I thought this fact was very interesting because, so often we hear that global warming or climate change is bogus, but here lies a group of well-versed and highly knowledgeable authors and not one of 928 articles denounces possible climate change.
Before watching 'An Inconvenient Truth', my knowledge on global warming was not up to par. Not because I wasn't interested in learning more, but rather the difficult language and half truths used to describe the ongoing issues were discouraging and confusing. It's sad to acknowledge, but when watching network news programs, the audience is often deprived of necessary information needed to draw concise and accurate conclusions due to biased right and left winged programs.
Though all are entitled to their own opinions and reasons for forming them, I personally feel that it is difficult to denounce climate change when presented with such statistics. The world will change over time and I understand that, however, when discussing issues of environmental sustainability, and we are told that there are things we can do to prevent or at least significantly delay our planets pending fate and we choose to ignore them, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
In An Inconvenient Truth, a statistic that really shocked me was when Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or in West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet, flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. I was most surprised by this statistic because, 100 million people is about the population of Lee and Collier County combined... MULTIPLIED BY 100!
When I first started taking Colloquium, I wasn't sure what to expect but I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn more about environmental sustainability. Before Colloquium and An Inconvenient Truth, I (like most people) just preferred to not think about the distant future of our planet, but rather live happily today....
Me Before Colloquium
Me After Colloquium
I am now realizing that not only is this inconsiderate, but it's also irresponsible when there are so many easy alternatives to the poor environmental decisions we make today. I believe that one of the easiest, yet most over-looked resources we have today are green bags. According to Sharon Jacobsen "Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photodegrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them. But the problems surrounding waste plastic bags starts long before they photodegrade. Our planet is becoming increasingly contaminated by our unnecessary use of plastic bags. Big black bin liners, plastic carrier bags carrying advertising logos, clear sandwich bags and a variety of other forms are all polluting our environment. They're lightweight, handy and easily discarded. Too easily discarded." Not only are plastic bags bad for our future, but they are detrimental to our marine animals today.
A sea turtle is shown here struggling with plastic bags
that have entered it's habitat due to our negligence.
that have entered it's habitat due to our negligence.
Not only do I wish that everyone had an opportunity to take a class on environmental sustainability, but I also wish that people had an open mind about the facts presented to them and that we could all realize that there are things we can do to change these serious problems.
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