Tài liệu Ecological concern and sustainability in the selected works of al gore

i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ECOLOGICAL CONCERN AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SELECTED WORKS OF AL GORE A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in English by PHUNG THI THU HA (River) November, 2014 ii BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam ABSTRACT Title : Ecological concern and sustainability in the selected works of Al Gore Author : Phung Thi Thu Ha Course :Doctor of Philosophy major in English language and literature. Year : 2014 Adviser : : Dr. Maria Luisa A. Valdez Summary The main focus of this study was to determine the ecological concern and sustainability in the selected works of Al Gore This study made use the qualitative philosophical method of research in analyzing the tenets of environmental issues and concerns in the representative literary works chosen. The findings of the study revealed the following main points: 1. Global warming and climate crisis have caused a major impact on the environment as ecological variables all over the world, putting the habitats of the species on Earth under serious threat. 2. Earth with its bounty and inherent beauty has been the place for all things on Earth to shelter and develop, including humans. iii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines 3. To cater to the needs of life, people with irresponsible actions and their lack of awareness have overexploited the resources of the world, making the 'Earth' no longer 'in Balance' as it used to be 4. The world needs to determine jointly implement environmental measures such as reducing the growth rate of world population, reducing the consumption of fossil energy, instead, using sparingly and effectively clean energy such as solar energy, wind energy; and to balance the economic development of industrial parks, agriculture, and tourism services with social benefits and environmental sustainability. . 5. By combining devices such as simile, alliteration, metaphor, metonymy and rhetorical questions, Al Gore gave readers the deep awareness of environmental issues that concern the entire world. 6. Environmental Issues author Al Gore refers to in the two selected works are very valuable for education on environmental awareness for Vietnamese youth in particular and Vietnamese people in general. iv THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the completion of this dissertation, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Maria Luisa A. Valdez, who has supported me though out my dissertation with her great patience and precious guidance whilst encouraging me with all her warm and kind heart. Without her great help and assistance my attribution to the level of my PhD. Degree would have not been accomplished. My special thanks go to Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano, Dr. Corazon Cabrera and The Panels for their highly intellectual abilities to give me excellent advice and previous guidance during my preparation of this work. I would like to take this chance to give expressions to my gratitude to all the teachers at the Graduate School of Batangas State University of the Philippines for their valuable lectures and precious guidance that spur me to come to the choice of carrying out this research. I also wish to acknowledge the Philippines Government which sends each time with the most skilful and qualified lecturers to Thai Nguyen University. The cooperation between Vietnam and the Philippines should be a lesson for other countries in the region to make their education better and gain integration. I am indebted to ITC, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry of Thai Nguyen University for accepting me as a PhD. Student v THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines and for their enthusiasm and supports during the time of my studying and writing this thesis. I greatly appreciate the sympathy and assistance and spiritual supports from my dear colleagues and students for me during my PhD. study. My sincerest gratitude would go to all my dear PhD. classmates for their friendliness, kindness, and big support and encouragement. I am also very grateful for the wholehearted support, encouragement and love that my parents, my husband and children, along with my sisters Ms. Tuyet, Ms. Huong, and Ms. Hong extended during my completion of the dissertation. Once again I would like to say thank-you to all for everything. vi THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.............................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................vi CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM ....................................................................................1 Introduction .....................................................................................1 Statement of the Problem .............................................................11 Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study ...........................12 Significance of the Study ..............................................................15 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE: SYNTHESIS AND HYPOTHESIS........19 Conceptual Literature....................................................................19 Research Literature ......................................................................31 Synthesis of the Literature Reviewed ...........................................39 Theoretical Framework .................................................................41 Conceptual Framework .................................................................44 Definition of Terms ........................................................................45 III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................................51 Research Method..........................................................................51 Research Procedures ...................................................................52 vii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Treatment of Materials ..................................................................54 IV. