Walking into class on the first day, several minutes late, I hear an orchestra playing. The first thing I think to myself is: rrrright, I’m in Alexandratos’s class. Where else would I get such an introduction? To be honest, I had forgotten who my professor was, but when I remembered, I also remembered why I decided to be in this specific MHC 200 class. Sir, I’ve seen you present powerpoints twice, once in front of all the Macaulay freshmen and once during Judith’s intro to science research class. After that second presentation I thought to myself the only way to stay awake and alert during MHC classes, (I have quite the habit of falling asleep), would be to make sure I have a professor who is creative and thinks way out of the box in order to keep the attention of his students and to make them think. So here I am, and I haven’t slept in class yet.
“Turn to page [pause, then said sharply] three-hundred and ninety four.” I’ve heard that line too many times, to the point where I am sure it is unhealthy. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all the environmental issues you discussed on that first day of class. The environmental crisis is always something I know of in the back of my mind, but when asked about it, the first things I’d probably say are, “Oh, the polar bears! Oh, the ice bergs!” I would have never said, “34 billion tons of CO2 goes into the atmosphere every year.” “Only 10% of sharks, tunas, cods & other large fish remain.” “Between 1966-75, 38% of the Amazon’s deforestation was due to cattle ranching, and between 1990-2001, Europe’s meat imports from Brazil rose from 40-74%.” I would not have made a connection between this last fact and the movie, Supersize Me, which most individuals have watched and been disgusted by. I am proud to say that my consumption of fast food has decreased since that movie, but it was because of my health. It wasn’t because of the environment and how so much of it gets destroyed to create those unhealthy meals (that reason is now included in my boycott). By the end of the first lesson, I was once again considering all the different ways I could help the environment, which I believe is a natural reaction to hearing about the crisis. But I couldn’t help but think to myself: Duwa, you always do this. Horrible issues are brought up to your attention and you believe you can do so much to stop it and you will! You’ll organize your time and do your best to be involved in putting an end to all the issues, the environmental crisis being just one of them. In other words, time is the biggest concern for me. There are so many things wrong with the world and the way it is run, how can I put my two cents in and put a stop to them all?
The second class I feel branched a bit away from the problems of the environment and was going more towards ethics. What is right and wrong about what humans do to the environment? Is it okay for farmers to slash and burn forests for land? Is it okay to kill wild animals foraging on private/public lands? Obviously other animals do their part too and may destroy parts of another’s home in order to get what they want. But humans do this to a huge extent, mostly because we want more than what we need. We want those plasma TVs and cheap food, even at the cost of another. So many people don’t realize the consequences of their actions because it’s not affecting them as directly as it is to other organisms. But I find it interesting that anyone who is anthropocentrist doesn’t realize that assigning intrinsic value to only humans doesn’t benefit the species but hurts them. If you don’t care for the Earth, the Earth won’t care for you. Destroying your environment only leads to the destruction of self. I agree that we should follow actions that will benefit the Earth as a whole and not just ourselves. Who wouldn’t agree to that? But what does that mean? Does it really mean to follow those 8 points, one of them being for humans to only satisfy their vital needs? For humans to have a smaller population? How in the world will we be able to accomplish that? (What is a vital need anyway?) This class honestly left me with more questions and more confused than I was before, but it did also leave me with inspiration. There may be things that I agree and disagree with, but it’s still good to know that at least people were trying to do something about the issue. They weren’t just sitting around being all confused like I am.
But I do want a solution. I do want this crisis to end. However, I am stuck between either hearing of all the types of solutions there are and choosing from there or if I should just take the time to think up my stance on the issue and see if it fits with anyone else’s. The latter seems like something most people would recommend me, but unfortunately I am not as articulate as some people are (like my classmates!) and I would just continually contradict myself. So for now, I’m probably going to be confused for a while, but I don’t plan on keeping it that way.
And I do realize that this essay was all over the place, so please forgive me!
