Responsible Portrayal of Clean Energy Development Within Fiction

Marmat, Ryan

Responsible Portrayal of Clean Energy Development Within Fiction

Persistent URL

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/56726

Author(s)

Marmat, Ryan

Date Issued

March 24, 2023

Abstract

Eco-literature tends to linger in the pessimist and nihilistic range. Often writers take a critical view not only of environmental policy but of the reasons people may be apprehensive of radical changes toward environmental policy whether it be industrial, energy, or agricultural. Works that take this approach often wander into auras of dystopia and leave readers with feelings of fear rather than understanding and hope. Literature should be an escape and should be the exaltation of the very best-case scenarios that academic study can forecast for us; or at least some should strive for this. This project is a short story that seeks to entwine the ideas of Environmental Science and Energy equity with a literary take that is optimistic and empathetic. Academic science has been widely repeated and accepted, a clean energy transition is necessary. However, many policy approaches fail to account for the reason why this transition may not be feasible under current economic, political and social conditions. Climate change and its roots in fossil fuel consumption cannot simply be spent away by governments and people. I feel that it is important to note that while this is a creative fiction piece, I want to create something that is above all rigorously grounded in the academic consensus of both social and academic sciences when looking at idea policy approaches The outlining and world building process of this project is derived from research into academic consensus and real world case studies. Whereas the literary themes and techniques are drawn from award winning full length novels, namely The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Major

Environmental Science

First Reader(s)

Swann-Quinn, Jesse