Kaylah Lightfoot
Comp 2
Contrast Analysis
Mike lynch
4/10//17
Fixing the Sky or The Optimal Share of Variable Renewables? Do you want your child to have a higher risk of skin cancer or other terrible diseases? Do you want your child to never be able to play outside with all their friends? Nobody wants their child to have an unhealthy life or be sad because they have no friends to play with. Everyone wants to hope for their child to have a happy and healthy life. Humans not thinking about how the world’s climate change is dramatically changing does not make the climate not change. There are many scientist that have proven that climate change is happening and it has been happening for many, many years. Understanding what is happening
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Earthly effects of the ozone layer are discussed in Fixing the Sky. Also in Fixing the Sky, Schiermeier talks about how the flow of air is dramatically affected by the ozone layer. Schiermeier focuses on the temperatures around the world, while Hirth in The Optimal Share of Variable Renewables focuses on how costly it is to reach the goal of usage of renewable energy. When reading through both articles the intended outcome was clearly for two different audiences. Schiermeier is for the general audience of college students or high school students with only slight knowledge about the ozone layer, however Hirth’s article is for an audience that is well informed in macroeconomics and microeconomics. Schiermeier’s article was a much easier read than Hirth’s. An example of how easy flowing Schiermeier’s sentences are: “Scientists are only now gaining the necessary computing power to run long-term simulations that allow them to test which effects of climate warming might win out” (Schiermeier, 2015, pg. 1). Schiermeier’s article uses average words that most college students would know and understand. In parts of Hirth’s article usage of advanced language that only economic masters would know and understand was used, but some areas of the lengthy article were understandable to someone that has only taken the basic macroeconomics. An example of how drastically hard the article is to read would be; “A certain share of the cogenerating technologies lignite, hard coal, CCGT, and OCGT are forced to run even if prices are below their variable costs” (Hirth, 2015, pg.
Climate change is not a new concept. It has been mostly referred to as global warming in the past. As much as people would like to file this issue away as something to deal with at a later date, it simply cannot wait. This problem we face is costing us billions of dollars, forests and wildlife are being eliminated, and people are dying. Starting to sound like a big deal, right? Future generations will be affected the most. People who do not even exist will have to pay for what we, all people, have done to this earth. To begin to make changes, one must realize the severity of the issue. Bill Mckibben, author of “Recalculating the Climate Math,” conveys that “We’ve already raised the world’s temperature by one degree—enough to melt almost half the ice in the Arctic, kill off huge swaths of the world’s coral, and unleash lethal floods and drought. July and August tied for the hottest months ever recorded on our planet, and scientists think they were almost certainly the hottest in the history of human civilization” (Page 3 of 5). Global climate change is a serious problem because it increases natural disasters and is the cause of extreme weather.
As a kid who has cared about nature his entire life, and an avid modern environmentalist for four years and counting, this issue has been at the center of my psyche for quite some time. I have seen public perspective on this issue change before my eyes. From the original rejection of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth movie on “global warming” to personally marching alongside 300,000 people in our nation's capital to raise awareness on climate change. However, despite all of these avenues the issue is still spoken about as this distant idea that eventually will be a disaster. Many politicians and news networks speak of the need for slow implementation of policies and programs to right our environmental wrongs. The best way to paraphrase the common narrative of this issue would be to say, climate change is going to happen down the road, it will probably be bad and trying to fix it in the near future would be a good idea. That weak call to action shoves climate change onto the long to-do list of the leaders of our world. Not only does it not create the urgency needed to actually curb the effects of our environmental ignorance, but it does not accurately describe the threat of a changing climate. Treating this like a political issue will not allow for the rigorous changes needed to address such a problem in the timely manner that is required.
Climate change is an issue that affects all, and yet some do not even accept that it exists. Climate change is causing glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, more droughts and heat waves to occur, and even more intense tropical storms. These are just a few examples of the effects of climate change, but there are even more devastating effects such as polar bears having to search for new food sources, on land, because of the sea ice they rely on for hunting melting at a more rapid pace. Climate change enthusiasts have even said, “The struggle to save the global environment is in one way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies”(“Al”). The effects of climate change are indeed devastating, but the question I want to find an answer to is how do we lessen the effects of these effects that climate change causes? The reason I want to find a solution to my question is that I believe that the Earth is counting down towards catastrophe, and a solution must be found to save it. To find an answer to this question I explored five sources, all of which are articles.
Dreams lead to false hopes and are deceiving! That’s at least what some say. But throughout the dream unit we have seen and have read about achieving our dreams and not going the distance. It is worth it to dream because dreams give us hope and purpose, working hard at our dreams can have a great outcome, and Dreams can lead to more than we can imagine.
