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Writer's pictureHsinmei (May) Lin

Introducing Daniel Kozodoy's "My Fantasy Environment: A Narrative Cartography Project"

Coffee

Coffee. We have all sniffed the aroma of roasted beans when walking into our local coffee shop. I wake up on a daily basis needing that cup of coffee to keep me motivated throughout the day. As a coffee lover, I decided to draw a map on coffee between my hometown Ukraine and Seattle. For brainstorming, I went back to the basics when thinking about coffee. When I started to think about coffee, I thought about my childhood and how I saw the world to be very close together. My reasoning for drawing the locations of Seattle and Ukraine closely on my map is because I always saw those two places close together and had a good relationship. I also brainstormed how I wanted the map to be easy to read for all; so, I decided to include places, landscapes, rivers to make everything flow together. I wanted my borders and outlines to be visible. I used critical thinking on how I could make that happen. I decided to draw the borders of a thick black line between the four places on my map. I added shorelines around the land. My reasoning for this was to show where the outlines end and start. My reasoning for all of these steps ultimately was for the reader to be able to understand the map more openly and deeply. Finally, my map demonstrates a global perspective on the environment because coffee is produced all over the globe.


I engineered this fantasy map on coffee because I feel that numerous people take for granted; the coffee they drink, they don’t think twice about how it was made, they just order it at the local coffee shop. I drew Seattle and Brazil pretty far away on this map. My reasoning for this was to try to get the reader to understand that it takes time and resources for the coffee to be produced. We live in the PNW and coffee has an important role here. There are tons of producers and consumers of coffee in the PNW. Starbucks started in Seattle and there are locations everywhere as well as many local shops in the Seattle area. In Ukraine, it is very similar, but the coffee boom is more recent while in the PNW it’s been going on for decades. In the last decade, Ukrainian coffee consumption has increased at a rate no one has seen before making it a regular daily routine in the culture. In 2018, Ukraine achieved a new milestone, and it marked the first time Ukraine has won the World Cezve-Ibrik championships in Dubai with its coffee. Coffee is important but we should all try to understand that coffee plants are causing major deforestation throughout the world which is impacting the environment severely. I want us to change our worldview on coffee and not take it for granted.


My fantasy map represents a global scale as coffee is produced from numerous continents around the world. I drew birds on my map to show how coffee trees provide birds with water, food, and cover which helps them gain weight over the winter period. At least 42 species of birds rely on coffee trees for water, food, shelter. I drew Brazil and Indonesia as a few examples on my map where coffee is produced. Coffee is transported to places all over the globe. I hold deeply that my map enables the reader to get a bigger picture of my topic of coffee; because of how coffee has impacted the lives of people, their daily routines, and the environment around them. In many places like Seattle, coffee has helped shape the culture. My map introduces a new perspective on how people should view and appreciate the countries that produce all these coffee beans.


My map addresses how our views on coffee should not be taken for granted and lightly in our environment. The boat on the map with the arrows represents a long voyage. This is different from what they presented in the Wikipedia article. In the Wikipedia article, they narrate how environmental studies are usually connecting the environment to sciences, humanities, and economics. My map is demonstrating that we as a society should not take coffee for granted even though it’s everywhere in our culture. I want to send a message that not to take coffee for granted because it takes an extensive amount of labor and effort to be made and shipped. Finally, I want us to understand that coffee beans are becoming more sensitive to the changes in climate and ultimately becoming more expensive.


Work Cited

- “Environmental Studies.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_studies.

- Druziuk, Yaroslav. “Ukrainian Coffee Culture Is Booming, And Here Is Why.” European Coffee Trip, 24 May 2018, europeancoffeetrip.com/ukrainian-coffee-culture/.

- “Fantasy Map Making | Step-by-Step.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeWXGPnGWNM.

- Rodewald, Amanda. “'Shade-Grown' Coffee Has a Surprising Environmental Benefit.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 30 Apr. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/shade-grown-coffee-has-a-surprising-environmental-benefit-2017-4.

- Sabrina. “But First, Coffee: The Rise of Coffee Culture in the Pacific Northwest.” The Projectionist, 15 July 2020, www.theprojectionist.blog/coffee-culture-pacific-northwest/.

- Yune, Tebany. “How Your Coffee Habit Could Be Contributing to Climate Change.” Mic, Mic, 20 Nov. 2019, www.mic.com/p/how-bad-is-coffee-for-the-environment-19188956.

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