At first glance it seems that from the title, The Drowned World, is just another attempt by JG Ballard to publish a book that uses scientific reasoning to validate the impending doom and failure of man-kind to deal with climatic change. The title also suggests that the world has already succumbed to the fate of a disaster and has been flooded. Moreover, there are many visual clues suggesting the author’s approach to climate change falls in the genre of cli-fi. For instance, one of the clues is the book’s outer cover. It is filled with luscious green fauna and larger than life iguanas, which suggests that the author has taken a more scientific, yet descriptive and narrative approach to describe the apocalypse and its post-apocalyptic era. Despite …show more content…
This hypothesis differs from the present day accepted cause of global warming because the novel was written during an earlier period of time when scientific concepts of global warming were not as established. Moreover, Ballard might have been influenced by scientific discovery of the Van Allen belts in 1958, the time during which he must have written the novel (1962). James Van Allen, a graduate of the University of Iowa, discovered the belt in early 1958. Ballard’s idea of enlargement of Van Allen belts was a possibility during 1958, as there were no discoveries of the outer, larger belt. A seemingly justified scientific statement made by Ballard might seem feasible to readers before the 1990’s, but advances in scientific research and technology proving the cause of global warming renders this statement fallacious. Moreover, the logic of “unstable Sun and expanding atmosphere” are very novel statements, yet bolster the writer’s bravado writing style. The use of descriptive words creates a theatre for the reader to visualize the “unstable Sun” and “expanding
... what happened in the novel. Also, the results of the rise in heat and global warming were accurate, including rising sea levels and a permanently warmer climate. In the novel, it is said that the rising sea levels and temperatures forced any survivors to move up into the slightly cooler mountainous areas, such as the Appalachians. There was also the accurate scientific fact, found on page 89, that a virus is more effective if it kills less quickly, due to having more time to replicate. It is because of these accurate facts that the author's science fiction writing was believable.
In his piece on climate change, Richard Lindzen addresses his stance on the heated debate of global warming. He claims that there is, in fact, no ongoing catastrophic temperature increase. Lindzen, a Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a recipient of the Jule Charney award from the American Meteorological Society (Richard Lindzen), believes that the earth goes through natural phases of warming and cooling. In this piece, he examines why he believes people have a false conception of Earth’s climate shifts.
The novel is nurtured with a very soft but sophisticated diction. The essay itself portrays the author’s style of sarcasm and explains his points in a very clear manner. In addition, the author has used vocabulary that is very easy to understand and manages to relate the readers with his simplistic words. The author is able to convey a strong and provoc...
The historical fictional novel, Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, takes four main characters, Florian, Joana, Alfred, and Emilia, on one shocking adventure to get onto the ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, to escape the war that’s hunting them throughout Germany. They encounter death, happiness, and tragedy, which brings them closer. Their lives intervene as they learn to forget their past and get a fresh start. One theme that is learned by the characters is that honesty bonds people together and builds trust, while lies ruin that trust.
Imagine you’re peacefully sailing along on a giant cruise liner in the middle of the ocean. But suddenly, you feel a shaking and the boat starts to tip. But how could this be? This boat is supposed to be unsinkable. People run to the far side of the boat, trying to avoid impending doom. Panic sets in aboard the Titanic. There are many theories of the cause of this loss of life, but I believe that the primary cause of catastrophic loss of life on the Titanic was the poor communication between crew members because a critical iceberg warning was never delivered to the captain, the Titanic was traveling at full speed in an ice field, and the captain of the ship was very relaxed about the iceberg, making it not seem like a threat.
