November 30, 2016 - 15:01
These points struck me while reading his essay.
- "...in modernism, people are not equipped with the mental and emotional repertoire to deal with such a vast scale of events; that have difficulty submitting to such a rapid acceleration for which, in addition, they are supposed to feel responsible while, in the meantime, this call for action has none of the traits of their older revolutionary dreams" (1).
- "Even though we have to continue fighting those who are in denial, I propose that we let them alone for a moment and seize this opportunity to advance our common cosmopolitics" (4).
-"For, as of today, the Earth is quaking anew: not because it shifts and moves in its restless, wise orbit, not because it is changing, from its deep plates to its envelope of air, but because it is being transformed by our doing. Nature acted as a reference point for ancient law and for modern science because it had no subject...Yet henceforth it depends so much on us that it is shaking and that we too are worried by this deviation from expected equilibria. We are disturbing the Earth and making it quake!" (4).
The question that I pose is what will happen next? What will we, as humans and students, do after this ESEM class has ended to raise awareness on global warming? And how will we convince the rest of society that these issues must be solved as soon as possible?