Comments Due: 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 19, 2013.
Here's an infographic that seems to correspond well to Barbara MacKinnon's essay.
In the same vein, this website maintains that the injustices here are widespread and profound--of course, they are not alone in making such claims--and it seeks to address in very practical ways such injustices.
What do you make of all this? Should we be alarmed? Where do these sources go wrong, if anywhere? Assuming their claims are true, are these indeed gross injustices? What ought to be done as a result?
Think carefully through these issues. Learn from others. Be gracious and charitable. Be humble. We all have something to learn.
I think global warming is something that was going to happen if it was caused by us or not. look at the ice age for example. we didn't really cause that to come to an end. wouldn't that be causing the earth to start warming when that ended? I feel like global warming was going to happen anyways. I feel like the earth goes through different stages and this happens to be one of them. I do however feel like we could be contributing to how quickly it happens. So in other words global warming is going to happen regardless, we are just increasing the rate it happens. I do believe that we should be alarmed considering that we will most likely be living here on earth when all this goes down. Its scary to think of how it is going to happen and how painful and tragic it could be. So I don't blame anyone for being alarmed. If it was going to be the time you were alive here on earth would you be alarmed? I feel like that is part of the reason we are increasing the rate of global warming so fast is because we don't care what happens after this generation is gone. we wont be here so why does it matter to us? I think its a shame we aren't willing to try and decrease the rate its happening so earth as we know it can stay a livable planet. I do feel that they are a good start to injustices. Its not going to prevent global warming but will surely slow it down. I think we should just try and slow it down in as many ways as we can. I feel that they ideas we have about it now and the things we are trying to do to help are good ideas for a starting point. I think with more research and experiments we can find ways that are even more successful.
ReplyDeleteChelsea M.
The earth goes through heating and cooling cycles. We can make these cycles worse with our emissions though. With this said, there is no reason we should prevent ourselves from decreasing our emissions and taking care of the environment.
ReplyDeleteThe huffington post article states that a lot of developed nations contribute the most to global warming through CO2 emissions which affects undeveloped nations the most. If this is indeed true, it is a great injustice. Developed nations, since they have the resources and contribute most to environmental destruction, should lead the way in becoming environmentally friendly.
I think that in order to change how we treat the environment, people first need to change their social customs and behaviors. That is the greatest challenge. It is probably pretty easy to be sustainable and more "green" it is just a matter of actually doing it.
--Monica T
We should be alarmed at all of the destruction we have caused. As first world countries we have enjoyed our luxury and have completely ignored those who are struggling in poverty. The earth is falling apart because of the carelessness of the wealthy and those in less glamorous circumstances are taking the fall. Due to our everyday lives of ease and laziness we use an extreme amount of fuel and continuously destroy more of the world we live in without any care of consequences. We need to look outside our own selfish bubble and see what pain and suffering we are causing through our actions and we need to stop our habits and make changes to save those who we are destroying.
ReplyDeleteMollie B
I learned about some of this in my ethics class and basically its our emissions going from the United States and following the wind and weather over to those surrounding countries right now that are having the more extreme climate change than we are having. I believe though that we need to start taking better care of our planet when it comes to the pollution and industry waste because even stopping now will take millions of years to fix.
ReplyDelete-Kiersten Johnson
The world climate is constantly changing, it would be changing without our help, but because of what we have done we have made these changes very drastically. Our CO2 admissions have caused great harm to the world, and have changed the way our climate should naturally be. We should be worried of how wrongly we could affect the worlds climate and how in return it will affect us. Humans should be concerned about not just themselves because what we do to change one thing will come back to change us in return.
ReplyDelete--Alyssa Toupin
Climate change is a very real thing. Earth goes through warming and cooling phases all the time.Our CO2 emissions have simply sped up this process. Whether you choose to expect it or not it is happening. Just look the how drastically the ice caps are melting. Although to many a few degrees may not seem like all that much, but on a world wide scale a few degrees is huge. Even though we know that this is an issue, it does not mean that we would be able to fix it over night. Even if everyone were to stop emitting toxins into the air today, the damage is already done, and it would take years to reverse the effects that we have already caused.
ReplyDelete--Kimber Creteau
I do agree with Chelsea in regards to the climate change. No matter what the people on Earth try to do, there will always be climate change. It has happened in history and it will probably happen again. The world is a living and breathing entity and will constantly change as time goes on. However, due to the amount of carbon emissions blown into the atmosphere each and every day, it is speeding up the process of global warming and climate change. It is a shame that most of the people in our generation is leaving it up to our children and grandchildren to clean up the mess that we left. They seem to think that we shouldn't worry about it because global warming really won't be an issue until way after we die. It is awful to think that we could be doing much more to fix this issue and we are not. I think that the world needs to get its act together, band together, and put more effort into reducing the effects of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The time to act is now and people should be really alarmed of what is happening. The sooner we get our act together, the sooner we can begin to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteIt is no mystery that our emissions and pollution is adding to the climate change. First of all, we cannot prevent any natural diseases such as the typhoon or hurricanes or tornados. This is Mother Nature's doing. It is my belief and standing that to reduce the effect our lives have with nature and our planet, we need to start with the "man in the mirror" as Michael Jackson would say. We need to be more concerned with our climate and pollution etc here in the United States before we look to the rest of the world.
