Check out this blog written by one of our fellow COP-goers, Divine!
YPARD Enhances Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon Among Rural Youth
YPARD Enhances Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon Among Rural Youth
 A tad pessimistic, but how far off base is it, really?
It's too late. It could be. We've been deep in the red for over half a century, downward spiraling, and we're just now considering how to apply the brakes. More realistically, we're not even sure that our brake design works. At best, we level out in the red. Which is why we need to work on our break design! Trying to level out from the downward spiral is the first step forward. China trumps all True, but that doesn't mean that all hope is lost. I loved that in the 2012 election, climate change was hardly an issue. One NPR story I heard mentioned climate change and the campaign trail. It reported virtually no knew news from the president, and that Romney supported clean coal above other means of energy. When Romney’s people were pressed for answers, they said that anything the U.S. does is fiscally futile because China isn't on board with preventative climate change measures. Just because they don't want to do anything now doesn't mean that they never will. (Wishful thinking) Pretend to fix it Partly true. We're not sure how effective the measures we plan to take will be. So without a measure of our effectiveness, we must ask if the strides we take do anything at all. But if there is no progress to be seen, others will not follow. Therefore, some measures taken may be talked about as though they do more than they really do. Progress for the sake of progress will hopefully yield something that will make an impact. Too expensive to fix To truly fix, probably true. But fixing it is a lofty goal. A realistic aspiration could be that we develop plans to start to fix it, and begin to level out from our downward spiral. There's nothing we can do To undo the damage, possibly true. To prevent more damage, not so much. It's not certain that preventing further damage will benefit us at all, so virtually anything we try to do could or could not help the cause. Climate change is an accumulation of many years of mistreating our planet. It’s not as though the effects of anything done today can be seen anytime soon. Self regulation This is a legitimate argument. If you can accept the fact that the Earth is older than dirt, than you know that the planet has gone through many phases of heating and cooling. It is quite possible that we are currently experiencing a natural cycle of the earth. It is equally possible that the current warming is due to strictly anthropogenic causes. It's not from human activity As addressed previously, this is possible. However, CO2 emissions data show a dramatic spike which correlates perfectly with the Industrial Revolution. As long as rising CO2 levels are the cause of global warming, than the climate change can be blamed on anthropogenic causes. The science is wrong Highly unlikely. It's the interpretation of the science that could be wrong. Maybe climate change isn't so bad Maybe not for our lifetime. Global warming isn't true Its not Santa Claus or Bigfoot, you don't choose to believe in global warming! The problem is that many choose to be uninformed/misinformed. Just because Al Gore brought it up doesn't mean that it's just politics to be debated about. It's real and it's a growing threat. Although consequences may or may not be seen now, who's to say that they won't come? Naomi Bryner is a junior Chemistry and Biology double major at York College of Pennsylvania.  “Welcome to nogreenslime.com, where the distortions, half-truths and
lies by groups claiming a number of environmental impacts from natural gas development are exposed and rebutted with slime-busting facts.” This is the opening line of a website I discovered one day on a trip to visit some relatives. My family and I were headed to Pittsburgh, PA traveling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, when I noticed an interesting billboard. The billboard had green slime all over it and said, “You’ve been SLIMED! Distortion, half-truths, lies!” I was curious to see what it was getting at when I saw that there was another billboard after it urging me to check it out at nogreenslime.com. Naturally I had to look it up and see what these billboards were all about. To my surprise it was a website on climate change. As I read through the information presented on the website I was surprised at the content. When I first opened the site and saw climate change I thought for sure it was going to be about the changes we need to be making and the proof that climate change exists, but it was not. Instead this website is dedicated to revealing the “lies” of environmental activists. They claim the website is designed to point out the deliberate misinforming of the environmental activists, but at the same time not attacking the legitimate concerns. As I went through this website I found it comical. The creators have five major points they make about how the drilling, oil, and natural gas industry is doing important things for the world. But even with my somewhat limited knowledge of climate change I can rebut all of these statements with facts that I have learned over the past few years. Anyone who knows even a little bit about of climate change should be able to see right through their, “no green slime” act. Also the main supporter/creator is the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association. With most of the supporters being associations of oil, gas and petroleum, this should tell you what kind of bias you will encounter on the site. The site says it wants to bring the truth out, but it doesn’t have any facts or statistics about the reality of climate change. They have no scientific evidence proving its existence or non-existence. So before they can discredit anyone else, they need to have the real truth out. Also, having this slogan makes them seem a bit wishy-washy with their views on climate change. Having this website displayed for anyone to see concerns me because it can easily persuade someone with no knowledge to think that all environmental activists are liars and don’t have legitimate claims. It can also further someone’s doubting opinion of climate change if they are on the fence about it. Both of these outcomes really hurt the efforts to show the general public that climate change is real, that there are facts proving its existence, and that we need to be doing something about it. Another thing that concerns me is that one of their supporters is the PA Department of Environmental Protection. I believe this type of association should not support this kind of propaganda because it will have negative effects on the battle of climate change. I would not have a negative opinion of this website if it stated all of the facts, good and bad, and kept to their logo by telling the whole truth. What do you think about this website and its claims? http://www.nogreenslime.com -Melinda Kitts Junior Forensic Chemistry Student at York College of PA | *Interested in
|
RSS Feed