Care for Our Common Home

As we continue to talk about Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change I believe that I am obtaining a deeper understanding of his writings. On top of this I am also gaining knowledge where the catholic church stands on issues such as climate change and what steps they believe need to be taken. I have not heard much from the Catholic Church about their stance on climate change so having the opportunity to learn more about their stance and why they stand where they do is particularly interesting to me. I think one of the most emphasized points that I am aware of is definitely the Catholic Church’s care for the poor. Pope Francis extenuates the matter in his encyclical and comes back to it many times speaking of its importance. Another point that I found interesting as I was reading the encyclical was the Church’s view on economics. I have never really heard anything about their stance on the economy. It was however somewhat predictable but still interesting to see it in words.  Moving on to our in class discussions I believe that Dr. Bernie is doing a good job breaking down the more complicated points for us and putting them in simpler terms. I think this is benefiting my understanding of the matters and how they can be seen and used in the real world. I think that the encyclical, Care for Our Common Home has a lot of good insight within it. I do see how some people could argue against it because it has been written from a biased standpoint. I personally am enjoying discussing this weeks theme and look forward to learning even more about it.

History behind Climate

This last week was extremely beneficial to my knowledge about the history of the climate of earth. I think that Dr. Knight did an outstanding job explaining and answering questions about the history of climate. The most interesting thing to me was the years in between key events in the past. I thought it was interesting how there were few events spread over millions of years and near the modern side of the timeline there were many events in just thousands of years. I believe this shows that humans are extremely young in the grand scheme of the world and climate. It is incredible to think about the progression of the earth and its climate as well as the events that shape our climate today. For instance, I had no idea that the forming of the Appalachians played such a large role in the formation of the earth. I also learned much about how the study of the history of the climate of the history of the earth. I think that Dr. Knight's study of historic trees and their rings is extremely interesting. His study shows that there is so much to take away from such small details in the world. From rings on a tree scientists are able to determine what the climate was like during 4 seasons of a year, thousands of years ago. It is also fascinating that there are many more studies like Dr. Knight's that exist and show the history of climate. One more example of this is the study of ice cores, which we talked about in class. Overall I think that the study of the history of climate is very interesting and I personally would like to know much more about it.

Week 2: The Collapse of Western Civilzation

After reading, reviewing, and thinking about this week’s readings a few things stick out to me. First, I think that the Collapse of Western Civilation novel by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway was particularly interesting. As I read this novel it surprised me by the way it read. It was very factual for a fictional book. I felt like that even though it was a fiction novel, that it could have very well been a true story. It had many ideas and facts within it that made many of the situations and problems seem realistic for earth in the future. That is if, of course, humans do not grasp climate change and limit its damage.  Although as the novel goes on I think that Oreske and Conway bring up some ideas that really hit home on the importance of urgency among humans to realize that climate change IS an issue. I think my favorite quote comes from Oreske and Conway when they say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I think this quote has relevancy to our lives today. I say this because it is a lot easier to stop a problem from a occurring all together than it is to try fix the damage it caused after it occurs. Sixteen times easier according to Oreske and Conway. Moving on I think they make good connections between climate change and public ignorance. One quote that shows this is, “It is hard to imagine why anyone in the twentieth century would have argued against government protection of the natural environment on which human life depends. Yet such arguments were not just made, they dominated the public sphere.” I believe this quote shows that ignorance of people refusing to believe or participate in limiting climate change could have to pay the consequences of more than just simply agreeing on government policy in which they disagree upon. Oreske and Conway also make direct connections between fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions and how both will bring cryogenic events to reality on earth.  I believe that in order to limit climate change, the earth will need participation and support from as many people as possible in order to make negotiations and plans that will keep our natural environment safe and intact.

Blog 1

The readings relating to the theme this week, why climate matters, were both interesting and in my personal opinion, disturbing. I say this because in the first reading by Naomi Klein, she states that individual efforts are not enough to make a difference in the grand scheme of resolving anthropological climate change. I think this is hard to take in because when individuals are doing their best to help and it is not enough, it can procure a hopeless feeling. I do believe however that Klein is correct in the sense that change needs to come not at a personal level, but instead, at a global level. There needs to be change in the way politicians prioritize the climate change crisis in government, as well as the urgency of the policy makers at the UNFCCC in Paris this December to make a binding deal. Moving on, I think Bill McKibben brings up a crucial point on the topic of climate justice when he says, “Had we acted a quarter century ago, physics would be working on our side by now. We could have acted from a sense of justice, since global warming’s inherent unfairness – that those who contributed the least suffer the most – has been obvious from the start.” I think this fact is one of the unfair consequences of climate change, if not the most unfair of them all. A mere 2 degrees temperature rise puts small island countries at the risk of extinction. Not only would the people native to these countries lose their homeland, but they would also be forced to become climate refugees. If this is not reason enough to open people’s eyes to climate change I do not know what else what would be. Oh wait, if the temperature rose another 2 degrees after that, 4 degrees total, it would be enough to flood major cities all over of the globe. This potential global catastrophe would affect people all over the globe. Anthropological climate change is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed at the nearest opportunity or else the people of earth could experience what they refer to in the Climate Cultures reading, the end of history.