Cool Campus

Talking about climate change on Saint John's and Saint Ben's campus this week has opened up some very cool and innovative ideas. It also made me realize how many sustainable practices we have in use already. When we looks at the Saint John's and Saint Ben's campuses it is easy to see that we are totally bought into the idea of sustainability and clean environments.  Having a solar farm on campus provides a great source of renewable energy for our campus and creates opportunity for more renewable energy resources to be integrated into both campus. Other sustainable projects that the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University have going on are reduced carbon dioxide emission goals, recycling/compost, greenhouses, gardens, and maybe most importantly climate science in our curriculum. I think there is a definite upside to sustainability implemented in higher education. The upside here is that the number of people who are receiving a high level of education is fairly high, making it a large target group. Next, people at this level of education and age are the most open minded at this point in their lives meaning that they will be more willing to accept and learn about new things such as climate science and climate change. At Saint John's and Saint Ben's I think there are a few other ways we can implement sustainability into our lives and campus. I think putting new hydration stations on parts of campuses that do not have them already have the possibility to save a lot of water that would otherwise be wasted. Another idea is to install new LED lighting that will use much less electricity than the old lights. Sustainability on campuses is something that needs to be more prominent around the nation and around the world.

Science Advice to Policy

This week's topic was an important subject in terms of finding a solution to climate change. Scientists advice about policy changes could be some of the most valued advice that climate policy could receive. This is supported by science policy interface. This is the idea that there is a cycle regarding how scientists are related to climate policy. It first starts with the scientists and their research. As scientists are doing research they use the ideas of detection, attribution, and relationships to tie their findings to the climate. Their research is then studied and used to identify necessary changes in climate policy. Finally, these changes are attempted to be implemented into climate policy. In my opinion this process is extremely important. I think this process is important because it relates research and findings done by professionals to climate change, and then the affects of their findings to climate change.  The next thing I would like to talk about is professor O’Reilly’s writings. I think that her writings were very educational on how the climate research is perceived if numbers are not backed by facts. Her first case study and example of how a simple typo can lead to scientists and scientific organizations being attacked by climate skeptics is somewhat concerning. I say this because she shows that even the smallest of mistakes can get blown up way out of proportion. I think that this is unfair to climate scientists but at the same time understand the position taken by climate skeptics who are desperate to shoot down any attempt that suggest climate change is real.

Inequality and Development

This past week talking about inequality and development was a learning experience. Learning about Vietnam and their struggles with deforestation, and also Egypt, and their water problems brought up lots of information for discussion. Starting off i'd like to talk about Egypt and their water problem. Egypt is in a unique situation where there is so much uncertainty it is hard to tell which direction to move in towards a solution.With a 70% percent change of water reduction or a 30% chance of water increase it is impossible to determine which direction to go. With this being said, I think the first step that they need to take is to do more research. They need to broaden their research and implement new way to gather information in order to narrow the uncertainty that is limiting their ability to take action against climate change. This is a necessary first step because without it they are unable to take a second step. I think our in class discussion about Egypt brought a deeper understanding about my understanding of the situation occurring in Egypt. Our in class discussion about Vietnam also greatly helped my understanding of the material. I got a better perspective about the idea of "old wine in a new bottle." I think that this is the most prominent problem Vietnam is facing right now. I think that they need a new and unique solution to their deforestation. They need to implement a system which better includes both local citizens and the government. If this is possible it will enable Vietnam to be more proficient in gathering local support as well as a gather a higher percentage of it's citizens to jump on board a plan to stop deforestation. Equality among locals and government systems is extremely important in both cases which we looked at in class. It is also an obvious problem occurring all around the world that needs to be better taken care of.

What is the Future of our climate as we know it?

What is the Future of our climate as we know it? This is great question that I believe has many possible answers. Although there are many possible answers, we do not know for sure what the answer will be. This is obviously because no one can be sure exactly what the future holds for. Many people argue however, that the reality of our future climate relies in our own hands. When i say "in our own hands" I am referring to the human race as a whole. I think there are multiple questions that are necessary to take into account and answer before humans begin making decisions about climate change. First is the question is what a person thinks the definition of climate change is. If a person does not believe in climate change, they will not take any action into altering it. On the contrary if one does believe in climate change, they then must think about what the future of climate holds. This leads up to the second question we must ask ourselves, "How does the way we think about the future influence the future"? This is a question ponder for a few minutes before answering. As i thought about this question and discussed it in our small groups, it grew on me in a way where i began to value it's content more and more. After thinking about it, i believe that this question is a great starting point to look at and start manipulating the future of climate change. I believe this because depending on what a person believes a future climate will look like, will influence the actions we take toward dealing with climate change. This leads to our last question, what action do we take in order to change climate change? I think that these questions have the potential to lead humans in the right path to figuring out climate change and the challenges it poses.

Climate Change Denial and Skepticism

            This past week talking about climate deniers and skepticism has personally been somewhat frustrating. I think this because I feel like that the dangerous effects of climate change are not hidden, but obvious. I think that many of the excuses people make to blow off the idea of climate change are insensible and not well thought out. I did however learn that some people are simply not going to change their mind on climate change. I believe that people are entitled to their own opinion so that is fine, however, I do see it as a problem when people fight against the science of climate change. I say this I think because I understand the harm climate change could cause and how hard it is to say science is a for sure thing. I say this when I refer to the idea of climate change and the science behind it. I think it is too easy for deniers to twist the science and convince people who do not know much about climate change that it is not actually occurring. I believe that we see this in our world today. This type of twisted information is negatively impacting the fight against climate change and therefore is putting the world in danger. Next, when we see climate science being defended by religion I believe that most of the time the religion is not well enough interpreted to its members or perhaps the whole belief is not practiced. Finally, I think that this week was beneficial for me from the perspective of dealing with climate deniers and skepticism in real life situations.