Web Paper or Special Event

Loss is  “The condition of being deprived or bereaved of something or someone” as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Loss is emptiness, a lack of fulfillment. This can present itself in many forms, but the most compelling is how it relates to our lack of knowledge of our history, and the history of biodiversity on the planet. When history is erased, because it is not remembered or recorded, people have no sense of how others overcame obstacles, where others came from, or a sense of legacy. People’s connection to the past has been severely severed and sometimes lost entirely.

Nayanthi Peiris

Paper #10

11/14/2014

Cole versus Kolbert

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Kolbert talks a lot about displacement and extinction. In chapter one, she highlights the near extinction with frogs due to a fungus. People have made attempts to save the frogs by taking them out of their natural habitats and into clean, sterile tanks. For this paper, I am interested using both Teju Cole’s and Greening the Ghetto. I might want to dissect the issues of colonialism and imperialism in relation to the frogs. I am also interested in exploring what humans can do now after living through a world that is so built on imperialism. Since Kolbert also wrote Greening the Ghetto, I will be looking out for the similarities and differences in her writing compared to in The Sixth Extinction. 

Marjorie Wu

Paper #10

November 14th, 2014

For my essay, I am thinking to write about the connection between Chapter 5 Welcome to the Anthropocene in The Sixth Extinction and the GMOs in All Over Creation.  

GMO application is one small example of anthropocene. However, is it moral for people to put themselves in center all the time?

Paul Crutzen listed some geologic-scale changes people have effected:

Selena Martinez

Esem

Paper #9

-       Definitions of Loss by Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Breana Genaro

Professor Jody Cohen

ESEM

14 Nov 2014

The Sixth Extinction Notes

Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Six Extinction seems to be talking about different extinctions without much relationship. But in my opinion, it has a clear logical relationship beyond the simple extinction stories of different species. The order of the stories unveiled the whole process of how human came up the idea of extinction, how they gradually understood and developed the idea of extinction, how human are destroying the nature and how we’re sensing our damage to the environment. Finally, the author brought up a question at the end of the book: could human avoid extinction or are we doomed to extinct?

Intro

Allie Cavallaro

Paper #10

14 November 2014

Why Bother

I think, assuming, as humans that we have the willingness, knowledge, and ability to fix large scale environmental problems is foolish. Even if we could unite the planet in a common goal (unlikely) to make a change, who is to say that we have the knowledge or technology to do so? Without the both knowledge and willingness, there is no ability, but even if there was ability, knowledge, and willingness, who are we to claim that we are superior enough to make a change that actually matters? How can we matter when in a matter of years, us and everything we’ve ever known will be crushed into a layer of rock no thicker than a cigarette paper (Kolbert #)? We really don’t.