Author: aduncan4@uoregon.edu

Chasing Hope

aduncan4@uoregon.edu 2 Comments

A few days ago, I tried to talk to my roommates about climate change. They know I’m in this class and I talk about it all the time because I’ve learned so much, but they just don’t see things the same way. They laugh, saying “Oh yeah, of course it’s climate change” in a sarcastic tone, then change the subject. But this past weekend, we went to a movie and one of the previews was for a special screening of a documentary about climate change. Oddly enough, they seemed incredibly interested in the preview.

The documentary was called “Chasing Ice”. The basic information we got about it from the preview is that it was an idea started by a National Geographic photographer who noticed Icelandic icebergs melting and wanted to prove to other people that this is a cause of a warming planet. This turned into a project, with cameras across icy locations in the world, taking one picture every day lit hour, for three years and then creating a time-lapse of the results. During the preview, we got a glimpse of the time-lapse, and there’s no denying the ice melted. Sometimes it only melted a bit, but other times, it disappeared all together. I turned to look at the reactions of my friends, and they were shocked. “Yeah, do you believe in it now?” I asked.

Contine reading →

The Difference in Weather

aduncan4@uoregon.edu 1 Comment

There’s no chance people can’t attribute at least a tiny percent of the weather this past winter to climate change. It’s a very unusual winter across the country and it has been slowly building over the years as we continue to increase the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. New England’s massive snowstorm, Oregon’s unusually dry and sunny months. Climate change has to be some sort of answer somewhere along the line.

When the groundhog sees his shadow, it’s six more weeks of winter. New England is going on it’s fifth straight week of snow and rain storms. Yes, they are calming down, but the snow is still pilled up, accumulating an astonishing 60.7 inches over the five weeks in Boston, Massachusetts. Snowstorms Juno and Marcus rank 6 and 7 respectively in Boston’s top 10 snowstorms of all-time. And it is still going. Contine reading →

Don’t Panic, We’re Safe. Right?

aduncan4@uoregon.edu 3 Comments

There’s always talk of climate change, of what is going to be left of the world. Sea levels rise, cities become submerged. Is there any hope? According to this article from Business Insider, the United States as a whole is, for the most part, safe. So no need to worry, right? Nope.
Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 2.10.13 PM
Though the infographic deems the U.S. safe from climate change, it is misleading. The map is a zoomed out effect. It doesn’t focus on smaller state, region, or city specific information. So on paper, the U.S. looks safe. But what happens to the cities at current sea levels? The coastal towns we love on the East and West coast? What happens to those? Contine reading →

Why Global Warming Scares Me

aduncan4@uoregon.edu 7 Comments

Up until this point in my life, when people have talked about “climate change” or “global warming”, I haven’t thought much of it. It’s always seemed like a distant problem, one I won’t have to deal with in my lifetime. It seems abstract, much like a Jackson Pollock painting. There aJackson Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm"re so many different things going on that all contribute to one greater outcome, but thinking about (or in the case of the painting, looking at) it for too long begins to give me a bit of a jumbled mind and a headache. I can’t tell where it ends and I can’t figure out where it begins. I can’t seem to grasp the entire concept long enough to understand it. That scares me.

Though it’s only been two weeks into this course, I’ve learned far more about climate change and global warming than I’ve learned in my last 20 years of life. And quite frankly, it terrifies me. It’s a force of nature that, regardless of what we do to try and stop it, cannot be stopped. It’s going to happen anyway. We as a human race can work together to take precautionary and preventative measures to prolong the inevitable, but that’s it. It’s inevitable. Whether what we do prolongs it for 10 years, 50 years, or 100 years, I can’t say. But the thought that I may experience the harsh effects of climate change in my lifetime is a real possibility. That scares me.

The stories we’ve read so far have described a desolate, ruined planet. A planet that has harsh climates and abandoned cities. A planet that can’t maintain a human race. A planet that is far from what we know our planet to be. That scares me.

There have been so many studies done about global warming and the ways in which we can contribute to prolonging it. Those facts and statistics are some of the few that I actually find comfort in. Yes, it will still happen, and yes, it’s still difficult to grasp the entire concept, but knowing that there is at least something I can do to contribute is somewhat reassuring. Having been born and raised in Oregon, I’ve had the privilege of growing up in an area full of trees, rivers, oceans, beaches, mountains, and just about every other type of natural beauty one could think of. I’ve recycled my entire life, and I learned what a carbon footprint was long before I actually understood what it meant. I’ve spent much of my life trying to give back to this planet all that it has given to me, and I will continue to do so. My actions may be small, microscopic even, in the attempts to save our planet, but could you imagine the impact we would all have if everyone tried a little more? If everyone recycled a bit more? Or walked or biked a few days more than they drove? Or bought more food from local areas rather than food that has been shipped in from around the globe? It would make an astounding difference. That gives me reassurance that, although global warming scares me, there is hope that we can make a difference. That doesn’t scare me.