GT 3.15--3.20 (thru True Cost...). WW 226-265. McK thru E.B. White... PH -33 Foreword... Oceans.
Midterm report presentations continue: 26 - Alex Wiseman; Gray Fogo
From last time Don't worry: if we fall further behind with our questions I'll catch us up with an audio review before the exam.):
- What form of magical thinking for climate could become a new theology? 200-01
- What's the main lesson from the church of technology?
- Critics of Al Gore are calling attention to what, in the words of Thomas Piketty? 207 Do you agree that policy change is more urgent than personal choices?
- How do Mann and Wainwright re-purpose Thomas Hobbes? 212
- What's the wheat myth, according to Yuval Noah Harari? 219 Are you going to read his new book Nexus?* Do you agree that our era is a "blip..."? 220
- What kind of time does climate change threaten to impose? 224
McK
- What did poet Robinson Jeffers identify as the modern disease? 251 What do you think of Tor House?
- COMMENT?: “The quality of owning freezes you forever in "I," and cuts you off forever from the "we.”
― The Grapes of Wrath - What would Bill McKibben prefer as our national anthem? 258
- Prior to the Parkland shooting, what was Marjory Stoneman Douglas most known for? 260
- How does McKibben characterize Aldo Leopold's "land ethic"? 265
- Please post your discussion questions
Again, please post your discussion questions (and responses) pertaining to these:
GT
- What is the Reflorestarmentes platform? On what demographic does it especially rely? 176-7
- Why does Greta call Democracy our most valuable tool? What do we need, to deploy it effectively in the climate crisis? 180-81
- Why do poor populations tend to be more harmed by climate change? 183
- Under what conditions would Taikan Oki consider moving to Stockholm? 186
- What are some literary illustrations of how climate conditions can exacerbate human behavior? 188-9
- What was the message of 2008? 193
WW
- What is NTHE, and what does WW find problematic about it? 227
- What bias do some technologists and de-extinction advocates say we should discard? 230
- What did Robinson Jeffers call his philosophy? What did Charles Taylor call it? 231-2
- Why does Paul Kingsnorth propose to "withdraw"? 234
- To what "clearheaded calculus" do climate alarmists like WW attribute their alarm? 237
- At what kind of despair does novelist Richard Powers point? What response does he prefer to withdrawal? 239 (Powers' latest book Playground just came out, btw.)
- What does WW mean when he says the portrait of suffering he's presented in this book is "elective"? 244
- How is global warming a "Fermi solution"? 246
- What's the point of Adam Frank's thought experiment? 248
- Why does WW think we might be wise to consider ourselves cosmically special? 250-1
- "You can choose your metaphor." 253 Which do you prefer?
- What encouraging developments coincided with the UN's "Doomsday" report? 257-260
- Do you agree with WW's hope for a happier future? 265
McK
- How did people used to speak dismissively of smog? 295 (btw: two famous baseball players hailed from Donora PA, can you name one?)
- What famous naturalist drove his Buick 17,000 miles to follow the seasons? -And said,
"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is is change." 313
What did the Nearings find perverse about "making money" and "getting rich"? 320
What experiences gave Sigurd Olson a transcendent feeling of freedom and detachment? 324
What was E.B. White's amendment to the strength=freedom doctrine? (And: what do you think of his statement that “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” Or his letter to a despondent citizen who'd begun to lose hope in the human future? --"Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.")
PH*
- Have you visited www.regeneration.org? Impressions?
- COMMENT on Jane Goodall's foreword? Do you agree that the climate crisis is interconnected with and insoluble apart from issues of poverty, health care, social justice etc.? Do you share her three reasons for hope? 6-7
- Do you see the proposal to put "the future of life at the heart of everything we do" as consistent with the urgency of addressing "current human needs, not future existential threats" and an "imagined dystopian future"? 9-10
- Are you confident that we'll be "going in the right direction at the right speed by 2030"? 10 If not, will you nonetheless engage the crisis and assert your agency?
