very unique environmental conservation challenges. Bri Occhino [CSUCI]

San Onofre Beach, south of San Clemente pier, a pretty popular surfing spot. -Eli Lew [CSUCI]

Pismo Beach, taken on the drive up to Cal Poly SLO, because my sister goes there. -Eli Lew [CSUCI]

San Clemente pier, if you notice, the buildings here look similar to the one's at CSUCI. Very cool spot. -Eli Lew [CSUCI] 

My name is Natalie Javate. This is the picture of the beach I grew up in called Redondo Beach. This beach has nice sunsets and it’s beside a peninsula. [CSUCI] 

This is a picture from my first trip to Santa Rosa Island. It was taken just south of the pier at Bechers Bay in April 2018.  Jason Suddith [CSUCI] 

Hueneme Beach during the Woolsey Fire in November 2018. -Veronica [CSUCI]

Santa Cruz Island, September 2017. -Veronicaa [CSUCI]

Santa Cruz Island, September 2017. -Veronicaa [CSUCI]

-Chris [CSUCI]

Above is a picture of my daughter enjoying the water at the Port Hueneme Beach. 

- Darline Truong [CSUCI]

Kvichak River and Lake Iliamna, rock hunting with my mother.  Mary Hostetter (UAS).

Shoreline Photo in Kailua Hawaii, Photo taken from Pillbox Hike overlooking Lanikai Beach.  Christine Briggs (UAS)

.
"This is a photo of our skiff back home on the water in Nome fishing for salmon"  Tonia Osborne (UAS)

The first two (above) are from the outer coast of Chichagof, third one is from Glacier Bay. Glenn Wright (UAS)

I took this at Outer Point, North Douglas here in Juneau during one of my Archeology class field trips. 9/3/19 Artemio Sandoval (UAS)

x

North Beach in San Clemente, California. The colors have not been edited, the sunsets down there are really that bright. Khrystl Brouillette-Janes (UAS)





I’m Nick Whicker and I would call Southeast Alaska my home. Living near the ocean my entire life, as well as living from it, has inspired my interest in the natural sciences. I’m about to graduate this December with a Bachelor’s of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Alaska Southeast Juneau campus. My academic interests are primarily in (marine)biology and evolution, though I’m also quite interested in the physical sciences such as chemistry, physics, and oceanography and geography. I look forward to having discussions and interdisciplinary discourse with both my peers in Alaska and the students in California. The coldest temperature I’ve experienced was in Soldotna, Alaska at -14 or -15 degrees F; and in Southeast Alaska around -5 degrees F in Ketchikan. 

Point Louisa and Grace the Dog, Mali Tamone (UAS)

ESRM/COMM496 Blog Post #2

Please read about the California Coastal Commission here (p13-23):
https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/assets/slr/guidance/2018/0a_ExecSumm_2018AdoptedSLRGuidanceUpdate.pdf

We will have a speaker next week (Sep 4) visit and speak about managed retreat from our California Coastline.

After reading this document, make two comments under my post:
[1] Explain something interesting you learned about the Coastal Commission
[2] List a question to ask our speaker

Please read other replies and avoid repeating information.