Earth Day reflection
1. The whole movie really kind of got to me. Some of the things that they were talking about, like how children in China couldn't go outside because of how bad the air quality was, were really depressing and I had to actually get up and walk away from the movie because it was just too sad. I walked around campus thinking about the different things they had talked about in the chunk that I had watched and realized that the movie is a little dated and somethings have gotten better. Now we are getting more educated than ever before and the younger generations are starting to do something about making the world a better place so we can live here longer. Electric cars are becoming more common and while solar power is still expensive, people are now realizing that within a few years they will make that money back and then some. After realizing this, I was always ready to go back and watch some more. The movie really made me think about how things have changed in such a short amount of time.
2. I think what surprised me was that basically everything gives of some amount of CO2. Some things give off more than others (cars, factories, etc.) while some give off so little that it is hard to detect.
3. The one question that really remains after watching this movie is what now? We have the education, people are understanding it, there is technology that is making the world a cleaner place to live. Humans have started to try and fix what they have done going back to the Industrial Revolution but what happens after we completely "fix" this problem? Are we going to go back to the way things were? Or are we going to live inside a metaphorical bubble of "clean"?
4. The biggest problematic concept I see in the film is that while they mainly focus on the human element, they don't really focus on the fact that some of this heating up and changing is natural. The Earth goes through periods where it heats up and cools down. Granted humans are speeding up the process but it is not all just humans.
The other problem I see is that they say not enough people are educated or are educated but don't care enough to do something. Like I said, the film is dated so things have changed. It is becoming more common for environmental science to be incorporated into all forms of science and more teachers are spending more time talking about these topics to make people understand and there are people who care. There have been science marches on Washington in which millions of people have turned out! I think people care they just don't really know how they can help.
A third problem is that the movie says that while the technology is good and it can help us, it will do more harm then good. But then it talks about solar panels and electric cars and wind powered energy. That's technology. To me, this problem is that they contradict themselves, which makes it a little confusing on their stance and opinion on this topic.
Fourth, whenever they wanted to show something to do with shopping and how goods being transported could cause problems with the environment and that everyone should try to shop from places that sell more local food, they always showed a Wal-Mart. I have two problems with this: first, Wal-Mart is not the only store in the world that sells food. There are other places that sell more food than Wal-Mart. The second thing is that Wal-Mart is known to not be the best when it comes to transporting their goods. They have had many problems with it before so it seems like the movie is kind of calling them out on it.
Finally, they seem to blame everything on the 80s. It was not all in the 80s. Carbon emissions have been going on since the Industrial Revolution. If anything, we should thank the 80s because the people in the 80s were the ones who seemed to start all of the awareness! Without them we probably wouldn't even bother ourselves with being as concerned with the environment as we are.
2. I think what surprised me was that basically everything gives of some amount of CO2. Some things give off more than others (cars, factories, etc.) while some give off so little that it is hard to detect.
3. The one question that really remains after watching this movie is what now? We have the education, people are understanding it, there is technology that is making the world a cleaner place to live. Humans have started to try and fix what they have done going back to the Industrial Revolution but what happens after we completely "fix" this problem? Are we going to go back to the way things were? Or are we going to live inside a metaphorical bubble of "clean"?
4. The biggest problematic concept I see in the film is that while they mainly focus on the human element, they don't really focus on the fact that some of this heating up and changing is natural. The Earth goes through periods where it heats up and cools down. Granted humans are speeding up the process but it is not all just humans.
The other problem I see is that they say not enough people are educated or are educated but don't care enough to do something. Like I said, the film is dated so things have changed. It is becoming more common for environmental science to be incorporated into all forms of science and more teachers are spending more time talking about these topics to make people understand and there are people who care. There have been science marches on Washington in which millions of people have turned out! I think people care they just don't really know how they can help.
A third problem is that the movie says that while the technology is good and it can help us, it will do more harm then good. But then it talks about solar panels and electric cars and wind powered energy. That's technology. To me, this problem is that they contradict themselves, which makes it a little confusing on their stance and opinion on this topic.
Fourth, whenever they wanted to show something to do with shopping and how goods being transported could cause problems with the environment and that everyone should try to shop from places that sell more local food, they always showed a Wal-Mart. I have two problems with this: first, Wal-Mart is not the only store in the world that sells food. There are other places that sell more food than Wal-Mart. The second thing is that Wal-Mart is known to not be the best when it comes to transporting their goods. They have had many problems with it before so it seems like the movie is kind of calling them out on it.
Finally, they seem to blame everything on the 80s. It was not all in the 80s. Carbon emissions have been going on since the Industrial Revolution. If anything, we should thank the 80s because the people in the 80s were the ones who seemed to start all of the awareness! Without them we probably wouldn't even bother ourselves with being as concerned with the environment as we are.
I was really glad to see the distinction you made in question 4. Although humans are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at greater rates than pre-industrial times, I think we need to see more experimentation to see how much our footprints effect the natural pendulum swing of the earths temperature. Do out actions effect the planet as much as we say? However, I am all in favor of recycling, and keeping our water and environment as clean as long as possible. We should all do out small part!
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