Climate Change:
think globally, act locally
Spring 2014
Coming into this class, I was sure of two ideas: first, that I absolutely "believed" in climate change, and second, I really was believing the notion blindly. Though the words "global warming" and "fracking" held some meaning, I never really took the time to understand the larger effects of climate change in different arenas, from economics to politics to science itself. My initial motivation for joining the course was because of my brother's increased interest in climate change through watching Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth.
We started the class by very broadly defining climate change, and reasons why people might or might not accept it. The class was relatively small, but the backgrounds of my fellow students were incredibly diverse: two business students, three engineers in different disciplines, an industrial design student, and an early childhood education student. Along with myself, two of my friends, Peter and Rachel, also represented the College of Arts and Sciences, with majors in English and International Affairs, respectively. The makeup of the class made discussing different topics incredibly interesting, since each student brought a different perspective and range of previous knowledge.
Each week our professor, Dr. Eric Gruenstein, presented a different topic for discussion, and would bring in a speaker from the community whose work was relevant to climate change mitigation. As a professor of molecular genetics at the College of Medicine, Eric certainly seemed like an interesting choice to teach us about the topic, but we soon learned that he had worked with Al Gore before and was clearly extremely passionate about the issue and its ramifications. From the basic science of climate change to the impact of climate change on different socioeconomic groups, the discussions that we had as a class were always engaging and thorough, and it was not rare for all of us to bring our own articles and areas of interest to the table to share with one another. The speakers ranged from climate change leaders in the community, such as Brewster Rhoads of the Green Umbrella and Marian Quinn from Duke Energy. All of our discussions culminated in a reflective essay at the end of the week, where we could share other ideas on the topics and reflect on solutions or applications.
The final project for this course was championing a local organization whose mission incorporated or focused on climate change mitigation or adaptation. I worked with Peter and Stephanie, a graduating industrial design student, for the organization, This Land. It was great to work with Peter and Stephanie, both of whom are extremely passionate, charismatic, and quite opinionated people, which resulted in a presentation that possessed those same qualities. This was the first time that I had heard of the permaculture movement, which incorporates an understanding of natural systems to create more sustainable lifestyles. met several times as we dug up information on permaculture, researched This Land, met with the founders, and planned our presentation for the panel of judges.
We were definitely nervous about presenting and representing this organization, since a cut of $3000 would be divided between the three organizations. This Land is an incredible organization which was trying to bring resources and education to the Cincinnati area, and any share of the sum would have gone a long way in bolstering their presence in the community. We were ecstatic to find out that the judges had awarded This Land a share of $1400, which will definitely go a long way in developing their Growing Value nursery and educational workshops.
The best part of this class was definitely the friends that I made across disciplines. One of my best friends, Luke Shafer, also decided to take this class, and I was lucky to have him during the course to run ideas by and even debate from time to time. For one particular project, we were asked to write a story about the effects of climate change, and were asked to send it in so that they could share it for the local project Taking Root, which is trying to plan two millions trees by the year 2020. I also gained a great friend in Aaron DeLong, a senior studying electrical engineering, who I can count on to share really interesting articles about science and technology (along with great music suggestions).
This course also made me completely question what I wanted to do with my life and whether I was in the completely wrong field. For more information on the mild existential crisis/panic attack that I had (and how my honors advisor, Kayti Kennard, made me snap out of it), please check out the First Year in Review! On the tabs you will find my Reflective Essays, our This Land presentation (Stephanie has a fantastic eye and made a beautiful presentation), and Luke and my piece about the importance of a tree. Thanks for reading!
We started the class by very broadly defining climate change, and reasons why people might or might not accept it. The class was relatively small, but the backgrounds of my fellow students were incredibly diverse: two business students, three engineers in different disciplines, an industrial design student, and an early childhood education student. Along with myself, two of my friends, Peter and Rachel, also represented the College of Arts and Sciences, with majors in English and International Affairs, respectively. The makeup of the class made discussing different topics incredibly interesting, since each student brought a different perspective and range of previous knowledge.
Each week our professor, Dr. Eric Gruenstein, presented a different topic for discussion, and would bring in a speaker from the community whose work was relevant to climate change mitigation. As a professor of molecular genetics at the College of Medicine, Eric certainly seemed like an interesting choice to teach us about the topic, but we soon learned that he had worked with Al Gore before and was clearly extremely passionate about the issue and its ramifications. From the basic science of climate change to the impact of climate change on different socioeconomic groups, the discussions that we had as a class were always engaging and thorough, and it was not rare for all of us to bring our own articles and areas of interest to the table to share with one another. The speakers ranged from climate change leaders in the community, such as Brewster Rhoads of the Green Umbrella and Marian Quinn from Duke Energy. All of our discussions culminated in a reflective essay at the end of the week, where we could share other ideas on the topics and reflect on solutions or applications.
The final project for this course was championing a local organization whose mission incorporated or focused on climate change mitigation or adaptation. I worked with Peter and Stephanie, a graduating industrial design student, for the organization, This Land. It was great to work with Peter and Stephanie, both of whom are extremely passionate, charismatic, and quite opinionated people, which resulted in a presentation that possessed those same qualities. This was the first time that I had heard of the permaculture movement, which incorporates an understanding of natural systems to create more sustainable lifestyles. met several times as we dug up information on permaculture, researched This Land, met with the founders, and planned our presentation for the panel of judges.
We were definitely nervous about presenting and representing this organization, since a cut of $3000 would be divided between the three organizations. This Land is an incredible organization which was trying to bring resources and education to the Cincinnati area, and any share of the sum would have gone a long way in bolstering their presence in the community. We were ecstatic to find out that the judges had awarded This Land a share of $1400, which will definitely go a long way in developing their Growing Value nursery and educational workshops.
The best part of this class was definitely the friends that I made across disciplines. One of my best friends, Luke Shafer, also decided to take this class, and I was lucky to have him during the course to run ideas by and even debate from time to time. For one particular project, we were asked to write a story about the effects of climate change, and were asked to send it in so that they could share it for the local project Taking Root, which is trying to plan two millions trees by the year 2020. I also gained a great friend in Aaron DeLong, a senior studying electrical engineering, who I can count on to share really interesting articles about science and technology (along with great music suggestions).
This course also made me completely question what I wanted to do with my life and whether I was in the completely wrong field. For more information on the mild existential crisis/panic attack that I had (and how my honors advisor, Kayti Kennard, made me snap out of it), please check out the First Year in Review! On the tabs you will find my Reflective Essays, our This Land presentation (Stephanie has a fantastic eye and made a beautiful presentation), and Luke and my piece about the importance of a tree. Thanks for reading!