For my final project, I decided to create a children’s book about climate change. The book is ultimately a story about a 10-year-old boy named Jake who hears the term “climate change” and doesn’t know what it means. Curious about this issue, Jake decides to go on an adventure to find out about exactly what it is. Jake’s first stop is in Antarctica where he meets a polar bear who is sad because his play ground (the glaciers) is melting. The polar bear explains to Jake about why the glaciers are melting, and then teaches him about the difference between weather and climate change.

Jake’s next stop is in the rain forest where he meets a bird who is sad because his favorite tree is gone. The bird explains to Jake about the natural wildfires and how people chop down the trees to make paper and other resources. The bird then explains to Jake how climate change effects both animals and people, and how climate change is happening all over the world.

Jake’s last stop is at the coral reef, where he meets a sea turtle who talks to him about pollution in our oceans and how climate change is effecting the natural sea levels and acidity in the ocean. The sea turtle then explains to Jake that we can’t prevent climate change from happening, but what we can do is talk to our friends and family about it and do what we can to protect our environment.

Jake then returns home to his parents for help in spreading the word about what climate change is, and how they can make a positive change. Jake takes all of the lessons he learned from his friends and makes an impact.

The last couple pages of the story are in the future and Jake is 80 years old, and the environment is in better condition because of the collective efforts of everyone.

I decided to create a children’s book because we talked about how important it is to start educating kids in school about the issue of climate change. This book will answer the fundamental questions I can imagine many kids would have, and it is still fun and exciting at the same time. I also decided to have Jake befriend animals on his adventure instead of people because we never really addressed how climate change effects animals in our class.

Since I’ve been in this class, I’ve undoubtedly become more aware of the weather around me and climate change as a whole. So when I continued to notice the abnormally warm weather we’ve been experiencing in Eugene this winter, I decided to look into it in hopes of finding some answers. Upon my research, I initially came across some interesting statistics pertaining to the lack of snowfall and overall dryness the city of Eugene has been experiencing, but I didn’t seem to find any explanations.

It was after a little bit more research that I came across a wonderful article that seemed to be almost exactly what I was looking for. The article was from a website called livescience.com, and was titled Unusually Warm Winter, But Is It Climate Change? The article talks about how even though scientists cannot pin one single event on climate change, the reoccurring weather patterns can aid them in figuring out just how big of a role climate change is playing.

The article also proposes numerous possible explanations for the earth’s overall increasing warmth, such as global warming and changes in the polar jet stream. After finishing this article I realize that the information presented is on a much greater scale than I had anticipated, but I know this information can still be related to the weather changes that are happening here specifically in Eugene.

I still have many more questions about climate change and this sudden increase in warm weather, but these articles have definitely given me some answers and have been helpful in my understanding of why these changes are happening.

http://www.livescience.com/18868-mild-winter-climate-change.html

On Wednesday, Mr. Siperstein asked our class to answer a few questions about climate change in our journals. Those questions were, “Why don’t people care about climate change? Or if they do care, why don’t they act?”

I found this activity to be especially interesting because this is a topic I think about continuously. Being a person that knew hardly anything about climate change before taking this class, I think it’s safe to say that I can answer these questions from first-hand experience. Now, I don’t think the issue is that people don’t care about climate change. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. I would argue that most people not only care about the issue, but are also at least somewhat scared about the negative effects climate change could have on our society. However, I don’t think people know enough about climate change and its repercussions to realize just how serious of an issue it really is. As a result, they probably don’t think there’s anything they could really even do to help.

Now, obviously I can’t sit here and claim that all of these assumptions are true, but as I said before I’ve decided to base my assumptions off of my own personal experience with the matter.

Anyway, on top of not understanding the severity of this issue and the need for a change, I think there are several other reasons why people don’t act towards resolving this issue. The main issue though, is that people don’t know what to even do. This is the main reason why I myself don’t act upon this issue. I definitely want to do my part in making a positive change, but I really have no clue about how I could get involved. I don’t even know where to begin! I’m assuming many other people probably feel this same way, so I decided to do some research about how to get involved.

Upon my research, I discovered a number of different ways to get involved, even right here in Eugene! The University of Oregon has a group called The Tribal Climate Change Project, and the city of Eugene there is a campaign called Youth Climate Action Now (YouCAN). The groups have done and are continuing to do some amazing things locally, and both would be great place for one to start getting involved.  Contine reading →

When I first signed up for Mr. Siperstein’s English 104 class, I went in on the first day thinking it would be like any other class I’ve taken here at the UO. Much to my surprise however, I was soon proven wrong when I discovered that we would be focusing on the issue of climate change. My first thoughts? “I’m screwed. I know absolutely nothing about climate change.”

As I look back now at my panicking self, I realize that many other students probably had reactions similar to mine. That’s when it hit me. The problem is exactly that! You see, it isn’t that people don’t care about climate change, but rather they just haven’t been properly informed about the issue. I recently came across a study done by Yale on Climate Change Communication, and discovered that only 1 in 10 Americans say they are “very well informed” about the issue of climate change. Kind of a crazy thought, right? How are we supposed to help the future of our environment and make a positive change if roughly only 10 percent of Americans even know what’s actually going on? Exactly, we can’t. The good news is, there’s something we can do about it. The Yale study also reported that 75 percent of Americans said that they would like to know more about the issue, which means that people are interested in learning more. So, where can we begin? While the task of informing an entire nation about the issue of climate change can seem quite daunting, I think that creating more classes like the one Mr. Siperstein is teaching would be the perfect place to start.

Contine reading →