QUESTION
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TMA
TMA 02
Part 1 Word limit: 400 words
Using either Figure 6.1 or Figure 6.2 from Chapter 6 as an example, discuss the significance of context in interpreting debates about climate futures.
Student notes for Part 1
For this part of the assignment, you are being asked to consider either Figure 6.1 or Figure 6.2 from Chapter 6 and to discuss the significance of context in interpreting debates about climate futures using your chosen image. You were introduced to the portrayal of climate futures through films in Week 7. In Week 6, you were introduced to the role of context as a key aspect of the skill of interpretation. This was demonstrated through the concept of discourse to describe the conventions and practices that shape the ways in which we tend to think about, represent and act towards particular things. This part of the assignment is therefore asking you to combine material from Weeks 6 and 7, and to apply your understanding of discourse to your selected image from Week 7 (Chapter 6) in order to present a short discussion of the significance of context in interpreting debates about climate futures.
This part requires you to draw on your skills of interpretation, which have been developed throughout Block 2. The key stages of interpretation (content, context and comparison) will help you to understand what your selected image has to ‘say’ about the relationship between environment and society. Of these stages of interpretation, looking at context is the most important here. For example, understanding the use of light and darkness within the content of the image might tell you something about the way in which the creator wanted to depict environment–society relations. While you are expected to focus solely on a single image, thinking about how it might be similar to or different from other film promotion images you know of might provide you with further useful insights you can comment on
Key sources
Chapter 5
Chapter 6.
Part 2 Word limit: 900 words
Why is thinking about the process of representation useful for understanding the relationship between nature and culture?
Student notes for Part 2
For this part of the assignment, you are being asked to think about why the process of representation is useful for understanding the relationship between nature and culture. First and foremost, this requires you to show an understanding of representation as a cultural process and what this means in the context of the module material. You will then need to apply this concept more specifically to illustrate how the thinking about the process of representation can be helpful in understanding the relationship between nature and culture. These can be drawn from anywhere in Block 2, including the examples used in Week 5. For example, you might discuss how exploring representation helps us understand why we think about and act towards the environment in particular and often problematic ways, and how it therefore enables us to think through how we might think and behave in more sustainable ways. An important part of this process is to identify who shapes the way we think about and act towards the environment, and to consider whose interests are served by this and with what environmental and social consequences.
The idea of representation as a cultural process is discussed in detail in Week 5, and both the chapter and the Study Guide explore what this process can tell us about the relationship between nature and culture. However, the Week 6 discussion of discourse and the Week 7 discussion of affect are also relevant in terms of how they relate to representation. For example, Week 6 made it clear that a key part of the significance of representation is how it constitutes and reflects wider discourses about nature and culture. The Week 7 material showed how representations can produce important affective responses that shape how we think about and act towards nature. While Week 5 directly discusses and provides a series of useful examples to draw upon, you may also wish to make use of the other forms of representation that appear in this block; namely, those of weather and climate in Week 6 and novels, film, and art in Week 7.
In discussing how the process of representation highlights the relationship between nature and culture, it will also be useful to think in terms of entanglement and its three key dimensions: mixing, separation and codependency. Whilst you are not expected to offer an extensive account of entanglement here, you should aim to demonstrate some awareness of it. For example, how and to what extent each of these dimensions is represented in cultural objects (such as landscape paintings, other art forms and weather maps) can tell us a great deal about how the relationship between nature and culture is understood by the creators of these objects.
Key sources:
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
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| Subject | Geography | Pages | 7 | Style | APA |
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Answer
TMA 2: Climate Futures
Part 1
The use of films to predict the future of climate change is continually becoming a commonality. This is based on the fact that films can relay extraordinary events and scenes, clearly demonstrating disasters and horrors. Figure 6.2 will be used in discussing the context and significance in interpreting the climate futures’ debate. In Figure 6.2, it is evident that the Hollywood Style of Film-making has been implemented in the generation of films such as The Day After Tomorrow, The Road, and Mad Max: Fury Road. The movies have recorded unique scenarios which can be used in explaining climate futures (Rose & Revill, n.d).
The Day After Tomorrow is effective in discussing the context of the prevailing debates on the climate futures since it provides a discussion of the instances of climatic change as recorded in the early 21st century films. Evidently, the film provides an illustration of the rapid slowdown of the gulf stream ocean current which took place overnight. With this film, it is easy to understand debates on aspects such as superstorms and tornadoes which have been experienced in the northern hemisphere which is further directly responsible for the establishment of the inhospitable tundra (Rose & Revill, n.d).
The Road presents a story about the impact of climate change in life. In the movie, plants and animals lost their lives while the remaining human survivors were considered as cannibals. In Mad Max: Fury Road, instances of harsh climatic conditions are depicted in the film in that a desert in shown with a limited supply of water needed to support human life. With the short water supply, human survival becomes challenges as dehydration is imminent with the harsh environmental conditions related with the desert climate (Rose & Revill, n.d).
