Sasha Moiseyev-Foster

Professor J. Cohen

Changing Our Stories

13 November 2015

Extinction: Kolbert vs. Oreskes and Conway on Climate Change—Draft

For some reason climate change is an ongoing argument in the scientific community. Some people say that it isn’t occurring, the icecaps aren’t melting, and there most certainly isn’t a problem with an increased number of natural disasters. What are you talking about, Global warming what’s that? The only proof anyone else needs to prove that climate change is happening is opening their eyes and looking outside. Global warming is controversial, indeed, but where the controversy starts is whether or not humans started it and where it should end is resolving the issue.

The Symptoms of Transition

The problem at hand is rooted in the way of seeing.

 Climate change, peak energy, food insecurity, and economic crisis—for the most part, these dilemmas are seen and studied in singularity. The true crisis is invisible when narrowing into a single one of these categories. It is of utmost importance that we understand our crises in their combined impact; it is when we see our crises holistically that sense emerges.

Paper #8

November 10, 2015

Getting Deeper in Religion

             My body was telling me how it was so exhausted with all the activities that it had to go through that day, but my spirit was saying the exact opposite. I felt the deepest part of my heart being touched. Putting behind all those years as a wanderer, I started to feel the utmost comfort in my heart –the kind of feeling that made me feel secure, relaxation and warmth.

    Similarities:

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.

In both books, the ongoing environmental issues are referred and they alert us that they are not something distant from us but an emergent issue in need of action.

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION

l   “It occurred to me that the frog and their progeny, if they had any … would never again touch the floor of the rainforest but would live out their days in disinfected glass tank. (p22)”

l   “If you want to think about why humans are so dangerous to other species, you can picture a poacher in Africa carrying an AK-47 or a logger in the Amazon gripping an ax or … holding a book on your lap. (p246)”

l   “No other creature has ever managed this, and it will, unfortunately, be our most enduring legacy. (p269)”

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”. The authors write in different ways and convey different concerns while both states that human actions are the main factors of the climate change.

How effective is this type of story telling-what are Kolbert and Oreskes/Conway setting out to achieve- what kind of response are they looking for?- who is the audience? 

Both texts serve as warnings and calls for action, they are meant to inform us, the general public, business leaders, politicians, and scientists focused on environmentalism alike. 

 Oreskes/Conway: the title contains the word “collapse,” which is a noun, can discuss past, present, or future, however this case represents a potential future (second Black Death, Second People’s Republic of China)

IMPACT*: