The fight for climate change is a fight that has been ongoing in modern years and is all too familiar for people who never seem to have the voice to speak up against it. With the increase in oil extractions or the rise in carbon emissions, it is no secret that climate change’s impacts have severely taken a toll on people and the environment, but it is also evident that certain people are being impacted by its affects more than others. Often times, marginalized people are the people that have to deal with the most apparent effects of climate change - whether it being combating it or living with it, they are the ones whose lives are being changed the most because of it. In Bill McKibben’s Oil and Honey, Bill McKibben finds himself at the forefront …show more content…
Throughout the book, Bill McKibben constantly talks about how important people are to environmental movements such as this one and how what message people had would go a long way. He often talked about how it was the people that were experiencing the real problems were the ones with solutions. When he saw how important and significant the pipeline was to an environment that was already being disrupted, he called Native leaders and asked them how they can join the fight against the pipeline. This was a really important aspect to the book because he was taking his time to make sure he was fighting the pipeline in the right way and being inclusive of those who are being affected. By asking the people who lived around the start of the pipeline what he and others can do, he is giving them a bigger voice then they began with and ensuring that he is doing what the land needs, not just what he thinks will fix the problem. Majority of the time, as seen in class and in readings, people disregard indigenous peoples and those are affected by climate change, often times lower income and class peoples, struggles as if they are not as important as those who are middle to upper class, usually white, high income people. For example, in the documentary watched in class about the storm that hit the lower income neighborhood, not much was being done to help the people and hardly any media was covering it solely based on the idea that they are not as important as others because of their “social rank.” By fighting along the indigenous people, people are helping them be noticed and have a
The second is that this is precisely the kind of project that climate science tells us can no longer be tolerated” (McKibben). This allows the reader to follow McKibben’s thoughts into a deeper explanation and understanding of the issue on the Keystone
Mckibben inaugurates his third paragraph suggesting that we make the environmental issues, “"the great moral crisis of our time, and the equivalent of the civil rights movement of the 1960s."(747). He uses this analogy to explain that in his opinion, we are strip-mining the present and destroying all of whom come after it. Thus, leading him to discuss exactly how humans’ materialistic ways have impacted the earth. From Bangladesh living three months in thigh high-deep water, to polar bears becoming “20% scrawnier than they were a decade ago” (748). The environmentalist writer goes on to discuss how to deal with global warming since it is indeed creeping up on us.
Global warming has become such a prevalent topic in world politics and news. I chose the book Eaarth by Bill McKibben because global warming is becoming a large problem, and if left unheeded, global warming will destroy our environment and present brutal obstacles for our grandkids and future generations. In his book Eaarth, Bill McKibben urges us to seriously examine global warming to solve this perplexing difficulty. By increasing awareness on this threatening development, we may be able to solve this problem.
In Michael Pollan’s article “Why Bother?”, he addresses the issue of climate change and the inner reasoning behind those who don’t acknowledge or bother with the crisis. Pollan intertwines a discussion of the rising danger of global warming with a psychological discussion of personal virtue. He emphasis his main point of climate crisis by providing examples and data stating, “we have only ten years left to start cutting—not just slowing—the amount of carbon we’re emitting…So:eight years left and a great deal to do.” (117). His discussion of personal reasoning to the problem of people not responding to global warming is intertwined through the direct question that is the title and by other experiences such as Wendell Berry’s comments on the
Naomi Kline and Bill Mckibben offer alternate conceptualizations and articulations of the impending climate crisis and possible strategies for resistance in This Changes Everything and Eaarth. There are some areas in which the two authors seem to align their views and others where they diverge significantly. Both narratives are placed in the context of climate crisis and both authors are frank their assessment of where we are currently and where are inevitably headed as a planet. Kline highlights ideology and economic structure as foundational factors and McKibben seems to tacitly if not explicitly agree. Throughout most of the book, Kline chooses to focus on neoliberalism, capitalism and the hierarchies and artificial divisions they create as the
This paper will reflect on the readings that we have done thus far, as well as ask the important question of how our daily lives, the things that we buy, use, and throw away, are all intertwined and built to impact climate change. Readings such as: Poverty, the environment, and the market, Tangled routes, the story of stuff, and This Changes everything gave us a glimpse into how humans are the primary contributors to climate change. Also, the movie; These changes everything, builds upon the image that humans are the primary contributors to climate change.
In his essay, McKibben claims that global warming “has to become a political issue—and fast. The only way that may happen, short of a hideous drought or monster flood, is if it becomes a personal issue first.” He supports this claim by exploring the obviously damaging effects of global warming and the causes of these effects. For example, he points to research about coral reefs suggesting that “rising water temperatures are likely to bleach them [coral reefs] to extinction by mid-century.”