In the three films, it is evident that different factors providing an illustration of climatic and environmental conditions are documented, making it simpler to display bodily effects and capacity through the use of soundtracks and visuals. As a result, generating spectacular environmental disasters and impacts is ensured resulting to uncontrollable forces that can be implemented in building arguments about the environment and climatic changes likely to be experienced in the future. Notably, the films relay extreme natural disaster scenarios which can be damaging to the environment, particularly representing environmental futures (Rose & Revill, n.d).
Part 2
Representation is essential in the process whereby meaning is generated and interchanged between cultural members. Representation is the process through which meanings are generated and communicated through the use of other symbols, events, language and artistic practices (Rose & Revill, n.d). Cultural features such as films have been implemented to derive assumptions about the thoughts of an object. Studying the prevailing association between man and the environment is important because the two parties benefit directly from each other. It is necessary for humans to interact with the environment with a primary focus on obtaining food, fuel, water or other fundamental materials needed for a comfortable living (Rose & Revill, n.d). The continued advancement in science and technology has made it easier for humans to engage in the process of exploring the environment to their advantage. Despite this, human activities still cause pollution further damaging the environmental (Rose & Revill, n.d).
Exploring representation is effective in promoting an understanding between culture and nature in that it offers a cross cutting means of looking at the phenomena and processes which other disciplines have the tendency to treat when in isolation. Geographers rely on the prevailing real-world associations and dependencies existing among process and phenomena and provide character to any place or location. Additionally, geographers also focus on having an effective understanding of the prevailing relationship between places. For instance, having an effective understanding of the flow of goods, people and ideas which further reinforce differentiation and later enhance similarities.
The physical environment is directly responsible in shaping how people think and act. For instance, the need to live in a more sustainable environment will encourage people to come up with the proper infrastructure required to promote the establishment of a more desirable environment to enjoy more sustainable outcomes. Rose and Revill (n.d) relay that social scientists and geographers are continually becoming interested in affect based on the fact that many efforts are being allocated towards the generation of specific forms of human behavior. It is also evident that the physical environment plays an effective role in determining behavior as reflected in the case of shops and shopping centers whereby environmental features such as lighting and smell plays an effective role in determining the capacity of the buyer to make a purchase by bringing out affective responses. Watching The Day after Tomorrow is considered as a desirable factor which played an effective role in influencing human behavior on matters related to global warming. The contents of the film directly influence individual feelings on global warming and their intentions to drive change to enjoy a more sustainable environment through effective behavioral change (Rose & Revill, n.d).
Although the physical environment plays an effective role in influencing how people think and behave to create a sustainable environment, the interests of the people are served with the changes. This is because creating a sustainable environment not only improves on the general health of the physical environment, but also the health of the plant and animal life on the planet. The environmental and social consequences related with sustainability and the human behavioral change are significant (Rose & Revill, n.d). For instance, some of the potential social consequences likely to be derives includes improved safety, health, community engagement, diversity and philanthropic efforts among others. Some of the environmental consequences likely to be experienced includes reduced instances of global warming alongside other positive global warming outcomes (Rose & Revill, n.d).
With a focus on making sense about the world, representation alongside the wider discourses as the films used in providing a representation of the environment and future climatic changes have been effective in crafting how people think about different objects as they relay their focus understanding the society, environment and their prevailing relationships. For instance, it was reflected in chapter 5 of the text that the meteorology discourse played a fundamental role in enhancing the level of understanding that people had about weather and vulnerability to the prevailing atmospheric conditions (Rose & Revill, n.d).
Through the use of images and texts representations of culture and nature were framed as distinct aspects with culture being regarded as an element superior to nature. Despite the separation of the two constructs, the thoughts and attitudes of the people and their behavior and actions on the environment and the people around the world has given rise to the social consequences, also referred to as the Anthropocene (Rose & Revill, n.d). With this, recognizing complex interconnections existing between what is considered as the distinct environmental system elements become challenging. Consequently, humans are further encouraged to engage in instances of environmental exploitation based on the fact that recognizing the interrelated consequences in full range has been featured by a slow process. This is similar to a case whereby climatic change has mainly been experienced due to human-induced actions (Rose & Revill, n.d). Furthermore, a social consequence is established under the moral climatology discourse in that the people from the west believe in cultural superiority which has further supported the attempt of making actions of the European colonial expansion to be a legitimate move despite its outcomes. This is associated to the case of hegemonic power whereby specific actions, behaviors, and values are considered as acceptable or perceive as natural or normal, thus creating an environment whereby one group maintains its dominance over the others by invalidating their efforts and power (Rose & Revill, n.d).
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References
Rose, G. & Revill, G. (n.d). Block 2: Cultural Entanglements: Framing the Environment.