I don’t think anyone enjoys tuning their views into harsher realities, however I will attest that I am leaving this class more thoroughly educated on what the real issues standing between humanity and sustainability are. Environmental studies allowed me to take an enormous step back, and look at the big picture of climate change, instead […]
Ruling an Institution
In his book, Who Rules the Earth?, Paul F. Steinberg asserts that lasting solutions for climate change and other environmental issues must come from institutional change because the world afflicted by these problems is governed by social rules. Steinberg begins the book with a commentary on why individual-scale change is often unsuccessful. Steinberg poses the question, “Scientists […]
Complexities of Impossible Solutions
Throughout the course of this semester, it has become apparent to me that each reading contributes to our understanding of complex connections between environmental dilemmas and their respective solutions (or lack there of). Below I will explain the connections I have found and discuss the sources from which they arose. My first connection falls between […]
Why Science Won’t Save Us
As a major in the natural sciences, I entered this course with the mindset that the people who don’t believe in climate change must simply not understand the science behind it. I always thought that maybe, if there was a way to get enough ‘science’ out there, we could convince everyone that climate change was […]
Beware the Elves
INTRODUCTION “The stated position of extremist groups such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is that human beings are never targeted or harmed.” (Liddick 2006). Ecoterrorism is defined by the FBI as “the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by […]
Feeding the Mountain that Eats Men
A Note to the Reader: An amendment has been added to this post March 30, 2017. The amendment is intended to correct erroneous and over-reaching statements made in the original post. An Overview of Tin Tin is a soft, malleable metal (Sn, atomic mass number 50) with numerous uses in the modern world. Tin […]
Lucky Number 7: A Climate Change Revelation
As part of a class wide survey, our group went into downtown Portland and nearby neighborhoods to analyze public opinion on climate change in the Greater Portland Area. We asked random people a series of brief questions asking them to; quantify (1-10) how important climate change is to them compared to other issues and tell […]