ReplyDelete--Matt Pulter
Of course I think we should be alarmed about climate change. On the website, it talks about the poor countries and trying to inform us on what's going on over there and that we should be aware. It's very sad fr them over there. They don't have the money or the resources to adapt to climate change like we do over here. I wish it was different, I wish they had the money and the resources. I can't imagine what they have to go through. That's kind of why I like how they make those awareness pages so that we are able to see what's going on in the poorest countries and how it's affecting them and it gives us a chance to find every way to help in every way that we can.
ReplyDeleteCristin Stevens
With everything that has been said on this topic. I think I agree with everyone that we are leaving a very big carbon foot print and that is making it hard on everybody else too. We live in a world where people only care about themselves and gain, if they get that then they are happy. They don't care about other people and how something could cause such a big problem. We as the bigger countries,we need to make the changes and learn how to save other and ourselves so that our children's, children can still have this beautiful planet.
ReplyDeletethe one was from Sara Hannon sorry
ReplyDeleteI will admit that we do have affect of what the weather is doing and how extreme the weather changes, but we can't control everything that might harm the environment, if they try some of those controls will fail. The weather is going to change on its own and going to make its own adjustments.
ReplyDelete--Michelle F.
Global warming is something that we are going to have to live with the rest of our lives no matter what happens. Yes it is scary have fast the ozone layer is depleting and what is happening to the north and south poles. If we could reduce the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere we could possibly slow the process of global warming but we cannot completely stop global warming. The weather is an ongoing occurrence and we cannot stop mother natures storms and effects it has on us.
ReplyDelete~Tara Jones
The changing climate is something that we cannot control. We as humans have left a largely negative impact as far as pollution and emissions. With so much car exhaust spewing out of our cars we have created a smog layer with traps heat and causes the earth's temperature to increase which has lead to unfortunate weather disasters. Since the human race is so reliant on vehicles as a form a transportation and so greedy, they find that the use of cars is the simplest way to get from point A to point B. They simply over look riding a bike to their destination because it is too much of a hassle or even car pulling. Things such as this would not "fix the problem at hand, but it would sure be a good start. Unfortunately the strange weather patterns are something that we simply cannot control anndd we have to whaatever mother nature throws our way.
ReplyDelete-Cameron K.
I believe these claims about what is happening is something that is very scary. When you look at all the fact together, it cannot be argued the humans have had an effect on the environment. the scariest part about it all, is the fact that not many people seem to be truly concerned by it. they seem to all think the possibility of some huge change in the way our environment behaves is just a science fiction movie plot. What really seems unfair is the countries that cause all this damage, like the US and China, are not the ones being affected by it. i do think there needs to be some attempt to control what is going on. there needs to be massive national and international regulations placed to control our use of pollutants. Sadly most politicians care little about change, and more about stuffing their fat wallets, what really need to happen is to affect as many individual as possible. I feel the only hing that can actually be done is to educate as many people as possible. This will hopefully convince them to change some of their habit, and perhaps slow down the devastation just a little bit.
ReplyDelete-Matt Powers
I agree that the climate is changing and that it has detrimental effects on the costal lands. I also agree that the cause for the climate change being so rapid is from all the pollution and waste from mankind. I find it unfortunate that the populations living on the coast have to go through rough times but I do not feel that there is anything to be done to prevent it. These phenomenon are natural and have occurred throughout history, for example the dinosaurs went extinct do to some natural occurrence. It just so happens that we, humans, are living though a time period which natural disasters are occurring at a more rapid rate with more severe effects.
ReplyDelete---Nick---
I think that we should be alarmed by the changes that are happening to the Earth. I believe that global warming would be happening to the Earth regardless of human intervention, seeing as how the ice age began and ended without human intervention. I do,however, believe that humans are contributing to how fast global warming is happening. With the amount of CO2 emissions we create, and the amount of industrialization that has happened/will happen, we are causing the Earth's environments to degrade rapidly. Most of us do not believe that we are doing that much harm to the Earth; some do not even believe in global warming. How could you not see the evidence of it being real? I believe that humans need to be more aware of the way we are treating the planet, and try to find a way to slow down or decrease the amount of CO2 and other harmful emissions we add to the ozone. If we do not, we are going to regret it down the road. It is horrifying that we are causing the poorer nations to endure these natural disasters, while we come out mostly unscathed.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading several of the other students comments I will have to agree with a vast majority in saying that I do believe that climate change is a major problem that we need to address very soon. I do agree with Cassi to a sense regarding climate change occurring regardless of human interaction. However I think that humans are in fact causing these to happen at a much faster rate. I do believe a lot of people don't participate in the fight against climate change because they do not think their changes will make an impact. If people can just contribute in small ways we could make changes possible without full lifestyle changes across the board or having to enact laws to make people lessen their carbon footprints in the world. The planet is the most valuable resource we have. It is irreplaceable and we should treat it in such a manner.
ReplyDelete-Josh P.