As an aspiring animal lawyer, all I think about is being that one crazy person who finally makes changes and moves mountains. My whole life I have been watching documentaries on Netflix or TV shows on channels such as Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel to further educate myself. I found myself looking to current law cases and news articles for inspiration that all of my dreams will and can be reached. To this day I still do these certain things, but after taking ENVS 160 and reading books like Why We Disagree About Climate Change by Mike Hulme and Who Rules the Earth? by Paul F. Steinberg, I realized that these steps I’ve been taking to make a change are putting me back to square one. This class has pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to expand my horizons from my past beliefs. I now feel like I have the ability to find a real starting point and build a strong foundation for a point of action to make the change I want to see in the world. ENVS 160 has left me with something that I will always use to start my change, and that is to be a leader with open eyes and a scholarly mindset.
In order to be a leader, I must find a balance between my knowledge and my passion to find a good starting point for the change that I want to create. In my Post #2 for this class, I mentioned a few of the ways that change can occur from Who Rules the Earth? which are making changes to the normal social rules and further educating everyone around me. Steinberg (2015) mentions at the end of his book that there are eight principles for real institutional action such as ‘thinking vertically’, ‘creating public value’, and ‘building unconventional coalitions’. All this time I thought that working on a small individual scale would be the most effective point of action because it makes my goals seem like the most reasonable to reach. What I learned from this course, however, is that if I really want to make a life-changing difference, I have to think vertically and expand my horizons to leadership with these principles. Another aspect of being a leader is to have an open mindset rather than being narrow minded. From ENVS 160 I learned that because of the endless amounts of theories and ideas, along with the pros and cons that come with each viewpoint, in order to have an understanding of it all, we must consider everything with open arms and an open mindset.
To have the mentality of a scholar means thinking critically with things such as the root of all problems, the complexities that go along with those problems, and the questions we must ask and consider. Complex problems like climate change, come from many different aspects of life that complicates the possibilities of all of the potential solutions. These aspects include religion, economics, place, politics and social status (Hulme 2015). Each of these factors are so fundamental and need to be examined with a scholarly mindset in order to fully understand how to go about finding the solutions to these problems. As a student of ENVS 160, I now realize the importance of knowledge and how valuable and useful it can be to my advantage. Having a scholarly mindset is so significant as a future environmentalist that I am very excited to continue my scholarly mindset growth and even more so, utilize it to its full extent.
All in all, ENVS 160 I feel like I was slapped in the face with the truth and reality of this world, opening my eyes to see that in order to accomplish my goals and achieve my dreams, I must take action as quickly as possible, and also educate not only myself but everyone around me. This course was very straightforward and did not sugar coat anything. It pointed out all of the disagreements and complications towards many different theories, while suggesting the many possible and potential solutions. Now I feel that it is up to me to take it or leave it, therefore leaving me with no time to complain or make excuses. I am now determined to face the real world and be the start to the change that I wish to see in the world.
References
Hulme, Mike 2015. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules The Earth?: how social rules shape our planet and our lives. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press.