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA .............................57 V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ...............229 Summary.....................................................................................229 Findings.......................................................................................230 Conclusions.................................................................................251 BIBLIOGRAPHY CURRICULUM VITAE 1 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM Introduction The world has witnessed the increasing effects of the global climate change for more than two centuries with so many disastrous calamities in the past recent decades. This subject matter has become an interesting topic for many writers who are concerned with the environmental issues. It has been proved that there are a variety of factors that lead to this unpleasant fact including oceanic processes (such as oceanic circulation), biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and human-induced alterations of the natural world; these latter effects are currently causing global warming. Among many causes leading to climate change and global warming, ‘green house effects’ and emissions of toxic gases such as carbon Dioxide (CO2) and methane are considered as the major ones (http://planetsave.com/2009/06/07/global-warming-effects-and-causes-atop-10-list/). Global warming is one of the biggest issues that we, human beings, are facing right now. In fact, the effects of the global warming on animals and on agriculture are alarming, and the effects on the human population are even more frightening. The facts about global warming are often debated in politics and the media. The causes are believed mainly 2 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines from us, the human race, and the effects on us will be much more severe in the future. A warming planet thus leads to a great change in climate called climate crisis which can affect all the living things on earth. Global warming brings about environmental issues that lead to serious ecological consequences for not only the generations at present but also the generations in the future. Such effects include a dramatic increase of sea temperatures, high sea level, rapid decrease of sea ice, more melting glaciers, an emerging global crisis in water availability and water pollution; extinction, loss of biodiversity and long-term damage to ecosystems; pollution of the atmosphere; waste production and disposal; impacts of chemicals use and toxic substance disposal; damaged aquatic ecosystems; and deforestation and land degradation. The climate change and biodiversity has long been correlated. Although throughout Earth’s history the climate has always varied with ecosystems and species coming and going, rapid climate change has a great influence on ecosystems and species ability to adapt and this increases biodiversity loss. The United Nations’ Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 (2010) confirms that ‘Climate change is already having an impact on biodiversity, and is projected to become a progressively more significant 3 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines threat in the coming decades.’ Loss of Arctic sea ice is really threatening since it is damaging biodiversity ‘across an entire biome and beyond’. The Outlook 3 points out ‘The related pressure of ocean acidification, resulting from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is also already being observed.’ Apart from the fact that temperatures are becoming warmer, ‘more frequent extreme weather events and changing patterns of rainfall and drought can be expected to have significant impacts on biodiversity.’ The climate crisis is believed to create more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns in the future such as: more hurricanes, super-storms and drought; longer terms of dry heat or heavy rain. Scientists have figured out that Northern Europe could be seriously affected with colder weather if climate change continues, as the Arctic begins to melt and send fresher waters further south. It would effectively cut off the Gulf Stream that brings warmth from the Gulf of Mexico, keeping countries such as Britain warmer than expected. The global warming effects on the Indian subcontinent vary from the submergence of low-lying islands and coastal lands to the melting of glaciers in the Indian Himalayas, threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of India and South Asia, causing water scarcity for a long period. In India, such effects are projected to impact millions of lives. As a 4 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines result of ongoing climate change, the climate of India has become increasingly inconsistent over the past several decades; this tendency is supposed to keep going on. Sharing the same situations with South Asia in general and India in particular, Vietnam, a small country with a population of nearly ninety million, is also facing many environmental problems related to water pollution and loss of biodiversity and long-term damage to ecosystems. The living standard of people in industrial regions has been directly damaged by the quality of water resources under threat from dumped industrial and chemical wastes, untreated sewage, and medicinal residues and fertilizes and chemical run off. These real situations make the already existing problems of water pollution in Vietnam become worse and one of the direct consequences of this matter is that there are more and more Vietnamese people suffering from such common waterborne diseases as cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, bacterial diarrhea, and hepatitis. According to WHO, the number of water, sanitation, and hygiene attributable deaths in 2004 in Viet Nam was 5938. A noticeable fact was that out of 5938 deaths, 4905 were children under five years which means that the children were the main victims of the water, sanitation and hygiene related problems. 