Making Sense of Climate Change Lecture: Confronting Denial
Abigail Doran
By plant scientist Bert Drake of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
April 14th, 2017
Presentation can be found on Youtube:
Making Sense of Climate Change: Confronting Denial
To summarize the points made by Drake in his lecture, he began by addressing the issue with denial and climate change. Misinformation and unwillingness to care causes a lot of people to deny the very real effects of climate change. He talked about the facts surrounding the issue, and how when observations “come about”, there are always going to be people who are skeptical (Drake 9:44). He introduced many scientific studies and articles that confirmed the rise of CO2 would warm the planet and alter climates all around the world. He spent time debunking and confirming the points made regarding what carbon really does in the atmosphere, for example, past beliefs about how quickly it really diffused into the ocean. Drake also introduced and emphasized the importance of the Keeling curve. The Keeling curve is an incredibly accurate accumulation of observed carbon levels in the atmosphere, and clearly shows the steady incline in that as time goes on. After the Keeling curve, he transitioned into a detailed explanation of how CO2 and temperature are correlated, which was proven by the research done on the ice caps of the earth. Drake’s major piece of advice from his presentation is that “accumulation of evidence” can confirm to skeptics that global warming and climate change are occurring (Drake 15:48). He also stressed important statistics of the American people’s mindsets towards this issue, and showed that large numbers of people support their denial by not seeing it as a threat or not being hopeful that humans will be able to solve the issue at all. These types of mindsets allow for more people to not try and solve the problem, which worsens the issue for the rest of the world. Lastly, Drake goes into explaining various solutions to climate change and that there are actual actions that can be taken. He also shows possible predictions for the clean energy of the future.
In my opinion, Drake was very persuasive to address the issues with public denial of climate change. Each scientific study brought up convincing points and accumulated evidence that proved his passion for spreading awareness about the topic. He did, however, address that reason and logic are not enough to convince the public. To reach actual solutions that will have actual results, people need to put in the work. They also want to have confirmed positive results for their future, and it’s very hard to predict and confirm that sort of thing. People also do not want to spend their own money in order to fix the issue, such as not using solar energy because it costs too much to install. Drake highlights statistics regarding the fact that the decline in prices for solar increases the amount used by citizens in America. Overall, I found his argument wildly convincing. He accurately addressed normal public responses to certain solutions to climate change, and reasons why we deny the issue as a whole. On the contrary, he mentioned reasons not to deny or reject the real crisis unfolding in front of us.
I personally valued how Drake talked about “zombie theories”, which are theories that have been dead for a very long time. Though they have been dead, they gained a lot of traction during the time they were first proposed, so they still became widely known. Drake was clever to think about the repercussions of public denial, since it is a prevalent issue in our modern world. All it takes is one person to reject or disagree with something for people to follow. Especially with a matter as pressing as this, it is important to pay attention to ways we can remedy these types of rejections. By laying out all of the facts, Drake can use logic to try and sway the minds of the public.
Plastics and Microplastics: An Emerging Global Issue Webinar, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Abigail Doran
By Dr. Fred C. Dobbs, Chair of Old Dominion University's Department of Ocean, Earth, & Atmospheric Sciences
May 20th, 2020
Webinar can be found on Youtube:
Plastics and Microplastics: An Emerging Global Issue Webinar
Dr. Fred Dobbs is a very knowledgeable scientist in the field of environmental impacts of plastic and microplastics in the Bay. He began his points by explaining why oceanic plastic pollution is a problem, and how severe that problem really is. Plastic pollution affects the wildlife, the landscape, and even humans. One interesting introductory statistic that Dobbs provided was data surrounding the google searches on microplastics and compared it to searches on plastics, and found a lot less people were searching for information about microplastics. He also introduced a very interesting statistic about plastic straw production and use in the US. He displayed that every day in the United states, we use 500 million plastic straws (Dobbs 13:12). Dobbs accurately described the waste disposal problem with plastic, and that being a main reason for that type of pollution in the water. Not only are the plastics in the water, but they become ingested by birds and fish, which causes many deaths for these species. These birds and fish can also be eventually ingested by us! The problem is that we know microplastics have negative effects on many other organisms' lives, but we have little information on how they affect ours. During the presentation, Dr. Dobbs introduced Amanda L. Laverty, who is an expert on how plastics and microplastics can be vectors and pathogens for possible human bacterial infections. He explained how Laverty concluded this, and that microplastics serve as a perfect habitat for certain bacteria (Dobbs 36:20). The last point that I found particularly interesting was the section of the presentation where Dobbs explained in detail the political aspects of plastic pollution. He explained how China refused to deal with the repercussions of the West's plastic pollution. Dobbs closed out his presentation by explaining healthier alternatives to plastic products, such as beeswax wraps and reuse of plastic bags after one use.
In the past, I have done a research project on microplastics in the oceans due to plastic water bottle use. I find the subject extremely interesting, since there are many unknowns about the effects of these plastics on our own health. What's even more interesting is that we do not yet know how to solve these, since these plastics are quite literally everywhere. They are in our clothes, food, environment, and even the water we drink. Every single human on earth has most likely ingested some form of microplastic, and they continue to pollute our earth every day. In my opinion, I found the points made by Dobbs very convincing and interesting, especially due to my background knowledge on the subject. I believe that everyone should be very aware and informed of the issues surrounding microplastics. I found the information about the ingestion chain of microplastics interesting. It really made me think about all the ways I may have consumed plastics, and where they may be in my body now. We know that plastic is usually advertised as a material that "does not decompose", when it does, it just happens very very slowly. Some believe that once inside the human body, microplastics will most likely stay there until the end of our life. This is particularly scary to me after hearing what Dobbs had to say in his presentation and my past research on microplastics in our oceans.