Final thoughts on SIS-388

As an International Studies major, I thought I had become accustomed to studying seemingly insurmountable global challenges in my classes.  I've been able to study the origins of violent conflicts, analyze the behavior of states, learn about how the global economy functions, all topics of great interest to me.  However, it wasn't until I took this class that I was forced to think critically about how giant global problems will get solved.  In class exercises, where we created imaginary non-profits, and thought critically about how society could improve climate situation, exposed me to the challenges of finding ways for the planet to become more sustainable.

I also found it interesting to learn about the different points of view in literature about ways to go about solving global morning.  These views seem to be mutually exclusive, despite how distinct their authors try to make them out to be.  For example, a social green may think that social injustice is feeding the environmental crisis, but they might be in favor of an institutionalist solution which calls for "guided globalization to improve human welfare".  None of the explanations and approaches to a solution seemed wrong (mostly due to the large amount of guessing that is required in this field) which is why they should all be considered when looking for answers. 

From now on, I hope to think more about possible solutions to the issues I learn about.  Knowledge of global warming's origins are crucial to the effective governance and policy formation that could remediate its effects.  Also, despite the subject's pessimistic nature, I've learned how important it is to try and stay positive in order to not give up on the work that needs to be done.

Take Aways

I took this course concurrent to being president of EcoSense, American University’s environmental club on campus. This was a very interesting experience as I was able to participate in actions and organizing that related to the issues that we were discussing in class including climate change, food justice, and tar sands. I was thankful for the class as it allowed for me some space to reflect on environmental issues and how best to create change. When you are part of any political group which shares an ideology or concern, issues, like climate change, can start to seem self-evidently important. “Of course climate change is an issue, duh!” “Of course we need to move away from fossil fuels.” While this might be truth it is important to remember that not everyone in world sees it that way and to forget this is to get lost in your own sound bubble. Thus I really appreciated getting a perspective on the wide variety of different solutions and ideologies that attempt to address perceived environmental problems. I believe that it made my own ideology and beliefs more coherent as I could articulate where they stood on the spectrum and thus better defend them.

I also really took away many things from the section of creating social change. In particular I found the Meadows piece to be particularly insightful. I liked how she broke down “systems” into leverage points at which one can intervene in order to change a system. It was interesting to see how different points can be easier to access but less effective at producing change then other ones which require more work. This type of analysis is simultaneously depressing and uplifting, as it indicates that environmental problems are systemic, meaning that they are broad-based and deep-rooted in society, but also reveals that this is not the way it has to be. Change can be created but it requires thought, perseverance, organizing and self-reflection.

Avengers Assemble

Bare with me, I'm coming off a weekend of almost 10,000+ words written for final research papers; so once I start here, I'm not quite sure where it will go.

When I walked into my first International Environmental Politics class, I felt fairly informed about the environment, even if only by osmosis.  When you live on a campus that is on track to be carbon neutral in the coming years (and more importantly, when you spend perhaps days in collective hours writing papers in Gold Star LEED certified building) you must just sort of absorb environment stuff.  Right?

Wrong.  I'd have to say that I felt a bit like Neo in the Matrix in those first few weeks - inundated by information and feeling a bit like I was in fact 'living in a dream world'.  It wasn't as if I simply took the readings and lectures in class on faith, either.  I began to read on my own about environmental dangers, made my own observations as I continued through my last fall semester as an undergrad with a new and increasing sensitivity to the effects human civilization has had on the planet.  My ideas about society and culture's constructed nature were planted in philosophy classes at American in my freshmen and sophomore years, but now - perhaps culminating in being in my hometown on Black Friday -  those ideas have bloomed.  We do live in an artificially created consumer-centric, industrialized world in the United States.  It doesn't have to be this way - nor is it the natural order of things.  The prolific advertisements that cajole us every day - telling us that if we just buy this one product, then we'll be the person we really want to be - are founded on the ideal of growth at the expense of everything else - and growth  by profit.  Not growth of happiness, or spirituality, or community, but growth of money.  Artificial growth.  

The interaction of this International Environmental Politics class with my others this semester have left me feeling that the United States is on a precipice.  Many things have come to a head in the past; new challenges have sprung up across the board that our founders certainly could never have conceived of.  The environment is one of those.  In fifteen years, according to Bill McKibben and others, we will have produced enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses to meet, and then exceed the two degrees of  average warming deemed acceptable by the international community.  

