e-portfolio for Aimee Caplen for paper 4 2nd draft

Aimee Caplen
WR100-Technology and Nature in New England
Professor R.S. Deese
December 2, 2009

Paper 4-Question Y

Earth’s recent climate issues have brought many people to question their usages of plastic, paper, glass, electricity, automobiles, and many other so-called necessities. There are varying ideas when it comes to the topic of the Earth’s crises: global warming and the future of human civilization and life on Earth. David E. Nye, Carolyn Merchant, and Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger each have their own view on the issues. Nordhaus and Shellenberger’s ideas of the world and how it must face a nightmare before any good happens are similar to the ideas of Nye and Merchant. However, each have their own ideas on how the very controversial topic of the century: where the Earth stands and how it can affect human civilization and life. I believe that the Earth’s status is diminishing, but it still has the ability to host the humans on Earth and keep them living and creating new generations for the next fifty years or more.
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger wrote an essay in 2004 regarding the topic of global warming. “The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World” compares the 2004 environmental crisis to Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech. Here Nordhaus and Shellenberger reveal that the “I Have a Dream” speech that we all thought started out optimistic, actually started out pessimistic. MLK was reminded by a fellow performer that he had spoken to her about how he had a dream. This is his most famous speech. MLK, Jr’s speech and the idea of negativity brings positive actions is the basis of Nordhaus and Shellenberger’s argument. They believe that the crisis of global warming must be a negative idea in everyone’s minds because it will force the world’s population to change it. Going green and helping the environment has become a big trend in the past decade. Nordhaus and Shellenberger believe that economic growth created environmentalism, which has now strayed away from the philosophical principal of analyzing the environment and creating ways to conserve the environment. While looking out on the earth rising, Nordhaus and Shellenberger will bet that fifty years from now the Earth will be still be threatened by global warming that may only slightly be fixed. However optimistic Nordhaus and Shellenberger are now, they will state that they wrote an essay about how America and the rest of the world are overlooking the issue of global warming.
The past few elections have focused on the issue of global warming. The candidates tell us that they will find an end, but when will we get to see it? The world in 2064 will be of a different state than it is right now, but I do not know exactly where it will be. More glaciers will be melted, causing the sea level to rise a few inches. I believe that this will not affect the world’s population too bad because the Earth has seen some huge changes. Humans have affected the Earth’s climate with the increased use of automobiles and CO2 emissions. We are going to look back in fifty years and question our decisions; this is if we still are here fifty years hence. Leo Murray posted a video on Vimeo titled, “Wake up, Freak out –then Get a Grip”. In the video he says, “[we] must actively confront powerful vested interest who will stop at nothing to prevent the changes that we need to be taking places”.