Learning about the Canadian oil sands really opened my eyes. It showed me how people are the reason for this climate change that is happening to our planet. I thought it was interesting how in the photo essay the photographer got to capture every moment and makes the reader feel like they are there in the airplane with the photographer. One picture that really grabbed my attention was the picture with the caption, “The ponds are vast and some look more like lakes” [(Johnson) I tried to insert the photo from the blog onto this post, but it was not working]. This was an unbelievable picture to me because I cannot believe that those ponds are oil, sand and water mixtures. This makes me question why people on our planet are doing this? I understand that we need oil in our lives to be functioning humans, but why do we have to take up this much territory? Why can’t we just keep it more contained in a smaller area? I also thought the photo of the memorial of the family that passed away was extremely sad. I notice how dangerous this type of oil mining factory is. I believe that if it is as harmful where there is a death something needs to be changed, but I feel like nothing is going to be changed.

We use fossil fuel in our lives everyday. I don’t think that there will be anything that will make our human race change the way that we produce oil. There are pros and cons to it, as in more jobs for people, more money being created, and there will never be an outage of needing oil. But, there is so much pollution that is coming out of it, and there are animals dying and jumping into the toxic ponds.

I found a TED talk online that was interesting, even though a little outdated. James Hansen explains his views on climate change. His talks that he gave to his former University, got to the White House. He got calls from the White House saying that he was not allowed to give these talks anymore. He wants an urgency in change in the policies about climate change. I liked hearing his view because it was a new fresh outlook on climate change. He also cared so much about it that showed me how some people really do care. I also like all of his facts that he stated. It kept me very informed, but also entertained.

The Weatherman was a story that caught my attention. It made me think about how our planet could somehow have a way that humans will be able control the weather. It is a very scary though. Our technology only keeps growing. We advance more and more every day. I personally don’t know what I believe, will people be able to control the weather? Will we be like Kish where he will do what he can to the population to kill off the unfortunate part of our country, or will it be used to help our planet maintain everything that it needs in the climate?