On Thursday I went to the opening ceremonies for the Changing Currents Conference where we saw a video from Amy Goodman coming to us live from New York. One of the first things she talked about was how our government is a broken system because some power figures think global warming is a hoax. She said that people think its a hoax because people would not know what to do if global warming was actually happening. Thats when people started calling it climate change. They started calling it climate change because it was a more appropiate title and it did not sound as harmful as global warming. After she started talking about how obvious things are happening to our earth because of climate change. For example she said that no one is making the connection that Niagra Falls is freezing and there is a drought in California. To me this connection is obvious that global warming is doing this but some people are not making the connection. Amy than talked about the word climate change and said people need to think about the science behind climate change. The science is, is that the temperature has gone over .8 diagrees of the industrial level. She went on to talk about how it is good that we are even talking about climate change and how so many people showed up to hear about it instead of letting this topic go unknown. She ended her speech with a quote that says, “It always seems impossible til its done”.
Going into this conference I did not know what to expect. When I walked in the whole ballroom was filled to listen to Amys speech which I thought was impressive. Most of the people in the room were climate activists but to be honest I did not know we had that many in Eugene. I thought her speech was very powerful and interesting. I learned a lot about climate change problems happening in World War II and plenty of factual information about climate change. I really enjoyed her speech and hope I can hear her speak again.