CCM: Prompt 7
500 words that respond to the weekly readings. Your response needs to indicate critical engagement with the texts – not just a blow-by-blow recount of it. One way of doing this is to pick out a KEY INSIGHT or IDEA, and to explore / explain that, in relation to other media you’ve encountered that relates to the topic. You should reference the text in your blog (RMIT Harvard Style), and if you quote it, you need to cite it correctly.
Molly Wallace’s It’s the End of the Field as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) takes the work of other climate scholars to illustrate the ever-changing field of climate literature and academia. Wallace highlights the significance of scholars and students in teaching and understanding climate issues and the ability it has of constituting activism within society (pg. 569). A common idea discussed throughout Wallace’s writing is the concept of more direct activism. To my understanding, it’s as though we need to be stronger and directer in how we approach climate media and action. However, an issue which often appears in climate media is balance in how ideas and motivations are directed towards viewers.
Aggressive and complex forms of media only result in audiences becoming fearful, scared and confused. An example of what we may call ‘bad’ climate media, is Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation. The emotive language, intense imagery and overall panicked and fearful tone instigates a lot of troubled emotions for readers. Vice even published an article about just how detrimental the paper had been to readers. You can find the article here: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy.
It’s undeniably to difficult to understand the best approach to climate media and creating discussion and understanding of our array of climate issues. Wallace quotes fellow academics Greg Garrard and John Lanchester in explaining our reluctancy to think about global warming, as we’re worried we won’t be able to think about anything else and room for other thoughts will be lost (pg. 573). This fear of simply thinking about climate media makes room for much dismissal and ignorance to the issues we face and are part of. The refusal to become educated and aware of Anthropocene’s and Hyperobjects, which we face daily, becomes problematic and will prove to have lasting effects on humanity. Fear is an emotion we as humans prefer to avoid, fear can provoke anxiety, sadness and confusion, all emotions with great negative connotations. The climate, however, is not something we can not dismiss or place at lesser value to our own emotions. The planet we live in, society and life that we live and breathe in is all affected by the state of our planet.
This fear of damaging and harming the planet is something unavoidable. It’s important that we come to terms with as Wallace puts it, ‘doing what we fear’ (pg. 573) These simple mundane acts of driving, using technology, buying clothing and so on all contribute to one climate issue or another. It is not to say we should go about our lives because it is ‘too late’, but, we should recognise how integrated damaging the planet is. We have the capability to recognise our wrong actions and alter them to be more sustainable.
Activism should be direct, but should not attack. Climate media should come with good intention and a desire to educate, rather than purely to instil fear and anxiety within viewers. As crucial as an emotional connection to the climate is, the manipulation of audiences will only do harm to the mediascape. Correctly educating, informing and guiding others to understanding is what matters most in climate media and activism.
References:
Bendell, J. (2018). Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy. [online] Available at: https://mahb.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/deepadaptation.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Tsjeng, Z. (2019). The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It’s Sending People to Therapy. [online] Vice. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Wallace, M. (2017). It’s the End of the Field as We Know It (and I Feel Fine). American Literary History, 29(3), pp.565–578.