5 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Mining industry is another factor that contributes to making environmental issues in Vietnam more serious. This has been discussed in detail in many mass media; and several workshops, both on national scales and international scales, have been organized, but it seems that not many improvements have been made while many mining companies such as coal mining companies in Quang Ninh Province, titanium mining areas, mostly located in the two districts of Phu My and Phu Cat, Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, Quang Thuan One-Member Co. Ltd in Thuan Nam District, Ninh Thuan Province, and Nui Phao mining company in Thai Nguyen province - continue digging up the soils to explore and exploit metals and minerals from the underground. Part of minerals and metals which are toxic is absorbed by farm land and run into water resources around. Due to the unconsciousness of the exploiters and the lack of control of the related authorities, the natural resources exploitation has badly affected local people’s lives for quite a long time. The residents nearby mainly suffer problems such as terrible diseases like cancers, and most of them receive nothing as compensation from those companies. Together with the global warming and climate change called the climate crisis, the rapid population growth, the irresponsibility of humans in their daily activities for the environment and their thirst for immediate economic benefits are added to the long list of factors that are seriously 6 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines damaging the ecosystem on earth, the common house of all living things including plants, animals, and humans. This inconvenient truth has put the planet Earth in its unbalanced state and it has been reflected in many newspapers, magazines, journals, books and other kinds of literature. Literature is about human beings – their daily lives as well as their exceptional, towering experiences, which literary critics stress, are therefore a dissection of life (Luisa, 2006). Literature functions as a mirror to reflect life. It focuses readers on taking the world around them into consideration. Literature is encyclopaedia about life. It helps humans be aware of life and aware of themselves as well. Literature not only enriches humans’ knowledge but it can also help arouse humans’ emotions, feelings and nurture their souls and confidence in life. Through the awareness of life, humans can choose the best way to improve their life, turning their knowledge into real actions. The fact that writers use their literary works to reflect their societies has been widely known. It is unlikely to find a literary work that neither expresses an attitude nor include morale and values of the society, since no authors have the experience of being brought up completely unexposed to the world around them. Literary works are created to depict human life and action through some characters who, by their words, action and reaction, transmit certain messages for the purpose of information, 7 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines education, and entertainment. The author also shows his personal implications through his work based on his own philosophy of life. Literature not only reflects the society but serves as a mirror in which members of the society can look at themselves and see the need for positive change. As stated above that the planet Earth is experiencing a climate crisis and that this unpleasant reality has drawn the profound attention of many writers who concern themselves with ecological issues and Albert Arnold Al Gore or Al Gore is one of them. Al Gore was born in Washington D.C on 31 March 1948 and was the son of a former Tennessee Senator father. He went to school in Washington D.C. He enjoyed sport and he studied quite well at school. In 1965 he graduated 25th in his class of 51, then he applied for Harvard University and was accepted. At university he became passionate in politics and interested in the topic of global warming after taking a course with Professor Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Maybe the first meeting with a famous expert in environment was a decisive factor in his successful career in great efforts to protect environment and raise people’s awareness of the risks of climate change and global warming and ecological concerns. After two years of serving in the Vietnam War as a military reporter from 1969 through 1971, Al Gore studied philosophy and law at Vanderbilt 8 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines University while working for The Tennessean Newspaper from 1971-1976. He was the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 and served in various kinds of profession including: a politician, a reporter, a military journalist, an environmentalist and a writer. It is likely that the knowledge, passion, interests and experience that he had gained through doing different jobs have made a perfect combination for his successes in politics and environmental activities. His first book ‘Earth in the Balance’, written while he was looking after his son, who was recovering from a near-fatal car accident, was published in 1992. That period of time was really a turning point in his life: he decided not to continue running into the White House but spend time for his son and sharing his deep concerns about environmental issues with his readers in a book of nearly 400 pages full of shocking and unbelievable truths about the ecological degradation on the earth. This became the first book written by a sitting Senator to make The New York Times bestseller list since John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. In 2006, he finished another bestseller book ‘An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It’. In 2007 this book was filmed and won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Oscar for the best documentary and received standing ovations at the Sundance film festival in Utah in the same year. After this eventful year, Al 9 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Gore carried out a lot of conferences, workshops, campaigns and meetings on climate change and global warming inside the US and in many other countries. In 2009 another precious award, Grammy Award, was decided to give to ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ for Best Spoken Word Album. Currently, Al Gore is an author and an environmentalist, Chairman of Current TV, Chairman of Generation Investment