Resources to share

Friends, please send me links/information about resources you recommend!

Here's one that I recommend: The Sixth Extinction is about the history of humans and animals and what will happen to the animal population as the climate changes.

 

Terrifying New Math

In preparation for our class, I re-read an article last night, published in Rolling Stone in 2012: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math .  And it is terrifying!

Once you see the clear indications of global warming (60 degrees in January in Southwest Michigan?!?), it's impossible not to see the signs everywhere.  The spread of Zika in the past year? Also connected to global warming.

Map shows the range of the Aedes aegypti mosquito for present-day (1950-2000) and future (2061-2080; RCP8.5) conditions. Larger cities have higher potential for travel-related virus introduction and local virus transmission. image by Andrew Monaghan, 

What I especially appreciate about McKibben's Rolling Stone article is that he calls out the main culprits: energy and oil companies.   Remember the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill by BP ?  They're still drilling!  And their pollution is free of charge...they don't pay for the pollutants they release into our atmosphere.  If they burn all the oil they currently own and plan to burn (trillions of dollars worth of oil), our planet is sunk.

Check out the math.  And then think about what happens if we ignore this math for another four years under the new administration.  The purported White House purge of scientific data may be even scarier.  

Why Blogs?

What is a blog?

A blog (shortened from the original words web log) is a forum for you to express your ideas about a topic.  A blog also allows you to include links to evidence, research, images, and other websites in addition to your personal commentary. Blogs can facilitate communication with blog readers through comment features. 

In our class, you will keep a regular blog in which you will publish personal commentary on course readings and discussions. Your blog should also contain links to other research and websites, as well as an image (or more) to accompany your posts. 

Shouldn't we be writing academic papers? Why are we writing blogs? 

Check out this important post by Peter Smagorinsky about academic writing. Smagorinsky notes that those of us involved in academia need to make our voices heard in public forums, and a blog is a great way to do that. A blog can be accessed by anyone, and it's a great way to share what's happening in our classroom and why it's important in the larger world.  

While this blog will be written to discuss readings and respond to issues about the environment, it's also a place to develop a public persona. Think about your future identity as a professional, and start cultivating that professional identity now. 

Use this blog to discuss what you are reading, find links to other research, and connect with other students outside of class. I will post links to blogs shared by our class, and I encourage you to regularly read them and comment, especially in response to class-assigned readings and in preparation of class discussions.