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
Publisher
University of Montana
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.
Recommended Citation
Hegyi, Nathaniel, "A Spark that Starts the Fire: Climate Change in the American West" (2016). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 10795.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/10795
Included in
© Copyright 2016 Nathaniel Hegyi