Coming into ENVS 160, I thought it would be similar to environmental science in high school. I could have been more wrong. the main source of the difference is stemmed from the names: studies and science. Studies implies that it focuses on the whole, rather than the specifics, which is the opposite of science, which is data and numerical analysis, as well as the learning and observation of specific systems. It turns out that ENVS is so vast that it’s impossible to understand every single aspect of it. For example, it baffled me that there were so many concentrations of interest for majors, from education to species conservation. I didn’t comprehend how flexible of a field it was until I learned what exactly I was getting myself into.
Why We Disagree About Climate Change taught me that there are several viewpoints to climate change to consider, such as social, religious, or economical. Each of the categories that the book brought up has two or more sides to consider. But when you talk to someone, they are bound to have multiple viewpoints that are different from your own, making it even more difficult to agree or to find some aspect that you agree on. My understanding of this interpersonal diversity was expanded upon with the ecotypes, as that introduced several more aspects to someone’s perspective.
Similar to the multi-faceted viewpoints of a person, I learned that every place has many important factors to consider. This came to my attention while working on the situating materials assignment. My partner and I wrote a post about asbestos, a toxic substance that has amazing properties and a variety of uses. Both of the places that we examined were named after asbestos. That alone speaks volumes to how critical asbestos was for them, both as an export and a source of pride. Learning the perspectives of the inhabitants was intriguing since they had a very passé attitude surrounding the ban in the western countries, saying that the type that they mined was not the toxic type.
I never expected ENVS to have so much depth upon a longer look because, at the surface, it looks and sounds like a major for environmentalists and conservationists who want to learn about the ‘environment’ which is impossible due to the ‘environment’ being such a loaded term, something else that I learned. Regardless, I enjoy the depth of ENVS and plan to dive deeper.