Year of Award

2016

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism

Department or School/College

School of Journalism

Committee Chair

Henriette Lowisch

Commitee Members

Jule Banville, Elizabeth Metcalff

Keywords

climate change, american west, journalism, megadrought, caribou, climate engineering

Subject Categories

Radio

Abstract

Climate change is a large, unwieldy, global phenomenon that acts like a spark in a dry field. A slight rise in the global temperature weakens the Gulf Stream and sends the East Coast into a deep freeze. A slight dip in the global temperature, caused by a volcanic eruption, alters weather patterns and dumps record amounts of rain in Southeast Asia. The three stories in this portfolio depict how climate change can alter the landscape and people of the American West. Chapter one is a narrative summarizing these stories, my reporting process, and publication plans. Chapter two is an embedded link to a radio story about a doctoral student (and new father) grappling with the prospect of climate engineering - a “plan B” for combating climate change. Chapter three is a video script explaining megadroughts, which were decades-long, severe drought that turned Nebraska into a sand-strewn desert. Chapter three is a magazine-style feature on the last, wild caribou in the contiguous United States.

Included in

Radio Commons

Share

COinS
 

© Copyright 2016 Nathaniel Hegyi