That is a really deep question. For this paper, I wanted to understand the climate change issue better. I wanted to understand how humans acknowledge (or even deny) climate change, still yet do nothing to remedy the problem. Most people are guilty of this. I, myself am guilty of this. As Nordhaus and Shellenberger state in their article, the problem seems to be a thing that will only be a priority once it is in our faces. Rust says that these films create an awareness that is somewhat being lost in this postmodern globalization. The Day After Tomorrow, Soylent Green, and The Mist all send a message that could get us thinking about cutting back to prevent climate change. But as my topic has illustrated, it seems a bit farfetched that change would actually
Regardless of how visible the changes are presently there are changes occurring constantly. The climate has been changing for decades and that is only what we have scientific data on so the changing could potentially be going on for much longer. The people that favor this denial strategy are simply uncritical thinkers who either don’t want to accept the state of the world and the destination that we are heading or that they have too much financially at stake. Those who are in the latter situation have an ethical dilemma because they should agree with the facts, therefore agreeing with global warming but this would then call for action which for businesses especially will be costly. In our day in age, with our technology, it is difficult to claim you don’t believe in climate change. The acceptance of global warming is scary because it’s the acceptance of the destruction and distortion humans have cause to Earth but even more difficult is the response to the enlightenment. However, that is only half of the
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a report said “More people are projected to be harmed than benefited by climate change, even for global mean temperature increases of less than a few degrees centigrade.” If you don’t care to hear me out listen to people’s IQ that make me look like a fool they know their stuff. The IPCC are telling you, no us that harm will come to everyone but more to the people and industries that are responsible for the gasses that are harming the planet. The report shifts to another part “ The ability of human systems to adapt to and cope with climate change depends on such factors as wealth, technology, education, information, skills, infrastructure, access to resources, and management capabilities.” not everyone on the planet has all the “factors” needed to last and make through what’s to
Half the Sky is a collection of interviews, facts and recommendations; all attributing to women’s rights and issues on an international level. The authors interviewed various women to provide the readers with their individual stories regarding the struggle to overcome the oppressive environments that they live in. The authors, Nicolas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, are married. WuDunn is originally from China and Kristof is a White American that worked and lived in China for several years. Both of them have a background in writing for the New York Times and as editors for businesses. They won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for a segment on China at the New York Times. Since the authors have an ambition for journalism and international life,
There are many factors leading into why climate change is not as of a concern as people make it out to be. What is known as the ‘Climategate scandal,’ demonstrated that data used to show results of climate change was manipulated. In 2009, the leaked emails from a university exposed the scientists who have been using this false data to sway the public. Dr. James Hanson and other scientists were all involved in this scandal. They lowered past temperatures, changed recent temperatures and deleted data that proved them wrong. The emails also showed that the scientists attempted to censor any scientific journal that opposes their work. Alongside the scandal of 2009, there was another scandal in 2011 in which an organization attempted to hire an
We don't think that the climate is changing but it is in fact happening right now and at a very rapid pace and this very quote sums up our view of climate change, "I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems. I believe mankind has looked at climate change in the same way, as if it were a fiction." - Leonardo DiCaprio. Most people view it as a minor problem and they believe it won't affect us in the future. But if this isn't stopped now, it may become a major threat to the human race as well as mother earth. Some solutions can be as simple as bringing your own bag to buy your products to place them in. If you bring your own bag when shopping then you can stop the manufacturing of billions of bags being produced by doing a task as simple as bringing your own bag
Everybody has heard of global warming and the anecdote that our grandchildren will never see a polar bear. Near apocalyptic warnings of the future we will have if we allow it to continue unchecked. However, there is a large faction of people who go out of their way to try to downplay the effects of global warming; these people are known as climate change deniers. Predominantly conservative, these people do everything in their power to undermine global warming for economic gain. Climate change denial has a big effect on the scientific community’s ability to focus on a solution to global warming and stems from misinformation and a value of public/personal opinion over scientific research.
In today’s political climate, individuals are more polarized than ever over climate issues. We don’t see much agreement that for whatever the reason, climate change is affecting the Earth. The issues over climate change has hit the media and the environmentalist has done a lot to shined light on the issue as well but, a lot of the citizens still believe that global warming isn’t real. If we are not educated about the issues regarding a sustainable living and about the climate changes going on in current world, then the issue can’t be solved. Educating children when they are young can be a great way to teach living a sustainable life-style. We the people and the politicians need to take a stand and create awareness in schools about living a sustainable life and educate the new generations to care about the negative human impacts on the world.
A question that scientists have been pondering about for a while is: How concerning is climate change? This question has mixed opinions for a many people. What world leaders believe is that it’s a major issue that needs to be dealt with by people in power. The main cause of the earth’s climate increasing are mainly caused by human activity. Wherever there is a cause there is a solution, and many people agree if people can reduce fossil fuels, motor transportation, littering, and etc. Then the world would be in better shape. As of reading these articles, it is clear that climate change is a global problem and should be the dealt with.
The issue is simple and rather obvious; climate change is real and a problem. With a changing climate comes rising sea levels, hotter days, and stronger and wilder storms, and long painful droughts. What most people can’t seem to agree on is whether or not human activity is playing some role in it. From media outlets to internet forums, the debate is being fought on all fronts. Most of these arguments, however, are just personal opinions and poorly-made observations from the comfort of a gas-guzzling SUV. Honestly, it doesn’t take a genius to look up a legitimate scientific paper and see the data for yourself. Human activity is influencing the global climate in a negative way, with plenty of evidence to prove it and very little disagreement in the scientific community.
Climate change otherwise known as global warming has been an ongoing issue for decades. Beginning in the 19th century, climate change has increasingly affected Earth and its atmosphere. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are warming the Earth’s atmosphere, causing rising sea-levels, melting snow and ice, extreme fires and droughts, and intense rainfall and floods. Climate change has and will continue to affect food production, availability of water, and can add to many health risks in humans and animals. In fact, in an article by Justin Gillis titled, “Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries” he focuses on a paper written by a former NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, explaining the effects of climate change on Earth today. Although many believe Hansen’s theories in the paper are quite far-fetched, the author mentions, “Despite any reservations they might have about the new paper, virtually all climate scientists agree with Dr. Hansen’s group that society is not moving fast enough to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, posing grave risks” (Gillis). Gillis validates the fact that climate change has been rapidly expanding throughout Earth and society has not been able to reduce it fast enough. Many negative risks are being posed and will continue to mount if the issue of climate change is not taken seriously. Although climate change negatively affects nearly all aspects of Earth, it poses a big