1. The question that surprised me the most would be “Will anyone benefit from global warming?”. With the predictions and “big talk” on how climate change will bring about damage and impending doom, it sure is surprising to see that some countries can benefit from this due the geographical locations. It does mention how it is not a coincidence that Putin is denying climate change. However I feel like it is mostly due to the fact that Russia does not want to slow down its economy and factory production for the betterment of the world. Climate change has always been a conflicting topic for me as a more conservative person. I do believe in effects of green house effects on climate change, but at the same time I often believe activists such as Greta Thunberg are highly exaggerating on some effects. However, I do see that what we do now will impact not my generation but the future generations the most. Action is required, and it does seem that most first world countries have reduced their green house gas emissions significantly in the past few decades. I do feel somewhat encouraged by this article. Personally, I have been aware of the effects of beef production. It is said that this industry produces more emission that the airline industry. I eat mostly chicken and salmon. Beef on the other hand is like an occasional treat for me. It’s not much as I am just one person but I feel like collectively change can definitely take place. Furthermore, I am still skeptical on the environmental impacts of wind energy as it requires massive amounts of space. They can be constructed in coasts as well to spare the space on land and can power millions of homes. However, thousands of birds are killed by the turbines and ecosystems can be destroyed for building them. There comes a moral question of if people are willing to sacrifice certain habitats and animal lives to slow down climate change. Another aspect is that, even considering the benefits, will people sacrifice a lower electric bill for wind energy as it can raise the price. Another conflicting thought I would have is if pressuring nations to become more sustainable right. Many of the first world countries today rose to economic prosperity due to their industrialization decades to a hundred years ago. They were all trying to rise to the top, and large amount of green house gas was produced during a period of time when climate change was not a hot topic. Industrialized countries had no bounds and with their zero control advancements they are able to reach economic fruition. Many developing countries today are going through the same industrialization, but inconveniently have the moral mission to cut back carbon emissions at the same time. Coal and fossil fuel are still the key energy sources for these developing nations and it is hard to decide if they should have to slow down their progress for the sake of the world. Additionally, I am shocked to see nuclear energy has not been mentioned even once in the article. I believe nuclear to be the best option currently to alleviate climate change, and I hope countries in Europe can stop shying away from it and accept it as a great solution. Lastly, as for my family and friends, most of them are aware of most of these issues. The thing is that I have conservative friends who are aware of these arguments but deny the existence of man made climate change. I would often have discussions with them about these topics, but due to the polarization of ideology nowadays it is tremendously easy to impose one’s ideology to another but significantly difficult to receive an opposing piece of information and reevaluate your own beliefs. I do not think they will change their minds anytime soon from me or anyone, as I am not educated enough on this topic. Or they will just point to their two graphs showing carbon emissions and climate change and blurt out the same argument saying well the two don’t line up so climate change is a lie.
2. From this exercise I can actually look back on my main email account and see the massive volume of emails I have collected. I deleted mostly advertisements and emails from online platforms I have subscribed to. I do not know how to delete batches of emails and so I deleted around just 30 emails. Considering the amount of emails I have stored I think those 30 emails are nothing. Due to this I didn’t feel like have achieved anything sustainable. Also the practice feels quite tedious, but I think I can start making a difference by cleaning out emails routinely in the future.
