Brian L. NHS Global Warming Documentary

I learned a lot during this documentary, although I’m not sure if it really ties in with English.  Almost everything I learned was about global warming and what it’s doing to our planet, not how to write papers or where to use the comma.  The blogging got old in my opinion.  I did not like having to do 10 different summary response blogs.  However, making the documentary helped with the organizing aspect of writing a paper, because it really made me think of where to put certain clips, and where to tie in different segments.  I enjoyed working with my group for the most part, and we all contributed to the making of our segment in the documentary, which was a lot harder than I had expected coming into the project.  It took almost 2 and a half months too complete, and it’s nice that it is finally over. 

Well, we are pretty far behind, at least it feels that way to me.  We still need to get an expert interview, along with film a visual metaphor or two.  We also need to do our narrating and all that good stuff.  I need to talk to Mr. Craddick to try and get the interview either during lab or after school.  We also need to continue editing, we should probably be done (mostly) by Friday.  We should just need the camera and maybe some ice to melt in a cup, to show the polar ice caps melting.  Our whole group should be there but I doubt we will need any teacher help.

The 5 portions of the documentary that I thought of are:

1. Is it real?

2. What are the effects?

3. When will we see them if we do?

4. Is it immediate or down the road?

5. What could we do about it?

They could be rearranged, but I think we need or should have them.

Well, I was not in class on this day, and therefore do not know what our group did to start storyboarding or how we are going to get film.  But, I think we must of planned out our segment in 10 scenes, and then maybe, depending on how much time was left, began working on putting that plan into action.  We have contacted a lot of experts, yet none of them has contacted us back, and we have not been able to set one up. 

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In this article, the author writes about the effect on Global Warming in nature.  The warming has caused a few extinctions and figure to cause more if the predictions are correct.  The worst we have seen so far was in australia, when 3000 flying foxes (huge bats) fell dead from the sky when the temperatures exceeded 107 degrees.  He has also seen animals migrate north in search of warmer weather.

I think he is partially correct.  Animals will become extinct if the earth warms to what the predictions are.  However, the predictions are predictions, and will not necessarily come true.  This summary and response could be used in the effects portion of the documentary.  I think we could also use it in the What is it? portion because it is talking about what the warming is and what could happen if we don’t try and stop it.

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In this article, the author writes about how the ice in Antarctica has actually grown over the past 30 years.  However, he also writes that the ice in the arctic has continued to melt, even though its cousin in the south has grown.  There is no true explaination for it, as the Global warming models have shown both caps melting until they’re gone.  However, there is a comment in the article that makes me question his sources.  “A grocery-store tabloid had the obvious explanation: that scientists had discovered evidence of an undersea base run by space aliens–heat from the alleged facility had melted the ice. “It was one of our images,” says a bemused Dr. Parkinson. “But it wasn’t our interpretation.” That was pretty comical, but the rest of the article seemed pretty backed up. 

This information could be used in the What is it? portion along with the effects and how it will affect future generations.  It is talking about what is going on with the ice caps, which seems to always go along with the words “global warming”.  Also, the effects of it because it is melting the ice caps and future generations because the oceans will rise and may take some of our coastline away. 

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Wang and Sang-Ki Lee of South Florida University have published a new report about the effects of Global Warming on Hurricanes.  According to previous reports, warmer oceans have caused a huge increase in the amount of hurricanes and the intensity of them.  However, in the new report, Wang and Sang-Ki have found that the warmer oceans cause more crosswinds, an effect called wind shear.  This causes a neutrality in the winds, suppressing the ability to develop hurricanes. 

I think the Lee’s have a good point.  It also makes since to me that all of the winds are not in one direction causing hurricanes, rather in opposite directions causing the winds to block out each other. 

Our outing at Fee Fee and Olive went very well.  Our group got 4 interviews, all of which I think could be very valuable to the documentary. It surprised me that the people knew so little about the issue though.  Some of them were all saying stuff that you here all the time on the news but once we asked questions about it, there were a lot of ums… and uhs… Next time, I don’t know if I would change to much.  Maybe ask some store workers and stuff who could possibly be more educated on the issue.  Also, maybe we could go to a university campus or something where everyone would be educated about it.

I think a good title for our documentary would be “Cold facts for a Hot Issue.”  I did not think of it, but it isn’t copyrighted, so it is available. I think it fits is perfectly because we are laying down the facts about an issue that could cause the planet to become hot.  The intro should be very informative about the issues, and should tell what we will be doing during the documentary. We should use a lot of metaphors and make a good mental image of the issue before showing the interviews and stuff.

1. Eating too much candy makes you sick. Just like poluting the environment.

2. Earth now.  Earth warmed. (blow torch it)

3. Ice cubes in a drink.  Show them being warmed, microwave possibly. (could represent ice caps)

4. Show death valley.  Imagine if the world looks like it.

5. Show a cookie. Then pour milk over it and say this is what happens when the oceans rise.

I think the most effective would be the ice cubes on a drink and show what that looks like.  (Symbolizes the ice caps on the ocean).  Then heat the drink and melt the ice and show what the ice melting does do the world.