Global warming is a scientific, political, and controversial topic. Some believe it is catastrophic, a slow moving killer hiding in the shadows. Others do not even think twice about it as they race by in a Hummer. Global warming is the gradual increase of temperature throughout different climates. It is caused by the greenhouse gas effect in which greenhouse gases, like methane and carbon dioxide, reflect sunlight back and forth. This reflected ultraviolet light bounces between the earth and the ozone layer and becomes trapped, resulting in a gradual rise of temperature. Over time, the slow rise of temperature causes new climates throughout the globe. The article “What Megablazes Tell Us About the Fiery Future of Climate Change” by Tim Dickinson
Unfortunately, scientist are still searching for the missing puzzle pieces when it comes to solving the global warming hiatus. Here is what I did find in the article that seemed to be aligned with other articles;
John Hopkins University, January 16, 1998. http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-jt011698.html. Boyachek, Karen. A. “Argument Against the Global Warming Theory” U of Saskatchewan. Newsletter 26 Jan. 20 http://www.cs.usak.ca/undergrads/kmbl129/49/assignment.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, religion is defined as, “The beliefs, values, and practices in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or god.” Although there is some debate as to the origin of religion, it can be traced back to pre-historic times. Religion has been used to establish social stratification to gain power, privilege, and prestige in society. So, What’s the purpose of religion? Some might say it’s to blind, divide, and control the society. Others insist that religion keeps people on the path to moral righteousness promoting love and harmony. For years religion has influenced civic liberties, politics, and issues of morality.
“My Father Is a Simple Man” by Luis Omar Salinas and “A Secret Lost in the water” by Roch Carrier, explore different experiences and valuable inherence that they have learned from their fathers.
One of the most accepted universal truths in the world is that everyone will eventually die. This truth is often written about in literature; E.B. White incorporates this truth in his essay “Once More to the Lake” as he describes a trip that he takes to a lake with his son during summertime. White begins his essay describing his experience as a boy at a lake in Maine and describes various memories of his time there. He then goes on to tell of his most recent trip to the lake, now as a father who has grown many years, and the similarities of his present trip with those of when he was a young boy. Only to be reminded that these memories foreshadow through the passing of time that he will one day cease to live, and that die is much closer now than when he originally visited the same lake. In the essay, White
The submerged state has been growing in recent history and has resulted in negative implications to American society. The “submerged state” is a term coined by Suzanne Mettler which describes federal policies that, by design, aren’t very visible to citizens. When the submerged state is referenced, it usually deals with social welfare policies. These social welfare policies are designed to reduce economic insecurity and inequality generated by capitalist markets and exist not only to provide assistance and services to the neediest individuals and families, but also to provide temporary assistance from job loss or injury, and to assure economic security in old age (Heerwig, 10/6). Some examples of social welfare policies are food stamps, veterans’ benefits, Medicare and Medicaid. Not all social welfare policies are submerged, but many are. Some examples of submerged social welfare policies consist of the home-mortgage interest deduction and exemption from taxes on employer-provided health and retirement benefits (Shannon, 1:54).
So what is the big deal? The problem, and the reason why this concept instills fear directly into the core of scientists, is the rate at which, over the past 1,300 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen. This unnatural increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to the immense amount of anthropogenic burning of oil and coal, affects the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere, leading us to the phenomenon of global warming. 1). 61). The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid afore Moreover, it can also be seen “as presenting us with the largest collective action problem that humanity has ever faced, one that has both intra- and inter-generational dimensions” (Jamieson pg. 61).
The drowned giant is a unique work of art by the amazing author J.G. Ballard. He illustrates science fiction and compares the human beings to mythical creatures. The existence of a being better the human race was never heard of, nor seen. He also makes the main character reflect upon the human kind and their unusual behaviors put in specific context. This short story also shows the fear of mankind towards the existence of a superior being. From the perspective of the speaker, the giant represents a symbol of superiority and perfection compared to the town people and that’s why they disrespect his body in various ways.
While critical of global warming alarmism, this documentary does not doubt that the earth is warming. Instead, they claim that scientific evidence demonstrates that such warming is but a natural variation in earth’s climatic history, similar to the Medieval Warm Period of the Little Ice Age. The documentary uses several lines of evidence to back up this claim, including ice core data that they claim when rightly interpreted shows carbon dioxide as having a lag time when earth’s climate has warmed in the recent and distant past, making it doubtful that it could be responsible for the increase in temperature that has been observed recently. The timing of the recent warming, which was most pronounced in the late Nineteenth Century through World War II, stopped and reversed to a cooling trend in the mid-Twentieth Century, and then rapidly warmed again in the past three decades, is dissected. Since this warming began before the advent of major human sources of greenhouse gas emissions and the period of most dramatic industrial...