Hi everyone, my name is Parker, and I will be one of the students working with the American Chemical Society in attending the 18th Congress on Parties in Doha, Qatar in early December of this year that Nikki was just talking about.
I was born in Birmingham, AL, but I spent most of my life in Alpharetta, GA until I decided to come home to attend school at The University of Alabama in Fall 2007. Perhaps not coincidently, Coach Nick Saban started as head coach for the football team that same year. However, much of my interest in climate change started during my years attending high school. It may be simple-minded and cliché, but my original introduction to what was then called “Global Warming,” was through watching a documentary entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” that had started to make waves in mainstream America. While it is sad that many of the points raised in the film are either at best the target of a political smear campaign or at worst simply over interpreted, the film was able to introduce new ideas and lifestyles to more people.
I believe that I may have a different perspective on this issue than many of the other authors working with me. Living primarily in the South my entire life, I seem to be very much in the minority on my “beliefs,” as they would be called down here. You see, many people that disagree with the facts and data that support anthropogenic (that man can directly influence) climate change, argue that it is not really a matter of the data, but more of a“belief” that man can actually change the climate. I am interested in what other perspectives we will have in the group traveling to Doha, but I know from my experiences interacting with people in my area that we have a lot of work to do to open a dialogue with them! (The climate is always changing right? If man can control the climate why are there still deserts?)
These types of controversies have really sparked my interest and pushed me to constantly look to see how the issue is discussed and portrayed by various news outlets. It is very interesting to read the various slants that are placed on articles from CNN, FoxNews, etc. that cite the same original journal entry! Unfortunately, climate change is not
so much a scientific debate as much as it is a political controversy that can be used to sway voters.
These interests guided me to start undergraduate research at The University of Alabama under the direction of Prof. Robin D. Rogers, the Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing. What interested me the most about this group was the emphasis not only on green chemistry, but on its practical application as this will be the only way these green technologies will be implemented. Through Dr. Rogers’s suggestion, I applied to attend the COP 18 program in collaboration with York College of Pennsylvania and the American Chemical Society (ACS). The project has sponsored students attending the last two COP events in order to help publicize and disseminate information from those meetings to future generations of scientists, politicians, and industry leaders. I was fortunate enough to have been selected to attend COP18 and I look forward to posting my opinions, findings, and conclusions for the upcoming meeting.
Parker
I was born in Birmingham, AL, but I spent most of my life in Alpharetta, GA until I decided to come home to attend school at The University of Alabama in Fall 2007. Perhaps not coincidently, Coach Nick Saban started as head coach for the football team that same year. However, much of my interest in climate change started during my years attending high school. It may be simple-minded and cliché, but my original introduction to what was then called “Global Warming,” was through watching a documentary entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” that had started to make waves in mainstream America. While it is sad that many of the points raised in the film are either at best the target of a political smear campaign or at worst simply over interpreted, the film was able to introduce new ideas and lifestyles to more people.
I believe that I may have a different perspective on this issue than many of the other authors working with me. Living primarily in the South my entire life, I seem to be very much in the minority on my “beliefs,” as they would be called down here. You see, many people that disagree with the facts and data that support anthropogenic (that man can directly influence) climate change, argue that it is not really a matter of the data, but more of a“belief” that man can actually change the climate. I am interested in what other perspectives we will have in the group traveling to Doha, but I know from my experiences interacting with people in my area that we have a lot of work to do to open a dialogue with them! (The climate is always changing right? If man can control the climate why are there still deserts?)
These types of controversies have really sparked my interest and pushed me to constantly look to see how the issue is discussed and portrayed by various news outlets. It is very interesting to read the various slants that are placed on articles from CNN, FoxNews, etc. that cite the same original journal entry! Unfortunately, climate change is not
so much a scientific debate as much as it is a political controversy that can be used to sway voters.
These interests guided me to start undergraduate research at The University of Alabama under the direction of Prof. Robin D. Rogers, the Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing. What interested me the most about this group was the emphasis not only on green chemistry, but on its practical application as this will be the only way these green technologies will be implemented. Through Dr. Rogers’s suggestion, I applied to attend the COP 18 program in collaboration with York College of Pennsylvania and the American Chemical Society (ACS). The project has sponsored students attending the last two COP events in order to help publicize and disseminate information from those meetings to future generations of scientists, politicians, and industry leaders. I was fortunate enough to have been selected to attend COP18 and I look forward to posting my opinions, findings, and conclusions for the upcoming meeting.
Parker
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