Citizens should be given the opportunity to point out evidential flaws, and encourage the country to make the necessary reforms. “Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” (Thoreau). When engaging in an act of civil disobedience, individuals are courageously accepting punishment with the hope of changing our nation for the good. Recently, over 160 American citizens have been arrested for engaging in an act of civil disobedience regarding their concerns for the wellbeing of our environment. The executive signing of the Keystone XL pipeline project greatly concerns a vast majority of the population, and they have successfully spread global awareness through their petitioning outside of the White House. This form of petroleum extraction is known to release an enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions, but poses significant economic benefits to the U.S; causing its controversy. Among the protesters included Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist and author. In an interview he once stated, “In the States we've had by far the largest demonstrations in the last few years. The largest civil disobedience actions about anything in US history in the last 30 years have all been centered around the climate.” This form of civil disobedience emphasizes the ongoing
"The Age of Consequences" by Jared P. Scott is not just a documentary; it's a call to action on climate change that resonates deeply with public health concerns. As a student of public health, my engagement with this film exceeds its surface-level narrative to explore the profound health implications it presents. The documentary intertwines the stark realities of climate change with geopolitical instability, economic disparities, and the threat of chronic diseases, echoing the very principles of public health we've dissected in class. The documentary’s exploration of climate-induced geopolitical instability and conflict mirrors our studies on public health systems and disparities. It highlights how environmental stressors exacerbate existing health inequities, pushing
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, a book written by Naomi Klein, is about climate change and the attitude of people towards it. The book is basically trying to show that the powerful politicians and organizations deny the climate change because of they are self-centered. Klein tries to motivate common people to raise their voice against such activities done by the self-centered people and declare a climate crisis. Klein’s book is highly controversial as there are many people who do not believe in climate crisis and they do not think there is any self interest behind this fact. In this paper, I am going to explain why this book is the most rewarding and opportune text for our course.
When I polled a few of my friends about “what is the single most critical problem facing us today?” I got a frequent response that’s not so shocking, climate change. So why climate change? Why not obesity, or population control, or education? While all of those are problems that deserve discussion, no single topic is so fundamental to us as humans as climate change. In 2007 Al Gore stated in his person of the year interview that “Today we 're dumping 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the environment, and tomorrow we will dump more, and there is no effective worldwide response. Until we start sharply reducing global-warming pollution, I will feel that I have failed.” (Walsh) Perhaps the paradigm has changed. Climate change is now talked about at every level of government, in large and small businesses, and communities across the globe. It’s a topic that functions to affect our economy and our environment. Moving forward, it’s important to understand why our way of life will be affected by the way we tackle these issues surrounding climate change. Climate change is the single most important issue affecting the human race today due to its widespread impact on our survival; impacting food sources, transportation, weather, geography and other life forms on the earth.
Climate change has been a subject of discussion in the media for many years, supported with the use of arguments against oil polluting the environment and extreme scare tactics of Polar ice caps flooding civilians backyards. The issue has been ignored by the majority of lay people as seeming too complicated, and with all the conflicting information in the media in the past, who can blame them? However, scientifically, climate change and what perpetrates it is fairly simple to understand and society as a whole is beginning to come to a clear consensus on climate change. Thanks in part to more readily available forms of media and information, people have become cognizant of the fact that climate change is a legitimate problem which requires immediate amelioration. While this may seem melodramatic, society is realizing that climate change is an issue which can no longer be denied if the human race wishes to continue.
The essay opens up with McKibben talking about how the political campaign against global warming is flawed because at our current point there is nothing much that can be done to fix it.(Mckibben,1) He then goes to state that humans are the biggest culprit behind global warming and supports this by giving examples such as SUVs and American ignorance.(2,9) He concludes by saying that if ten percent of America were to go green, it still would not save the planet, but ten percent could get the government’s attention to pass laws making everyone go green. (11)
There is an issue on this planet that will define this generation. The issue is climate change. Global warming. A world on the collapse as our oceans are acidified, our air polluted, our forests disappearing, and human rights issues getting worse. It seems that people are not aware of how big climate change actually is. It’s not something that only takes place on the ice caps or in the forests on the far corners of the world. This is an issue that happens here, and now. It’s real. It’s happening.
In order to combat a social issue, we must have social solutions to this problem. It is essential for us to come together and fight against warming and climate change. The less we blame others and start acting upon this issue ourselves, we will have a bigger impact on climate change quicker and more efficiently. Though we have been dealing with the human influence on climate change for centuries, especially since the Industrial Revolution, we can still lessen the effects. We can’t expect the problem to go away if only a few people decide to