Management, and a senior advisor to Google, Inc. Al Gore is one of the world’s first advocates of environmental stewardship. Through his writings readers may glean that literature can be a writer’s channel for conveying the philosophical dimension of environmentalism. By providing readers with precise data illustrated by vivid images, the works by Al Gore are highly informative and persuasive. The stories are presented in a combination of narrative and descriptive styles. This combination is clear and natural enough for the readers to acquire the content and the objectives at which the author aims. Being a developing country in Southeast Asia, Vietnam possesses a long coast of 3,444 kilometers, which can be regarded as both the advantage and disadvantage for economic growth. The long coastline gives Vietnam a lot of opportunities to develop ocean transport, sea economy and sea tourism. However, in the past recent years, due to the effects of the climate change and global warming, Vietnam has suffered a 10 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines lot of natural disasters such as hurricanes, flood tides, tidal flows, saltmarsh pollution, and coastal erosion, etc. The decrease of sea animals leads to scarcity of seafood supplies to consumers, making the life of fishermen more arduous. Fishermen have to move very far from the coast to catch fish and sometimes when there is an unexpected storm coming, they are unable to come back to the shore in time, then bad consequences happen and very often they can never return home with their families. The bad effects of climate change and global warming occur not only along the coast but also inland. Unpredictable landslides, floods, and drought can happen at times. Air pollution, water pollution and even noise pollution in big cities and in industrial zones are causing people’s life a lot of trouble. New kinds of diseases appear such as Ebola, Sialidoses; more people suffer life-threatening sicknesses, for example cancer, and diabetes. Bearing the thought in mind that Vietnamese students, as future role models of the new generation, must be aware of what is going on globally, regionally and nationally in relation to environmental concerns and sustainability because of the fact that the environment will look after them like the way they look after their environment. The researcher was deeply motivated to explore and undertake an analysis of how ecological concern and sustainability is reflected in Al Gore’s selected works ‘Earth in the 11 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Balance’ and ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and gain honest implications on the study of ecological stewardship among Vietnamese students. Statement of the Problem This study is an analysis of the environment concerns and sustainability reflected in the selected works of Al Gore and its implication on the study of ecological stewardship among Vietnamese’s students. Specifically, the study seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What reflections of the author on the environment may be gleaned in the selection? 1.1 Earth in the Balance; and 1.2 The Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It? 2. How is ecological concern reflected in the selected works in terms of: 2.1 respecting Earth and life and all its diversity; 2.2 safeguarding Earth’s regenerative capacities; 2.3 caring for community life; and 2.4 appreciating Earth’s beauty and bounty? 3. How is sustainability is manifested in the selections with regard to reconciliation of: 3.1 environmental demands; 12 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines 3.2 social equity demands; 3.3 economic demands? 4. What literary devices were used in unveiling Al Gore’s theme of ecological concern and sustainability? 5. What literary approaches are prevalent in the treatment of the selected works? 6. What teachings on ecological stewardship may be drawn from the analysis which shall benefit the Vietnamese students? Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study This study analyzes the environmental concerns and sustainability reflected in the selected literary works of Al Gore pointing out its implication on the study of ecological stewardship among Vietnamese students. Likewise, this paper tries to present the reflections of the author on the environment that may be gleaned from the selections; the ecological concern reflected in the works in terms of respecting Earth and life and all its diversity, safeguarding Earth’s regenerative capacities, caring for community life, and appreciation of Earth’s beauty and bounty; sustainability manifested in the selections with regard to environmental demands, social equity demands and economic demands; the literary devices used by Gore in unveiling the theme of ecological concern and 13 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines sustainability; and the literary approaches prevalent in the treatment of the selected works. This study employed the qualitative method of research in analyzing ecological concern and sustainability in the representative literary works chosen. Likewise, this analysis made use of the Sociological and Philosophical Approaches as the bases for analysis. Other approaches in literary criticism that may be employed in the analysis like the Formalist Criticism, Biographical Criticism, Historical Criticism, and Psychological Criticism are not part of this study. This paper also involved content analysis, which is a systematic technique in analyzing message content and message handling. The data analysis in this research centered on pattern seeking and the extraction of meaning from Gore’s selected literary narrative or image data. Much effort was focused on the task of recording data or making notes through concepts and categories; altering or creating new codes or more subtle categories; linking and combining abstract concepts; extracting the essence; organizing meaning; creating theory from emerging themes; writing an understanding; and drawing conclusions. The essential features in the treatment of materials were considered by the researcher in the conduct of this study. The general rules cited by Stott (2014) as regards the seven standards a piece of literature should