If you find yourself happy now and
indulging yourself in the finer things that life has to offer, don’t you think
your children would expect the same thing? Could you imagine a world with dark
smog filled skies and rising temperatures in heat? Without being able to drive
your SUV due to the oxygen level of our atmosphere containing too much carbon
and having a breaking point for the clean air we need to survive. Animals
dying, food and clean water are diminished, and world populations are
continually fading from 6…5…4…3…and finally down to only 1 billion people left
on our once healthy planet.
This is what our future holds. This
is what our children and children’s children are going to have to deal with
because of our over indulgence and our greed for more…and more…and still more.
Drive your SUV’s and trucks; continue wasting food and wasting valuable
resources. Continue wasting the only sources that we have been able to use as a
source of prosperity and growth only to have it shoved back in our faces in a
less valuable and a less manipulative state of matter.
This is how strongly I feel about
this topic after seeing a documentary called Chasing Ice. This documentary
opened my eyes to what our actions are really doing to our vast and beautiful
world. James Balog, the creator of this documentary, explained his desire for
science but his hatred for statistics. So he decided to make a spectacle out of
scientific information through photography. Balog captured the beauty and
horror of humans’ interaction with nature and how it is changing because of our
presence and our growing impact.
James was looking for a new way to
explore the topic of climate change because of how difficult it was to grasp
the idea that our world was rising in temperature. He came to the conclusion
that ice was the only solid way to explain the change in our climate. He
decided to observe the glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and in Glacier
Park, Montana.
Using Balogs’ background in photography,
he decided to obtain the physical aspect of the change through pictures and the
idea of creating a visual aid for people to see these changes over a 3-year
period. A team of experts in Glaciers from the University of Colorado, a team
of engineers in the field of creating camera systems that could withstand the
forces of nature, and Balog ventured out on this expedition that they referred
to as The EIS or The Extreme Ice Survey. The EIS developed a camera system that
would take pictures of the glaciers every 5 minutes in the day as long as it
was daylight. This occurred every day for 3-4 years.
Balog hoped that this physical and
visual evidence would show some type of change. He knew how statistical evidence
had been shoved down the worlds’ throat for years and how it had never made
much difference in how the world reacted. After 3-4 years and hundreds of
thousands of pictures from 30 different cameras spread throughout the world,
Balog had his visual evidence and the change was catastrophic.
In his study, he discovered that
the minimum recession of most of the glaciers he photographed was 1 mile and
had a range of up to 2.5 miles. A glacier is supposed to grow and recede, but most
of these glaciers were unhealthy and shrinking, FAST. Balog revealed that
because the glaciers were melting this fast, the ocean would rise 1-3 feet in
his daughter’s lifetimes, minimum. And his daughters are only 21 and 23 years
of age. These changes are affecting the disastrous outcomes of tropical storms
and giving them the opportunity to reach further onto the mainland.
The EIS team watched the calving
process of the glaciers, which is when these glaciers have chunks as big as the
South point of Manhattan break off into the ocean forming icebergs, (this is
not normal for glaciers). The Fact is that our climate is changing and it will
affect our children’s well-being. We need to make a stand and figure out a way
to divert our tendencies of increasing the carbon in the oxygen from an average
of 220 parts per million over the past 800,000 years to an increasing 500 parts
per million in the last 10 years.
For more information on this topic,
you can visit the site that follows. Also, view the trailer seen at the home
page.
This is a really eye-opening post. This point has been pounded into my head for years, because my mom is a sustainability teacher. The documentary evidence truly shows that we are harming ourselves, our future, and our childrens future. This will hopefully open people's eyes to the problem!
ReplyDeleteNot a huge fan of the slippery slope argument at the beginning...our world population is still growing exponentially, and it really kicked your credibility in the back of the knees, and even I (who thinks herself environmentally conscious) was skeptical about the rest of your blog. Well-written, otherwise, though! And a topic that's a good change of pace from everyone else's.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough to be in your peer-editing group and I have to say again that I really enjoyed your blog. It was much different than everyone else's and really opened my eyes to this growing problem. We learn about topics like this in class all the time, but never take into account the seriousness of them. I think you had good credibility to back up your argument and points and made it interesting to read. I hope that it open's everyone else's eyes and we can change the growing issue. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteMemories of my philosophy class come to mind while I was reading this. One day (or two) we talked about global climate change and other various environmental issues, and the one issue that was brought up in comparison of the steps taken to address global climate change against the rain forest (one example of many) was the fact that the rain forest's deforestation was able to be visually seen: It wasn't some abstract thing with statistics, but something we could watch happen each day which is why it was theorized that we took steps so fast in comparison to global climate change. So I definitely give props to this photographer for his documentary.
ReplyDeleteLoved your blog! Im scared out of my mind what our world will look like in 50 years. What my children and grandchildren will have to live in, because my generation didnt fix the issues. Im terrified that we reached a point that its too late, however, doing something I believe would be better than nothing. Nice blog, good change from the other blogs on here.
ReplyDeleteYou're a great writer! I too fear for our planet. We are exploiting our planet and not giving enough back. I think you could improve your blog by giving the readers specific things they can do to help promote the earth's well-being besides eat local and unplug your electronics. Explore what alternatives we can do- how affordable are hybrid cars? What are other ways to conserve water? Good blog, cant wait to hear more
ReplyDeleteReally interesting blog -- this is for sure something that, unfortunately, most people don't really think about. It's a pretty scary thought to think about. Excellent writing and way to choose something different.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is great. I don't think that people think often enough about what the planet is going to look like for future generations. I personal was raised listening to my dad saying " It doesn't matter what happens to the earth, I am not going to live long enough to see the damage." Hearing this my whole life has really made me look at what I want to leave behind and made me think about my actions. And people who deny that their actions have an impact should take a gander at the stats from this years weather reports, the growing extremes that come from global climate change are impossible to deny.
ReplyDeleteNick, I really loved the changes you made to the blog since I read it in class, especially the introduction! Like I said, this really grabbed my attention and made the issue more of a personal one for me instead of something that I was removed from. Great job in bringing the issue of global warming to the attention of the average college student.
ReplyDeleteExploring factors the contribute to climate change, beyond "driving SUVs" would be an interesting next blog. I think that connecting your experience to the documentary was more powerful for readers than the sort of doomsday scenario in the very beginning of the post.
ReplyDeleteWe just got through an election year that was a record hottest year on record, drought over the majority of the country, wildfires in the west, and superstorm sandy in the east. Yet the debates hardly touched on energy. We need to produce less carbon and slow our population growth globally and stop with the heat of the moment decisions for now and have more decisions for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI too agree there is dire need to change the ways we are using the earth and it's resources. I am looking forward to watching that documentary you explained. I realize this is a very broad topic but don't you think there is a lot more pollution coming out of factories, oil spills, trains, barges, and semi's than a simple SUV which are already being worked on becoming more and more fuel efficient?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that people think that they have this planet to destroy as they please. The last few generations have had a mentality of "no its cool ill be dead before we have to do anything about it." How is this changeable what can we do to change this mentality. I think our generation finally understands that we can no longer continue to wreck our planet but how can we change the view of the generations before us to minimized damage.
ReplyDeleteI had already seen a trailer for this documentary. The importance of this topic cannot be overrated even if some people are skeptical. The facts cannot be denied especially when they are visually evident. Thanks for writing about this. You did a good job but the beginning did start to lose me just a bit!
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