For those of you who may have seen Christopher Nolan's recent sci-fi epic, Interstellar, you might remember seeing interviews of people who survived the actual dust bowl of the 1930's. In fact, drought and dust storms play a role in the early scenes of the film, which helps the audience to gain a grasp of what a climate changed world might look like. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck would then be the predecessor to Nolan's film. In the early pages of the novel, Steinbeck focuses on shaping the hellish alien landscape that the dust bowl transformed fertile farming ground into. Steinbeck meticulously details the land and yet his descriptions all revert to intricate means of describing different patterns of dust. Dust in the fields, dust in the air, dust in the kitchen, dust everywhere. Steinbeck's words bring to mind images of volcanic ash covering everything after a major eruption (like the recent eruption in Iceland).
Now, dust covering everything turned out to be a massive problem for people who lived in the dust bowl as it absolutely devastated crop yields and virtually hung farmers out to dry. Steinbeck describes fields of dust covered corn blown over by gusts of wind that persisted throughout the drought. Sunlight was dimmed by the dust lingering in the air and plants were suffocated as a result. In reading Grapes of Wrath, one can see the potential for disaster that prolonged droughts will have on our planet. One of the details that stood out to me in reading this novel was Steinbeck's description of the exhaust fumes emitted by a truck that the character, Tom Joad, hitches a ride on early in the book. Of the truck Steinbeck writes, "The vertical exhaust pipe muttered softly, and an almost invisible haze of steel-blue smoke hovered over its end." If only he knew how important the "almost invisible haze of steel-blue smoke" would have on the planet in which he so painstakingly describes. Overall, Steinbeck's dust bowl ridden world is bleak, and its people are nearly hopeless.
I really like how you compared thiss to interstellar, that helped me to really picture what the dust bowl might have looked like. Its very interesting that we can learn so much from the past. The dust bowl sounds like a pretty bleak experience and i have no desire to live through something like that.
Your comparison to Interstellar and your inclusion of the video really help to detail the events of the Dust Bowl. I wonder if we will see a similar occurrence in the near future, or if we will continue to have droughts but without the use of treacherous wind and dust.
I cant remember exactly what temperature it was, but in Six Degrees, a comparison between the dust bowl and what a two or three degree increase in global temperature would look like. So, the dust bowl was probably one of many to come, if we can't keep the temperature increase to a minimum.
I remember learning about this in previous history classes and it amazed me every time how something so strange could happen. I did my presentation on drought and learned that drought causes the topsoil to get very weak and be easily effected by wind erosion. I don't think we will see something quite like the Dust Bowl again, but we may see smaller ones and more often due to the increased amount and severity of droughts.
I feel as though this generation is very far removed from the era of the Dust Bowl, we learn about it in history class but none of us have experienced it. It almost feels like a look into the future of our planet if things keep going the way they are.
I can see another dust bowl in our future based on the current path of climate change, especially as the great plains run out of water to water the plants that keep their topsoil rooted down. We may have a better understanding of how to farm for the environments that we are in, however we are still not doing it in the right way. The mega farms that we rely on to supply us with our food are not sustainable and or healthy for the environment. Eventually the water tables are going to be depleted and they are either going to have to tap the Great Lakes (no thank you), or stop growing all together. Once the growing and watering stops, it seems like only a matter of time until the dust and wind picks up again.
Blair powerful imagery from early in the book -- I am hoping to quote from this blog in the book. What about the rest of the book? Should students read all of it, or only a portion if the class is studying climate change?
I really like how you compared thiss to interstellar, that helped me to really picture what the dust bowl might have looked like. Its very interesting that we can learn so much from the past. The dust bowl sounds like a pretty bleak experience and i have no desire to live through something like that.
ReplyDeleteYour comparison to Interstellar and your inclusion of the video really help to detail the events of the Dust Bowl. I wonder if we will see a similar occurrence in the near future, or if we will continue to have droughts but without the use of treacherous wind and dust.
ReplyDeleteI cant remember exactly what temperature it was, but in Six Degrees, a comparison between the dust bowl and what a two or three degree increase in global temperature would look like. So, the dust bowl was probably one of many to come, if we can't keep the temperature increase to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning about this in previous history classes and it amazed me every time how something so strange could happen. I did my presentation on drought and learned that drought causes the topsoil to get very weak and be easily effected by wind erosion. I don't think we will see something quite like the Dust Bowl again, but we may see smaller ones and more often due to the increased amount and severity of droughts.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though this generation is very far removed from the era of the Dust Bowl, we learn about it in history class but none of us have experienced it. It almost feels like a look into the future of our planet if things keep going the way they are.
ReplyDeleteI can see another dust bowl in our future based on the current path of climate change, especially as the great plains run out of water to water the plants that keep their topsoil rooted down. We may have a better understanding of how to farm for the environments that we are in, however we are still not doing it in the right way. The mega farms that we rely on to supply us with our food are not sustainable and or healthy for the environment. Eventually the water tables are going to be depleted and they are either going to have to tap the Great Lakes (no thank you), or stop growing all together. Once the growing and watering stops, it seems like only a matter of time until the dust and wind picks up again.
ReplyDeleteBlair powerful imagery from early in the book -- I am hoping to quote from this blog in the book. What about the rest of the book? Should students read all of it, or only a portion if the class is studying climate change?
ReplyDelete