- COMMENT?: "there is no difference between a climate denier and someone who understands the problem but does nothing." 11
- Do pessimists and defeatists lack imagination? 12
- Have you attempted to exert influence "upstream"? Will you? 13
- Does anything in the Readers Reference Guide surprise you? 14-15
- Will we "cease using the ocean as a dump" anytime soon? 17
- Will we stop using the ocean as a "lawless commons" anytime soon? 19
- Are too many academics (like Enric Sala, formerly) effectively writing obituaries for life on earth rather than working for solutions? 20
- Should we be seeding more kelp forests and consuming more seaweed? 23-4
- Did you realize how rapidly the mangrove forests had declined in just the past forty years? 27
- Do you think developers realize or care how badly they're compromising the tidal salt marshes and seagrasses? 29-31
- Why are we not better at learning from and retaining the insights of indigenous peoples and ancient scholars like Jia Si Xue? 32
From #DamonGameau, the author of our Afterword: #2040film. An aspirational journey to discover what the future could look like if we simply embraced the best that exists today.
First time I taught Environmental Ethics we read Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest. He's still hopeful, though he says he "didn't intend it; optimism discovered me."
1. Have you visited www.regeneration.org? Impressions?
ReplyDeleteYes, I took some time today to look over this website. I first thought that it seems too ambitious and maybe a little naïve. After reading more about what they are trying to achieve I now realize that it is mostly a platform to provide well presented research and information on climate change with a broad and inclusive prospective on all the environmental issues at hand and all the possible solutions. Again, this is a huge and maybe overwhelming task but its good that someone is attempting to do it. It’s nice to see resources like this that are action and solution oriented and not just doomy even if it might only be aspirational.
1. COMMENT?: "there is no difference between a climate denier and someone who understands the problem but does nothing." 11
I think there is a difference. If a climate denier truly doesn’t understand the issue at hand that is one thing but if someone understands climate change and accepts that it is a critical threat but does nothing that is inexcusable. There’s a difference in someone who understands the issue but just doesn’t care and someone who is uneducated or victim to political rhetoric. However, I think there are a lot of “climate deniers” out there who just choose not to “agree” with or believe in science. Personally, I also think that is inexcusable as well. Of course, faith and values should hold great power within people but if that is conflicting with physical, concrete evidence of a threat to the safety and well-being of humans and used as a means for complacency then something is horribly wrong with those values.
Discussion questions for my presentation on E.B White:
ReplyDelete1. Do you think the industrial scene can be economically successful and have a neutral impact on the environment?
2. Do you think nuclear weapons are effective or are they just a game of chicken as E.B White suggests?
3. What are we unconventionally complacent to in this age (in regard to the environment/public health)?
Why aren't we better at retaining and and learning the insights of indigenous peoples?
ReplyDeleteWe seem to have difficulty as humans understanding other cultures. A basic example would be America is an individualistic culture versus an Asian culture focusing more on the collective. Indigenous peoples are rooted in holistic and spiritual identities. My husband is from New Zealand and is of Maori descent. The Maoris believe the natural world teems with gods and unseen beings and these beliefs help to shape their culture and systems. Things we do not understand ultimately create difficulty of understanding and acceptance. If we have trouble with something as simple as individualism and collectivism, it is fair to assume that indigenous ways and beliefs will cause hesitation and skepticism.
“there is no difference between a climate denier and someone who understands the problem but does nothing” I think there is a difference. Someone who recognizes it is a problem has already made the first step towards making a difference. Unfortunately as people who are not in power average citizens do not have much power to make a significant difference aside from voting. Climate deniers are presented a truth, but refuse to take it.
ReplyDelete“Should we be seeding more kelp forests and eating more seaweed?” I would say that growing more kelp would be a good idea. Hydrogen can be collected from seaweed and used as a powerful clean fuel source. Seaweed is also a good source of nutrients as well.
On the quality of owning, I disagree. You own a lot of things, but it doesn’t necessarily disconnect you from the “we”. You own your clothes, you own your choices, you own your brain, heart, stomach, and mind. Not everything you own must belong to someone else as well.
Greta's platform aims to reconnect people with sustainable practices and a reconnection with mother earth. Without active participation and people understanding the gears of the government we are able to see through our main goal of saving the planet, democracy helps assist us in that. Poor populations tend to be more susceptible due to lower GDP.
ReplyDelete