Renga Reflection
Unfortunately I was very injured after the half marathon and could not make it to class the past Monday.
The renga I chose to focus on was:
Toss Blank seeds of hope
Waves of heat engulf the world
Scorched lands crying out
Voices drown and fraying roots
Pangaea stirs from her sleep
Intertwined by time
Mindful hands shape what we take
Echoes in each grain
Currents crash, meet once again
Floating Falling Face-to-Face
I chose this because I really appreciate how it connects climate change and extreme heat with sustainability and food waste, based on how you interpret the poem. But the core issues relate to extreme heat and its impact on the planet.
Extreme heat is extremely important to focus on, and often undervalued by communities who are unaffected (for now!). Extreme heat impacts people and the earth in many ways, including both health risks and infrastructure problems.
In regards to health, extreme heat results in increased hospital admissions for heat- related illness, as well as cardiovascular and respiratory disorders (CDC, 2025). Most critically, already vulnerable populations, including the elderly, young children, and those who are already affected by illness, suffer the most during these events. During a one-off event, people may experience severe dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke. In the long term, which is more likely as our climate continues to become more drastic, kidney damage, heart attacks, and development of mental health disorders can occur.
When focusing on infrastructure, the heat island effect can occur (EPA, 2025). This is when a developed area experiences higher temperature than nearby rural areas, due to large amounts of heat-absorbing surfaces. Following this, the city likely will face an increased energy consumption, further releasing pollutants through the energy grid and aggravating this cycle of extreme heat. Additionally, these conditions make wildfires a much larger threat than previously, resulting in significant lost of property, invaluable items, homes for many, and even lives, as we tragically saw recently in California.
We can possibly incorporate a heat lamp somewhere in our immersive experience, which would show users for a moment of time how unbearable high temperatures are, signifying a burning world. This research further informs the narrative the dramatic impacts of heat on the earth and body, meaning it could be exaggerated more within the story.
A haiku that signifies my research to me, in a world where this is no longer a problem:
Earth weeps joyful tears,
thunder rolls through laughing skies,
feet embrace the rain.
