Throughout my time in high school, I consistently questioned what I would end up majoring in when I graduate from college. I first started out wanting to be a computer science major, but when I took AP Psychology, I felt psychology might be the major for me. However, I have always been very interested in environmental studies and have been putting in the effort to make sure I have a positive impact on our planet. As I am from Palm Springs, California, a desert city, I cut my water usage massively because of the drought that was going on. I applied to Lewis and Clark as Undecided, but noted I was particularly interested in Environmental Studies and Psychology. Before taking ENVS 160, I felt that I had a decent understanding of the subject and issues surrounding it. It turned out, however, that there was so much more information I have learned just by taking ENVS 160. In this post, I talk about three key lessons I have learned from this course.
1. People have many different opinions on climate change
The first book we read and discussed was the book Why We Disagree About Climate Change, by Mike Hulme. Hulme argues that there is more than just science to fight climate change. Climate change has different meanings to people in different regions of the world, and why these people disagree about it. People living in Australia will have different thoughts on climate change compared to people living in Bangladesh. In each of the ten chapters in this book, Hulme talks about different types of disagreements. I always felt that there were only three types of opinions on climate change: climate change is real and it is one of the most important issues we are facing, climate change is real but it isn’t as much of a priority compared to other issues, and climate change is a hoax. As I grew up in a conservative family who believed that climate change is real but fixing the US economy is a more important issue, I felt that people who agree with this assumption or the assumption that climate change is a hoax are the only people who disagree about climate change. After reading this book, I now realize that there is so much more to this idea (Hulme, 2009).
2. Citizens need to take bolder actions to help our planet
In a class discussion after a reading we had to do, it was stated that people are trying to make a smaller footprint in regards to our planet, but it is not enough. Being on a liberal arts college campus, I see others, including myself, carrying reusable bottles and containers in order to limit plastic waste. However, this is not enough to help our planet because multinational corporations like Exxon Mobil will still find a way to exploit our planet for their own gains. There should be more of an effort to fight companies like Exxon Mobil and limit their negative impact.
3. Big Words are vague
In ENVS 160, an important lesson I learned was the use of Big Words. Basically, these are vague words that actually have a lot more importance than how it is used informally. Personally, I have been guilty of using Big Words until the Interrogating –Ism’s post. I have used Big Words such as the “environment” and “nature”. Recently with the Interrogating –Ism’s post, our group dedicated our research to conservatism, which is a common evaluative ism. Although our group understood that Big Words were something that we should avoid, we still ended up using Big Words without even realizing. After completing the Interrogating –Ism’s post, I have realized that it is better to use more precise terms to describe an idea rather than using Big Words. I will not only use this skill in ENVS 160, but the rest of my classes as well.
References
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.