Fifteen years. 

That's not very much time.

If anything, this class propels and inspires me to take a more active stance in changing the frameworks we think are forever.  I'll (hopefully) be joining the workforce sometime this summer or early fall, and as a contributing member of society, I want to bring awareness to these environmental issues that are rarely seen in the daily news in any constructive or educational sort of way.  I'm not the activist type.  But I will continue to do what I can to inform my friends, family, and random strangers about the issues that will challenge our nation and society in the years to come.  Over the course of this class, I've learned that knowledge is power - moreover - knowledge in the hands of the people in the right positions is power.  If I inform all the people I know, maybe one of them will be in that right position, at the right time in the right place, to make a difference in the coming decade.  Heck, maybe that person will even be me.  

My Takeaways from Intro to Doom

When we started this class back in August, I had a lot of hope for my first Environmental Studies class. However, as Simon introduced the class as "Intro to Doom," I knew it might not be as bright and cheery as I had hoped.  While the doom and gloom of the course was rather overwhelming at first, I think one of my biggest takeaways from the course is that we need to get more serious about climate chance and preserving the environment.  I knew this was an imminent issue before, but it has become clearer that the feel good activism of the environmental movement, like recycling, clearly is not enough for what we actually need to do to continue to live on this planet.

Another of my takeaways is a fear that we actually won't do enough to save the planet.  I know it's good to remain hopeful and constructive for the environment, but I know how Erik Assadourian in the back of my head screaming about how we're all doomed unless we radically changed, and I know how difficult it will be to actually get people to change.  I have definitely taken away a new sense of terror for the future and possibly a new push toward more radical action.  I'm not sure how much time I have to physically commit to the movement, but I do feel more inclined to go to a protest or to take serious action towards environmental protection.

Another thing that I've taken away from this course is the fact that I really only know a fraction about the environmental movement.  There is a lot of science, strategy, and history that I really have no idea about.  This has definitely motivated me to look more in to these different topics, especially all the international conferences centered around the environment that most people do not know about.  The semester may be over, but the learning has just begun for me!

What I will take away...

Politics is complicated. Environment is complicated. If we want to talk about Environmental Politics on an international stage, it's mission impossible. Most of the frameworks, conventions and meetings that involved hundreds of parties around the world did not bring any solid result or goal towards global climate change or environmental related issues. We have covered a lot about history related with international environmental politics, but it's really hard to see any results for now. Even though most of the countries do have their voices that support '' global climate change is real and we need to do something to stop it ''. When it came to reality, especially when different parties talking about economic related topics, they tend to avoid to make any sacrifices for global climate changes. The whole idea about stop global climate change became a blaming-shifting issue. Parties, especially the ones who had biggest power over the others do not agree with step back to protect the environment because they are afraid of that other countries may take the opportunities as their advantages. So people's attitudes changed a lot towards environmental issues. Most of them have the will but not the real actions.

Personal changes will not help us with current situation, which is bottom-up strategy. Completely depending upon the hierarchy will not work either. Plant a tree will not save us from dome. What if one out of five people plant a tree? We have 7 billion people on Earth now. To tackle the environmental problems, we need to start actions from both the head of the issue as well as the end of it. To be more specific, start from the conception of consumerism which could be the end of the production line; it also could be the head of demanding. If there are fewer and greener demands for products, maybe we can push the entire system one step forward towards sustainable. If from the production line, we could start from the design of all products as what we learned about wastes equal to food, we will limit the amount of wastes the produced as by-products of commercial goods. This will help us both saving energy to produce these "wastes" as well as energy to deal with them. 

Environmental protections are needed yet so difficult to put into reality. We tried to solve different environmental politics related issues in group exercise while we do not have any personal or financial involvements with the issues, however, it's really difficult for groups of people which about only 25 of us in the class to come to an agreement. So when we apply this to international scale, hundreds of parties get involved as well as billions of people. Not only economy drives the direction, health issues and other major issues get involved. I think this sophisticated feature will persist unless there is an organization that has super power over all countries around the globe and have the power to command all. Or on the road towards international environmental politics, current situation will persist and doing nothing good for the environment. We are just speeding up to the end of human society.