Dickinson to Durban » Archive
Building a Platform
The spring right after I turned seven I planted a tree. It was a small white pine, and I patted it into my great grandfather’s backyard with my own little hands. Since then I have watched the tree grow from the window of that little house. I remember feeling like I was connecting with something as I planted the tree. I was connecting with the tree, with nature, with my future. I knew, innately, that I was doing a good thing. And I wanted to do it again and again. I don’t think that planting one tree will save the world. No more than I think that buying a sustainable dishwasher or riding a bike instead of a car will stop climate change. But I do not deny that it is important. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Mosaic Action
Do the Little Actions Matter?
I have always operated under the belief that the actions of individual people can amount to global change. After all, society is the product of every individual’s way of life. Thus, society will only be altered when enough people believe change is necessary and act on those beliefs. Our society has caused the phenomenon of anthropogenic climate change to occur, so as Greenpeace argues, we should be able to slow climate change through our actions on a personal level. In Greenpeace’s article, How to Save the Climate, they list changes individuals ought to make to their everyday lives in order to live more sustainably. When each person reduces their annual carbon dioxide emissions to 1.3 tons, climate change will not continue to amplify (Greenpeace, 6). After reading this article, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
A step in the right direction
Combatting global climate change is an incredibly pressing and controversial issue. The predominant strategy of confronting climate change in place today is consumption. Ironically, this is precisely the root of the problem. Consumption of goods, even those with the “energy saving appliance” emblem, fails to reach the heart of the problem. Promoting the consumption of these more efficient technologies, Michael Maniates argues in Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?, only scratches the surface of reducing human impact on the environment. Rather than companies and communities alike banding together to demand political change as a sweeping force, purchasing power has created a sense of complacent “individualization of responsibility” where buying a reusable shopping bag and using efficient lighting satisfies consumers about their concerns for climate change. Consumerism, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Consumption
Climate Action in an Individualistic Age
Can one save the world by planting a tree? Riding a bike? Recycling? Harnessing solar and geothermal energies? What does it take to avoid disastrous climate change? Bill McKibben, a famous climate change activist and author of the book Eaarth, even argues that the world we live on now is a completely different place than it was fifty, even thirty years ago. It is a new “Eaarth,” to what used to be “Earth.” By presenting this new idea of Eaarth, McKibben shows how already, climate change has altered our world, and now, we face the challenge of mitigating and ultimately, adapting to this change. In its paper, “How To Save the Climate,” Greenpeace cites the Stern Report, which says that action to reduce anthropogenic contributions to climate change must be a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
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