
To begin with, I found inspiration in a powerful short story that we read in class called "How Close to the Savage Soul" by John Atcheson. I based the main part of the online story on the premise of the short story. A man and his grandson travel to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the year 2050. The world has been ravaged by climate change and nothing is the same. While on the Outer Banks, the man reminisces the old days, when they didn't know. When they didn't know the impact that they were having on the climate and how quickly it would happen.
As the story continues, a theme becomes apparent. "Pay attention to the warning signs". These
warning signs are all over. The acidifying ocean. The smaller crop yields. Everything is affected by climate change. In the world that we live in now, we do not get second chances. There is no going back and fixing climate change. We can only learn to live with what we have done and work to not cause anymore damage. This story is different as gives you a second chance, one that we will not get in this world.
I can see this program being used along side of the story as supplemental material. It is one thing to read something, however it is another thing to actually experience. Many students will never get to see the world outside of the area that they live, and so it can be hard for them to imagine what it looks like, and the impact that they can have on something that they cannot directly see. While I do not believe this program is something that students have the time or energy to create a world in, I can see them spending 15 or so minutes at the beginning of each class period diving deeper and deeper into this literary world.
