A Response to Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Carolyn Shumaker Jen Plants English 174 26 February 2024 “Hurricane Diane”: Laughing out the Apathy “The problem with the planetary crisis is that it runs up against a number of built-in ‘apathy biases’. Although many of climate change’s accompanying calamities – extreme weather events, floods and wildfires, displacement and resource scarcity chief among them – are vivid, personal, and suggestive of a worsening situation, they don’t feel that way in aggregate. They feel abstract, distant, and isolated rather than like beams of an ever-strengthening narrative.” (Safran PAGE NUMBER).

In this book, Kolbert travels to many places to find out what is happening with global warming. Quite often she ran into the same fear at the places she went, the fear for loss before the next generation. When she went to Alaska, many people were fleeing from their homes because the sea ice surrounding them, creating a buffer zone for storms, was melting and that was causing houses to just be swept away.

This book is helpful because it assists in spreading awareness about global warming. Scranton takes a scientific approach to global warming, presenting what will happen, and why, we as the human species, are unlikely to solve it. Scranton writes, “climatologists now predict [a rise] in global temperatures 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit

John Broome wrote Climate Matters with the intention of raising independent, yet well-informed ideas of how to ethically stand in a warming world. He questions what should be done both publically and privately and supports his statements through arguments that can be interpreted in whichever way makes the most sense to the reader. Broome logically organized his book so that before he asks moral questions, he reminds the reader in the opening paragraph about the sad truth of climate change. For example, he states the ice caps are melting and in just a few decades, only one polar ice cap will remain. As a result, the raising oceans will demolish many of humanities greatest cities. He adds that not only will millions of homes be destroyed along oceanic coastlines, but climate will change as droughts and floods make agriculture impossible in many? currently productive areas. The remaining ocean-adjacent? areas not directly affected by sea-level rise? will have to face difficult and unpredictable weather changes that will make food? production challenging. Broome also reminds the reader, who is most likely from a developed country, that the western lifestyle causes the greatest damage, yet the global indigenous societies, who contribute virtually nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, will be hit the hardest. I found this introductory chapter to be very powerful and the rest of the book was easy to absorb because I was constantly thinking back to these disasters which seem

Even scientists who think human activity is the main cause of climate change don't deny that natural changes will cause temperature fluctuations on Earth. However, their argument is that in the current cycle of climate change, the impact caused by man is far greater. But there’s no indication that the two sides of the climate change debate will reach any common ground in the near future on what scientific evidence is showing, or what policy decisions should be adopted.

Climate change is a serious issue, or is it? Since the late 1990’s the temperature rose dramatically, but surprisingly since 1998 the average temperature only raised a little. (why climate change is taking a break) This is because of increase of Greenhouse gasses, and carbon.These are natural gasses, in many ways science proves Global Warming is a natural problem that overtime will figure itself out. The famous El Nino’s are a good example of this, in 1998 there was a very strong El Nino, and the temperature went back down. I and many scientist think Global Warming is natural and here's why.

Kolbert embarks on a journey traveling around the world to gain more knowledge of how extinction began, endangered species, causes for crises, and what people are doing to prevent too much

It’s deceitful to characterize the basic facts of climate change as debatable or unsettled. Year after year, humans extract billions of tons of carbon from the bowels of the earth and blast it into the atmosphere. We need to stop indulging the questioning of humanity’s culpability.

Lately scientists and politicians have stated, that the earth is not merely warming up, it is experiencing Climate Change or shifts in long-term climate patterns. These climate shifts could include air temperature, precipitation, and weather patterns (Baranski). Vice President Al Gore, is a leading advocate of climate change. His book and documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has been rewarded for, “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change” (“Al Gore”).

According to The Framework Convention on Climate Change, “[climate change is] a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods” (Pielke 31). Many climate change deniers like to focus on the latter portion of this definition, claiming that the warming changes currently being experienced throughout earth’s climate are a naturally occurring phenomenon, and that the earth goes through periods of

“Increasingly, anthropologists are encountering the local effects and broader social, cultural, economic, and political issues of climate change with their field partners” (Crate and Nuttall 2009). Native Alaskans are already experiencing and seeing the effects of climate change. For Native Alaskans, climate change is not something to happen in the near future, but is an immediate, lived reality impacting daily lives and livelihoods. “Climate change is the result of global processes that were neither caused nor can be mitigated by the inhabitants of the majority of climate-sensitive world regions now experiencing the most unprecedented change” (Crate and Nuttall 2009).

A second study states “Although some records are available from the 1600s and 1700s , systematic measurements of climate began in the mid-1800s. The data include measurements of surface temperature over land and the oceans, precipitation amounts, sea-ice extents, and global sea levels. Since the 1970s, satellite studies have provided additional data on temperature trends at Earth’s surface and through the layers of the atmosphere” (“Global Warming- Britannica”). The second source backs up the first source with exact quantitative data about changes in the first. (See pictures on page 6-7 ). The first topic of the United Nation’s Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report is “Observed Changes and their Cause” which states “Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850” (“United Nations” pg 7). These three sources prove, through scientific observational facts, that the climate of the Earth’s surface is changing very rapidly, therefore, proving that through conclusive science the topic of climate changer is accurate.

Over the years there has been a lot of controversy on if climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed and solved. There is a constant debate among scientist on if human actions are contributing the changing of earth’s climates. Climate change is defined as the change in average weather patterns for a specific region or Earth as a whole. This could include the change in an average temperature for a city or the amount a rainfall it receives (Dunbar, 2015). The main difference between weather and climate is the period of time specific patterns are recorded. Weather patterns are looked at over a much shorter period of time, meaning that these patterns are going to be more sporadic and change more frequently. Climate on the other had is recorded over a much longer period of time and usually show less drastic changes in patterns when compared to weather. Some people may argue that climate change is not an issue because Earth’s temperature is always changing do to natural effects. What people don’t realize is that human activity has effected the rate that earth’s temperature is changing, and just the smallest changes can lead to drastic consequences (Dunbar, 2015).

When an epidemic or catastrophe affects a community or nation depending on the resilience of the-the community there can be different outputs that help limit the aftermaths of the disaster.How the group of people respond or deal with the situation at hand will have a big impact on how it will affect their lives moving on. As humans the direr the situation we find ourselves in, the more likely we are to make a rush or unsound decision.These decisions shape how our lives may be impacted moving on whether for the duration of the catastrophe or many years to come.When the black death hit Europe in the late 1340’s to early 1350’s the Europeans did not know how to react or respond to it the because its victims nor physicians did not know the cause

The climate changing was first suspected in the 19th century when scientists in britain debated whether Europe was covered by ice in the past. “Guy S Callender suggested that the warming trend revealed in the 19th century had been caused by a 10% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.” (Harding) The debate intensified by 2005 when a study was published stating that a large scale disruption could occur by 2050 if we do not slow the process of climate change. The debate has now spiraled back to whether climate change is occurring or not. However the climate warming pattern has been increasing exponentially since the 1950’s.