Environment

In The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans (Mark Lynas), read ?Boundary Two? pages 52-84. Read the brief lecture below. Watch the video, Global Warming: The Rising Storm. Access the video through NJVid. No discussion board assignment this week, but there is an essay to complete this unit. Over the past three weeks (including this week #9), we?ve delved into the controversial and sometimes disturbing issue of pollution and depletion of our natural resources. What I would like from each of you is a reaction essay (500-600 words) to what has been covered in this unit. In other words, discuss how you feel about what you?ve read and viewed in this unit. Make sure to refer to specifics from the various readings and videos. One thing: Do not repeat any information you discussed in the discussion boards for this unit. Lecture In this final week of our three-week unit on the environment, we focus on Boundary Two – Climate Change – in Lynas? book. He discusses our reliance on fossil fuels and offers alternative fuel sources. He also discusses what scientists view as the limit of carbon dioxide concentrations: 350ppm (parts per million). Going over that ?planetary boundary? will lead to continued degredation of our environment. To help you out as far as the carbon cycle is concerned, here are two illustrations. You should also take a look at the illustration dealing with the various levels of the atmosphere. Finally, Lynas also discusses the ?Hockey Stick? idea in terms of the earth?s increasing temperature. Here?s an illustration of that concept. In the 2009 video you are to watch this week, Global Warming: The Rising Storm, scientists discuss the advent of the deterioration of the earth?s atmosphere, beginning 250 years ago with the start of the Industrial Revolution, as well as what we have discussed previously in this course – population growth. The film talks about Greenouse Gases, as well as the three forms of fossil fuels, which cause the gases: oil, natural gas, and coal. This film also discusses, in some detail, the various models for collecting data and drawing conclusions from that data. Finally, let me end this lecture with a portion of a poem entitled, ?God?s Grandeur.? While its author, the 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was writing in religious terms, this following section of the poem describes what we?ve been discussing in this unit. Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man?s smudge and shares man?s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. OK, a few defintions to help you better understand the above. trod: an archaic past tense form of the verb ?to tread.? toil: work shod: to describe wearing shoes (in the past tense) If there are other words you do not understand, it is expected that you will look up their definitions and then re-read the above selection, with a clearer understanding of what Hopkins is describing, as far as humankind?s effects on the environment.