1. Why do we engage in ecological amnesia?
2. Who (besides politicians) can declare a crisis?
3. What target was agreed on at Copenhagen? What is projected by the World Bank, and by the IEA?
4. What habit of thought rules our era?
5. What kind of shift does Klein consider crucial to addressing "our problem"?
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Look at the Kim Stanley Robinson epigraph at the beginning. Is "comprehensively changing capitalism" more difficult to imagine than the other things he lists? Would it "change everything" for the better, including the climate crisis?
- "I love that smell of the emissions," said Sarah Palin. Projecting yourself as sympathetically as you can into Sarah's worldview and playing Devil's Advocate, how do you imagine it might be possible for an intelligent and responsible person to say such a thing?
- Some of us will be discouraged by Klein's insistence that we can only prevent or ameliorate a grim future by changing everything rather than some things: it sounds impossible. Are you discouraged, or encouraged, by this sweeping prescription?
- What would a "Marshall Plan for the Earth" look like, do you think? What would it take, aside from effective presidential leadership, to enact it? 5
- Do you agree that climate change can become "a galvanizing force for humanity"? Under what conditions will that be possible? 7
- Do you agree that carbon credits are a "lucrative scam"? 8
- Is it immoral to "privatize the commons" and try and "profit from disaster"? 9
- Do you see the Occupy and Bernie movements as examples of what Klein means by "reinvigorating democracy from the ground up"? 10
- "Our leaders are not looking after us... we are not cared for at the level of our very survival." 12 True? What's the rational response to this absence of care from the top, a rededcation to political engagement or an apolitical retreat from the public sphere?
- Do you think adaptation to a 7.2 degree F. warmer world is possible? 13
- Will it be possible, in your versin of Ecotopia, for those sectors of the economy that contribute to sustainable living (the makers of solar panels and windmills, the inventors of technologies that do not leave a carbon residue, etc. etc.) to grow without regulation, and make their practitioners wealthy?
- Do you agree that the free market cannot possibly cut emissions by 8-10% in any scenario? What if a mass movement demanded it? Isn't supply supposed to respond to demand, in capitalism? 21
- Do you think the IEA is right that 2017 will be our last chance to get our emissions under control? 23
- Are we helping to kill the world by having kids?
- "We need somewhere to run to." 28 Should we set our sites on Proxima Centauri? (We're going to need an ark...)
- Post yours, please. (Each is worth a base.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH8Q8Ki9fCA This is a link to a Ted Talk by Oceanographer John Englander about rising sea levels. He brings up the fact that we cannot stop the rising sea levels, we have to adapt to the climate crisis because at this point we cannot stop it, we can only adapt and slow down the process. He says, "Crisis equals opportunity." This (class) is the first time i've been educated on how bad the crisis actually is but not the first time that I've thought about how our government and economic system needs a giant revolution. What if the climate crisis is Nature's way of saying this is our last chance to get it (everything) right, right now? It's clearly all connected.
ReplyDeleteDQ: Do you personally believe that climate change is worthy of Martial Law as Klein talks about in the introduction?
ReplyDeleteI think trying to comprehensively change capitalism is the most difficult thing listed in Kim's paragraph. I believe things would start to change for the better, but yet it will still take a great deal of time. Although starting to change capitalism would be a good first start to how we maybe see and deal with our environmental issues.
ReplyDelete"I denied climate change for longer than I care to admit. I knew it was happening, sure. Not like Donald Trump and the Tea Partiers going on about how the continued existence of winter proves it's all a hoax."
ReplyDeleteDQ: What are some common misconceptions about climate change?
"The various projections are the equivalent of every alarm in your house going off simultaneously. And then every alam on your street going off as well, one by one. They mean, quite simply, that climate change has become an existential crisis for the human species."
ReplyDeleteDQ: If this is true then why is climate change not a more pressing matter or still believed to be a hoax by some? Why have these "alarms" not being triggered as warning?
In attempts to answer your question, it could be related to the concept of Klein's "ecological amnesia". Most people are aware that there is an environmental crisis at hand, but if it does not affect them immediately or in more subtle ways, they forget that it is such a pressing matter. It could also come from the overall laziness of humans.
DeleteAfter reading the intro, I am 1000X more aware of how much of a crisis humanity is in. It's a global crisis. Why is it legal to not make sure as many people as possible are aware of what state we are all in?
ReplyDeleteActually, the introduction is amazing and exciting too. It shows how the climate change is not just such an issue, is more than we know and concern about. I guess the reason why we, or I, don't really concern about climate change, because its effects are not shown up in a short time. I takes a while until it appears and affects our life. Also we are just care about ourselves in the current time, but I think we have to take some steps to prevent and protect our world from this catastrophe "Climate Change". Climate change is a global crisis that threats the world.
ReplyDeleteDQ: Do you agree that climate change can become "a galvanizing force for humanity"? Yes, I agree that climate change can become a galvanizing force for humanity. When we consider and see the climate change as a crisis, we will take a step and work together to prevent and protect our world. The climate change as a crisis could be a terrible threat to human beings or it could be an opportunity, and it depends on how we perceive it.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/24/opinions/chad-myers-climate-change-weather/index.html
ReplyDeletehttp://earthsky.org/space/next-nearest-star-has-a-planet - a link to Proxima Centauri's potentially habitable planet info. I'm wondering if it's responsible to toy with the idea of abandoning the destruction we've created on planet earth and fly off to another planet with the same collective level of consciousness we now have? Would Life be better served if we stood our ground here on earth, accepted our negligence and turned our extraordinary creative powers to solutions here rather than running away?
ReplyDeleteWell, by present propulsion technology Proxima Centauri's still 80,000 years away. If that Russian billionaire's scheme works we'll be able to send tiny laser-boosted iPhone-size probes there eventually at a greater fraction of the speed of light, but it'll still take them 20 years to arrive... so it's less an issue of us just flying away, and more of whether we're sufficiently motivated by the intoxicating prospect of humanity sustaining itself on this planet long enough for our long-term successors someday to entertain the possibility of spreading out in the universe. We, here and now, are going to have to show ourselves worthy of that dream, if our great great...grandchildren are going to get to live it.
Delete