Syrian Refugee Crisis, Climate Change, and “The Collapse of Western Civilization”

 “Then we have to ask ourselves, ‘Why is this happening?’… Because of terrible governance, because of corruption, because of conflict, because of climate change.” – Hillary Clinton, on the Syrian refugee crisis (Ross)

The Sixth Extinction and The Collapse of Western Civilization both have ominous sounding names – and true to expectations, they both foretell a somewhat dark future. They each delve into historical fact, base the majority of their claims on current events and research, and study the impact of humans in the environment. However, one of them is true. The other one isn’t.

In two texts we read last week-Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction and Oreskes & Conway’s The Collapse of Western Civilization, the ongoing environmental issues are referred and they alert us that they are not something distant from us. Although environment destruction has been a very common issue all over the world for a long time, it is still a big problem. In order to put a brake on this issue, we should keep on taking action for it.

                 With the effects of climate change becoming more and more pronounced over the past decade, many authors have taken to writing about issues that deal with the environment in intersectional ways. Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, along with Naomi Oreskes and Erik Konway’s The Collapse of Western Civilization, are two such texts that approach the environment using different methods. Kolbert brings up multiple arguments in a factual and observational fashion; Oreskes and Konway present a heavily biased, one-sided argument that blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction.

The Earth is undergoing crisis, yet people are failing to acknowledge it. Then what is the best way to share this knowledge? Elizabeth Kolbert, the author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, and Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, the authors of The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future suggest that the easiest way to communicate the imminence of our situation is through the written word.

Tensions, and Solidarity

Alison
ESem Paper #11 (final paper)
November 21, 2015

Reading The Collapse of Western Civilization Through Economics

Environment change is the definitely the hotspot of the world today. In recent years, major countries hold a lot of conferences discussing the environment and climate issues. More and more people are paying attention to environmental issues. Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway show their concerns about climate changes and the environment problems human are facing in their books “The Sixth Extinction” and “The Collapse of Western Civilization”. Although Kolbert, Oreskes, and Conway are trying to convey the same idea that human does harm to the climate and environment, they use totally different methods to show their perspectives. The difference lead to a question that which writing is more effective in persuading readers.